The Prophet’s Afflictions

1I am† the man who has seen affliction

by the rod of His wrath;

2He has led me and has made me walk in darkness,

and not light;

3surely He turns back against me;

He turns over His hand all the day.

4He has worn out my flesh and my skin;

he has broken my bones.

5He has built up against me

and surrounded me with bitterness and weariness;

6in dark places He has settled me,

like the dead of old.

7He has put a hedge around me, so that I cannot get out;

He has made heavy my chain of bronze;

8even when I cry out and call for help,

He shuts out my prayer.

9He has blocked off my ways with cut stone,

my paths He has made crooked.

10A bear lying in ambush He is to me,

a lion in hiding places;

11my ways He has turned aside, and has torn me apart;

He has set me as a desolation.

12He has bent His bow

and stood me up as the target for an arrow.

13He has brought into my kidneys

the sons of His quiver;

14I have become a laughingstock to all my people,

their taunt all the day.

15He has filled me with bitterness;

He has made me drink wormwood.

16And He has broken my teeth with gravel;

He has covered me with ashes.

17My soul has been rejected from peace;

I have forgotten good,

18and I say, “My strength has perished,

and also my hope from YHWH!”

The Prophet’s Hope

19Remember my affliction and my wandering,

the wormwood and the gall!

20It remembers well and sinks—

My soul within me.

21This I turn to my mind;

upon thus I have hope.

Because of the loving devotion† of YHWH we are not consumed,

for His mercies are not finished.

They are new in the mornings—

great is Your faithfulness!

“My portion is YHWH,” says my soul,

“Upon thus do I hope in Him.”

25Good is YHWH to those waiting for Him,

to the soul who seeks Him.

26And it is good to wait and be silent

for the salvation of YHWH;

27it is good for a man that he should bear the yoke

in his youth.

28Let him sit alone and be silent

when it is laid upon him.

Let him put in the dust his mouth;

perhaps there is hope!

30Let him give his cheek to the one striking him;

let him be filled with reproach!

31For the Lord will not reject us

forever;

32for though He may bring grief,

He will show compassion according to the abundance of His loving devotion;

33for he has not afflicted with His heart

or grieved the sons of man.

34To crush under one’s feet

all the prisoners of the earth,

35to stretch aside justice for a man

before the face of the Most High,

36to subvert a man in his cause,

the Lord does not approve.

God’s Justice

37Who is this having spoken, and it came to pass,

if the Lord did not command it?

38From the mouth of the Most High does not come forth

the bad and the good?

39Why should complain a living man,

a man for his sins?

40Let us search out our ways, and let us seek,

and turn back to YHWH!

41Let us lift our heart with our hands

to God in the heavens:

42“We have transgressed and we have rebelled;

You have not forgiven.”

43You have covered in anger and pursued us;

You have killed; You have not pitied.

44You have covered Yourself with a cloud,

from passing through a prayer.

45You have made us offscouring and refuse

in the midst of the nations.

46They have opened their mouths against us—

all our enemies;

47terror and pitfall have come upon us,

desolation and destruction!

48Streams of water run down my eyes

over the destruction of the daughter of my people!

49My eye pours forth, and it does not cease—

without numbing—

50until YHWH looks down and sees

from the heavens!

51My eye bring grief to my soul

because of all the daughters of my city.

52My enemies have hunted me relentlessly like a bird,

without cause;

53They have cut off my life in the pit,

and they threw stones at me;

54the waters flowed over my head;

I said I have been cut off!

55I called on Your name, O YHWH,

out of the depths of the Pit,

56You heard my voice:

“Do not hide Your ear from my sighing, from my cry!”

57You drew near on the day I called you,

you said, “Do not fear!”

58You have pleaded, O Lord, the pleadings of my soul;

You have redeemed my life!

59You have seen, O YHWH, the wrong done to me;

vindicate my cause!

60You have seen all their vengeance,

all their plots against me.

61You have heard their taunt, O YHWH,

all their plots against me,

62the lips of my assailants

and their murmuring against me all the day,

63their sitting down, and their rising up—

Look! I am their mocking song.

64May You repay to them a recompense, O YHWH,

according to the work of their hands!

65May You give to them a covering for the heart—

Your curse be upon them!

66May You pursue them in Your anger and destroy them

from under the heavens, O YHWH!

Footnotes:

1 This chapter is an acrostic poem, each 3–verse stanza beginning with the successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet.
22 Forms of the Hebrew chesed are translated here and in most cases throughout the Scriptures as loving devotion; the range of meaning includes love, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, and mercy, as well as loyalty to a covenant.