| New International Version | King James Bible |
| 1I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of the LORD's wrath. | 1I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath. |
| 2He has driven me away and made me walk in darkness rather than light; | 2He hath led me, and brought me into darkness, but not into light. |
| 3indeed, he has turned his hand against me again and again, all day long. | 3Surely against me is he turned; he turneth his hand against me all the day. |
| 4He has made my skin and my flesh grow old and has broken my bones. | 4My flesh and my skin hath he made old; he hath broken my bones. |
| 5He has besieged me and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship. | 5He hath builded against me, and compassed me with gall and travail. |
| 6He has made me dwell in darkness like those long dead. | 6He hath set me in dark places, as they that be dead of old. |
| 7He has walled me in so I cannot escape; he has weighed me down with chains. | 7He hath hedged me about, that I cannot get out: he hath made my chain heavy. |
| 8Even when I call out or cry for help, he shuts out my prayer. | 8Also when I cry and shout, he shutteth out my prayer. |
| 9He has barred my way with blocks of stone; he has made my paths crooked. | 9He hath inclosed my ways with hewn stone, he hath made my paths crooked. |
| 10Like a bear lying in wait, like a lion in hiding, | 10He was unto me as a bear lying in wait, and as a lion in secret places. |
| 11he dragged me from the path and mangled me and left me without help. | 11He hath turned aside my ways, and pulled me in pieces: he hath made me desolate. |
| 12He drew his bow and made me the target for his arrows. | 12He hath bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow. |
| 13He pierced my heart with arrows from his quiver. | 13He hath caused the arrows of his quiver to enter into my reins. |
| 14I became the laughingstock of all my people; they mock me in song all day long. | 14I was a derision to all my people; and their song all the day. |
| 15He has filled me with bitter herbs and given me gall to drink. | 15He hath filled me with bitterness, he hath made me drunken with wormwood. |
| 16He has broken my teeth with gravel; he has trampled me in the dust. | 16He hath also broken my teeth with gravel stones, he hath covered me with ashes. |
| 17I have been deprived of peace; I have forgotten what prosperity is. | 17And thou hast removed my soul far off from peace: I forgat prosperity. |
| 18So I say, "My splendor is gone and all that I had hoped from the LORD." | 18And I said, My strength and my hope is perished from the LORD: |
| 19I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. | 19Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall. |
| 20I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me. | 20My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me. |
| 21Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: | 21This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. |
| 22Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. | 22It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. |
| 23They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. | 23They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. |
| 24I say to myself, "The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him." | 24The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him. |
| 25The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; | 25The LORD is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. |
| 26it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD. | 26It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD. |
| 27It is good for a man to bear the yoke while he is young. | 27It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. |
| 28Let him sit alone in silence, for the LORD has laid it on him. | 28He sitteth alone and keepeth silence, because he hath borne it upon him. |
| 29Let him bury his face in the dust-- there may yet be hope. | 29He putteth his mouth in the dust; if so be there may be hope. |
| 30Let him offer his cheek to one who would strike him, and let him be filled with disgrace. | 30He giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him: he is filled full with reproach. |
| 31For no one is cast off by the Lord forever. | 31For the Lord will not cast off for ever: |
| 32Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love. | 32But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies. |
| 33For he does not willingly bring affliction or grief to anyone. | 33For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men. |
| 34To crush underfoot all prisoners in the land, | 34To crush under his feet all the prisoners of the earth, |
| 35to deny people their rights before the Most High, | 35To turn aside the right of a man before the face of the most High, |
| 36to deprive them of justice-- would not the Lord see such things? | 36To subvert a man in his cause, the Lord approveth not. |
| 37Who can speak and have it happen if the Lord has not decreed it? | 37Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth it not? |
| 38Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that both calamities and good things come? | 38Out of the mouth of the most High proceedeth not evil and good? |
| 39Why should the living complain when punished for their sins? | 39Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins? |
| 40Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the LORD. | 40Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the LORD. |
| 41Let us lift up our hearts and our hands to God in heaven, and say: | 41Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens. |
| 42"We have sinned and rebelled and you have not forgiven. | 42We have transgressed and have rebelled: thou hast not pardoned. |
| 43"You have covered yourself with anger and pursued us; you have slain without pity. | 43Thou hast covered with anger, and persecuted us: thou hast slain, thou hast not pitied. |
| 44You have covered yourself with a cloud so that no prayer can get through. | 44Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud, that our prayer should not pass through. |
| 45You have made us scum and refuse among the nations. | 45Thou hast made us as the offscouring and refuse in the midst of the people. |
| 46"All our enemies have opened their mouths wide against us. | 46All our enemies have opened their mouths against us. |
| 47We have suffered terror and pitfalls, ruin and destruction." | 47Fear and a snare is come upon us, desolation and destruction. |
| 48Streams of tears flow from my eyes because my people are destroyed. | 48Mine eye runneth down with rivers of water for the destruction of the daughter of my people. |
| 49My eyes will flow unceasingly, without relief, | 49Mine eye trickleth down, and ceaseth not, without any intermission, |
| 50until the LORD looks down from heaven and sees. | 50Till the LORD look down, and behold from heaven. |
| 51What I see brings grief to my soul because of all the women of my city. | 51Mine eye affecteth mine heart because of all the daughters of my city. |
| 52Those who were my enemies without cause hunted me like a bird. | 52Mine enemies chased me sore, like a bird, without cause. |
| 53They tried to end my life in a pit and threw stones at me; | 53They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and cast a stone upon me. |
| 54the waters closed over my head, and I thought I was about to perish. | 54Waters flowed over mine head; then I said, I am cut off. |
| 55I called on your name, LORD, from the depths of the pit. | 55I called upon thy name, O LORD, out of the low dungeon. |
| 56You heard my plea: "Do not close your ears to my cry for relief." | 56Thou hast heard my voice: hide not thine ear at my breathing, at my cry. |
| 57You came near when I called you, and you said, "Do not fear." | 57Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee: thou saidst, Fear not. |
| 58You, Lord, took up my case; you redeemed my life. | 58O Lord, thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul; thou hast redeemed my life. |
| 59LORD, you have seen the wrong done to me. Uphold my cause! | 59O LORD, thou hast seen my wrong: judge thou my cause. |
| 60You have seen the depth of their vengeance, all their plots against me. | 60Thou hast seen all their vengeance and all their imaginations against me. |
| 61LORD, you have heard their insults, all their plots against me-- | 61Thou hast heard their reproach, O LORD, and all their imaginations against me; |
| 62what my enemies whisper and mutter against me all day long. | 62The lips of those that rose up against me, and their device against me all the day. |
| 63Look at them! Sitting or standing, they mock me in their songs. | 63Behold their sitting down, and their rising up; I am their musick. |
| 64Pay them back what they deserve, LORD, for what their hands have done. | 64Render unto them a recompence, O LORD, according to the work of their hands. |
| 65Put a veil over their hearts, and may your curse be on them! | 65Give them sorrow of heart, thy curse unto them. |
| 66Pursue them in anger and destroy them from under the heavens of the LORD. | 66Persecute and destroy them in anger from under the heavens of the LORD. |
|
