¹ I am the man who has seen trouble by the rod of his wrath.

² By him I have been made to go in the dark where there is no light.

³ Truly against me his hand has been turned again and again all the day.

⁴ My flesh and my skin have been used up by him and my bones broken.

⁵ He has put up a wall against me, shutting me in with bitter sorrow.

⁶ He has kept me in dark places, like those who have been long dead.

⁷ He has put a wall round me, so that I am not able to go out; he has made great the weight of my chain.

⁸ Even when I send up a cry for help, he keeps my prayer shut out.

⁹ He has put up a wall of cut stones about my ways, he has made my roads twisted.

¹⁰ He is like a bear waiting for me, like a lion in secret places.

¹¹ By him my ways have been turned on one side and I have been pulled in bits; he has made me waste.

¹² With his bow bent, he has made me the mark for his arrows.

¹³ He has let loose his arrows into the inmost parts of my body.

¹⁴ I have become the sport of all the peoples; I am their song all the day.

¹⁵ He has made my life nothing but pain, he has given me the bitter root in full measure.

¹⁶ By him my teeth have been broken with crushed stones, and I am bent low in the dust.

¹⁷ My soul is sent far away from peace, I have no more memory of good.

¹⁸ And I said, My strength is cut off, and my hope from the Lord.

¹⁹ Keep in mind my trouble and my wandering, the bitter root and the poison.

²⁰ My soul still keeps the memory of them; and is bent down in me.

²¹ This I keep in mind, and because of this I have hope.

²² It is through the Lord's love that we have not come to destruction, because his mercies have no limit.

²³ They are new every morning; great is your good faith.

²⁴ I said to myself, The Lord is my heritage; and because of this I will have hope in him.

²⁵ The Lord is good to those who are waiting for him, to the soul which is looking for him.

²⁶ It is good to go on hoping and quietly waiting for the salvation of the Lord.

²⁷ It is good for a man to undergo the yoke when he is young.

²⁸ Let him be seated by himself, saying nothing, because he has put it on him.

²⁹ Let him put his mouth in the dust, if by chance there may be hope.

³⁰ Let his face be turned to him who gives him blows; let him be full of shame.

³¹ For the Lord does not give a man up for ever.

³² For though he sends grief, still he will have pity in the full measure of his love.

³³ For he has no pleasure in troubling and causing grief to the children of men.

³⁴ In a man's crushing under his feet all the prisoners of the earth,

³⁵ In his turning away the right of a man before the face of the Most High.

³⁶ In his doing wrong to a man in his cause, the Lord has no pleasure.

³⁷ Who is able to say a thing, and give effect to it, if it has not been ordered by the Lord?

³⁸ Do not evil and good come from the mouth of the Most High?

³⁹ What protest may a living man make, even a man about the punishment of his sin?

⁴⁰ Let us make search and put our ways to the test, turning again to the Lord;

⁴¹ Lifting up our hearts with our hands to God in the heavens.

⁴² We have done wrong and gone against your law; we have not had your forgiveness.

⁴³ Covering yourself with wrath you have gone after us, cutting us off without pity;

⁴⁴ Covering yourself with a cloud, so that prayer may not get through.

⁴⁵ You have made us like waste and that for which there is no use, among the peoples.

⁴⁶ The mouths of all our haters are open wide against us.

⁴⁷ Fear and deep waters have come on us, wasting and destruction.

⁴⁸ Rivers of water are running down from my eyes, for the destruction of the daughter of my people.

⁴⁹ My eyes are streaming without stopping, they have no rest,

⁵⁰ Till the Lord's eye is turned on me, till he sees my trouble from heaven.

⁵¹ The Lord is unkind to my soul, more than all the daughters of my town.

⁵² They who are against me without cause have gone hard after me as if I was a bird;

⁵³ They have put an end to my life in the prison, stoning me with stones.

⁵⁴ Waters were flowing over my head; I said, I am cut off.

⁵⁵ I was making prayer to your name, O Lord, out of the lowest prison.

⁵⁶ My voice came to you; let not your ear be shut to my breathing, to my cry.

⁵⁷ You came near in the day when I made my prayer to you: you said, Have no fear.

⁵⁸ O Lord, you have taken up the cause of my soul, you have made my life safe.

⁵⁹ O Lord, you have seen my wrong; be judge in my cause.

⁶⁰ You have seen all the evil rewards they have sent on me, and all their designs against me.

⁶¹ Their bitter words have come to your ears, O Lord, and all their designs against me;

⁶² The lips of those who came up against me, and their thoughts against me all the day.

⁶³ Take note of them when they are seated, and when they get up; I am their song.

⁶⁴ You will give them their reward, O Lord, answering to the work of their hands.

⁶⁵ You will let their hearts be covered over with your curse on them.

⁶⁶ You will go after them in wrath, and put an end to them from under the heavens of the Lord.

⁸ They took away from him help and right, and who gave a thought to his fate? for he was cut off from the land of the living: he came to his death for the sin of my people.

¹ Truly, the Lord's hand has not become short, so that he is unable to give salvation; and his ear is not shut from hearing:

² But your sins have come between you and your God, and by your evil doings his face has been veiled from you, so that he will give you no answer.

³ For your hands are unclean with blood, and your fingers with sin; your lips have said false things, and your tongue gives out deceit.

⁴ No one puts forward an upright cause, or gives a true decision: their hope is in deceit, and their words are false; they are with child with sin, and give birth to evil.

⁵ They give birth to snake's eggs, and make spider's threads: whoever takes their eggs for food comes to his death, and the egg which is crushed becomes a poison-snake.

⁶ Their twisted threads will not make clothing, and their works will give them nothing for covering themselves: their works are works of sin, and violent acts are in their hands.

⁷ Their feet go quickly to evil, and they take delight in the death of the upright; their thoughts are thoughts of sin; wasting and destruction are in their ways.

⁸ They have no knowledge of the way of peace, and there is no sense of what is right in their behaviour: they have made for themselves ways which are not straight; whoever goes in them has no knowledge of peace.

⁹ For this cause our right is far from us, and righteousness does not overtake us: we are looking for light, but there is only the dark; for the shining of the sun, but our way is in the night.

¹⁰ We go on our way, like blind men feeling for the wall, even like those who have no eyes: we are running against things in daylight as if it was evening; our place is in the dark like dead men.

¹¹ We make noises of grief, like bears, and sad sounds like doves: we are looking for our right, but it is not there; for salvation, but it is far from us.

¹² For our evil doings are increased before you, and our sins give witness against us: for our evil doings are with us, and we have knowledge of our sins:

¹³ We have gone against the Lord, and been false to him, turning away from our God, our words have been uncontrolled, and in our hearts are thoughts of deceit.

¹⁴ And the right is turned back, and righteousness is far away: for good faith is not to be seen in the public places, and upright behaviour may not come into the town.

¹⁵ Yes, faith is gone; and he whose heart is turned from evil comes into the power of the cruel: and the Lord saw it, and he was angry that there was no one to take up their cause.

¹⁶ And he saw that there was no man, and was surprised that there was no one to take up their cause: so his arm gave salvation, and he made righteousness his support.

¹⁷ Yes, he put on righteousness as a breastplate, and salvation as a head-dress; and he put on punishment as clothing, and wrath as a robe.

¹⁸ He will give them the right reward of their doings, wrath to his attackers, punishment to his haters, and even on the sea-lands he will send punishment.

¹⁹ So they will see the name of the Lord from the west, and his glory from the east: for he will come like a rushing stream, forced on by a wind of the Lord.

²⁰ And as a saviour he will come to Zion, turning away sin from Jacob, says the Lord.

²¹ And as for me, this is my agreement with them, says the Lord: my spirit which is on you, and my words which I have put in your mouth, will not go away from your mouth, or from the mouth of your seed, or from the mouth of your seed's seed, says the Lord, from now and for ever.