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.

¹ On that day Jesus went out of the house, and sat by the seaside.

² Great multitudes gathered to him, so that he entered into a boat, and sat, and all the multitude stood on the beach.

³ He spoke to them many things in parables, saying, "Behold, a farmer went out to sow.

⁴ As he sowed, some seeds fell by the roadside, and the birds came and devoured them.

⁵ Others fell on rocky ground, where they didn't have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, because they had no depth of earth.

⁶ When the sun had risen, they were scorched. Because they had no root, they withered away.

⁷ Others fell among thorns. The thorns grew up and choked them.

⁸ Others fell on good soil, and yielded fruit: some one hundred times as much, some sixty, and some thirty.

⁹ He who has ears to hear, let him hear."

¹⁰ The disciples came, and said to him, "Why do you speak to them in parables?"

¹¹ He answered them, "To you it is given to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven, but it is not given to them.

¹² For whoever has, to him will be given, and he will have abundance, but whoever doesn't have, from him will be taken away even that which he has.

¹³ Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they don't see, and hearing, they don't hear, neither do they understand.

¹⁴ In them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says, 'By hearing you will hear, and will in no way understand; Seeing you will see, and will in no way perceive:

¹⁵ for this people's heart has grown callous, their ears are dull of hearing, they have closed their eyes; or else perhaps they might perceive with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their heart, and should turn again; and I would heal them.'

¹⁶ "But blessed are your eyes, for they see; and your ears, for they hear.

¹⁷ For most certainly I tell you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see the things which you see, and didn't see them; and to hear the things which you hear, and didn't hear them.

¹⁸ "Hear, then, the parable of the farmer.

¹⁹ When anyone hears the word of the Kingdom, and doesn't understand it, the evil one comes, and snatches away that which has been sown in his heart. This is what was sown by the roadside.

²⁰ What was sown on the rocky places, this is he who hears the word, and immediately with joy receives it;

²¹ yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while. When oppression or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles.

²² What was sown among the thorns, this is he who hears the word, but the cares of this age and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful.

²³ What was sown on the good ground, this is he who hears the word, and understands it, who most certainly bears fruit, and brings forth, some one hundred times as much, some sixty, and some thirty."

²⁴ He set another parable before them, saying, "The Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field,

²⁵ but while people slept, his enemy came and sowed darnel weeds also among the wheat, and went away.

²⁶ But when the blade sprang up and brought forth fruit, then the darnel weeds appeared also.

²⁷ The servants of the householder came and said to him, 'Sir, didn't you sow good seed in your field? Where did this darnel come from?'

²⁸ "He said to them, 'An enemy has done this.' "The servants asked him, 'Do you want us to go and gather them up?'

²⁹ "But he said, 'No, lest perhaps while you gather up the darnel weeds, you root up the wheat with them.

³⁰ Let both grow together until the harvest, and in the harvest time I will tell the reapers, "First, gather up the darnel weeds, and bind them in bundles to burn them; but gather the wheat into my barn."'"

³¹ He set another parable before them, saying, "The Kingdom of Heaven is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field;

³² which indeed is smaller than all seeds. But when it is grown, it is greater than the herbs, and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in its branches."

³³ He spoke another parable to them. "The Kingdom of Heaven is like yeast, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, until it was all leavened."

³⁴ Jesus spoke all these things in parables to the multitudes; and without a parable, he didn't speak to them,

³⁵ that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through the prophet, saying, "I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things hidden from the foundation of the world."

³⁶ Then Jesus sent the multitudes away, and went into the house. His disciples came to him, saying, "Explain to us the parable of the darnel weeds of the field."

³⁷ He answered them, "He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man,

³⁸ the field is the world; and the good seed, these are the children of the Kingdom; and the darnel weeds are the children of the evil one.

³⁹ The enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels.

⁴⁰ As therefore the darnel weeds are gathered up and burned with fire; so will it be at the end of this age.

⁴¹ The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will gather out of his Kingdom all things that cause stumbling, and those who do iniquity,

⁴² and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be weeping and the gnashing of teeth.

⁴³ Then the righteous will shine forth like the sun in the Kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

⁴⁴ "Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found, and hid. In his joy, he goes and sells all that he has, and buys that field.

⁴⁵ "Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who is a merchant seeking fine pearls,

⁴⁶ who having found one pearl of great price, he went and sold all that he had, and bought it.

⁴⁷ "Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a dragnet, that was cast into the sea, and gathered some fish of every kind,

⁴⁸ which, when it was filled, they drew up on the beach. They sat down, and gathered the good into containers, but the bad they threw away.

⁴⁹ So will it be in the end of the world. The angels will come forth, and separate the wicked from among the righteous,

⁵⁰ and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth."

⁵¹ Jesus said to them, "Have you understood all these things?" They answered him, "Yes, Lord."

⁵² He said to them, "Therefore, every scribe who has been made a disciple in the Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who is a householder, who brings out of his treasure new and old things."

⁵³ It happened that when Jesus had finished these parables, he departed from there.

⁵⁴ Coming into his own country, he taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished, and said, "Where did this man get this wisdom, and these mighty works?

⁵⁵ Isn't this the carpenter's son? Isn't his mother called Mary, and his brothers, James, Joses, Simon, and Judas?

⁵⁶ Aren't all of his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all of these things?"

⁵⁷ They were offended by him. But Jesus said to them, "A prophet is not without honor, except in his own country, and in his own house."

⁵⁸ He didn't do many mighty works there because of their unbelief.