¹I am the man who has seen affliction Because of the rod of His wrath. ²He has driven me and made me walk In darkness and not in light. ³Surely against me He has turned His hand Repeatedly all the day. ⁴He has caused my flesh and my skin to waste away, He has broken my bones. ⁵He has besieged and encompassed me with bitterness and hardship. ⁶In dark places He has made me dwell, Like those who have long been dead. ⁷He has walled me in so that I cannot go out; He has made my chain heavy. ⁸Even when I cry out and call for help, He shuts out my prayer. ⁹He has blocked my ways with hewn stone; He has made my paths crooked. ¹⁰He is to me like a bear lying in wait, Like a lion in secret places. ¹¹He has turned aside my ways and torn me to pieces; He has made me desolate. ¹²He bent His bow And set me as a target for the arrow. ¹³He made the arrows of His quiver To enter into my inward parts. ¹⁴I have become a laughingstock to all my people, Their mocking song all the day. ¹⁵He has filled me with bitterness, He has made me drunk with wormwood. ¹⁶He has broken my teeth with gravel; He has made me cower in the dust. ¹⁷My soul has been rejected from peace; I have forgotten happiness. ¹⁸So I say, "My strength has perished, And so has my hope from the LORD." ¹⁹Remember my affliction and my wandering, the wormwood and bitterness. ²⁰Surely my soul remembers And is bowed down within me. ²¹This I recall to my mind, Therefore I have hope. ²²The LORD'S lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, For His compassions never fail. ²³They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness. ²⁴"The LORD is my portion," says my soul, "Therefore I have hope in Him." ²⁵The LORD is good to those who wait for Him, To the person who seeks Him. ²⁶It is good that he waits silently For the salvation of the LORD. ²⁷It is good for a man that he should bear The yoke in his youth. ²⁸Let him sit alone and be silent Since He has laid it on him. ²⁹Let him put his mouth in the dust, Perhaps there is hope. ³⁰Let him give his cheek to the smiter, Let him be filled with reproach. ³¹For the Lord will not reject forever, ³²For if He causes grief, Then He will have compassion According to His abundant lovingkindness. ³³For He does not afflict willingly Or grieve the sons of men. ³⁴To crush under His feet All the prisoners of the land, ³⁵To deprive a man of justice In the presence of the Most High, ³⁶To defraud a man in his lawsuit-- Of these things the Lord does not approve. ³⁷Who is there who speaks and it comes to pass, Unless the Lord has commanded it? ³⁸Is it not from the mouth of the Most High That both good and ill go forth? ³⁹Why should any living mortal, or any man, Offer complaint in view of his sins? ⁴⁰Let us examine and probe our ways, And let us return to the LORD. ⁴¹We lift up our heart and hands Toward God in heaven; ⁴²We have transgressed and rebelled, You have not pardoned. ⁴³You have covered Yourself with anger And pursued us; You have slain and have not spared. ⁴⁴You have covered Yourself with a cloud So that no prayer can pass through. ⁴⁵You have made us mere offscouring and refuse In the midst of the peoples. ⁴⁶All our enemies have opened their mouths against us. ⁴⁷Panic and pitfall have befallen us, Devastation and destruction; ⁴⁸My eyes run down with streams of water Because of the destruction of the daughter of my people. ⁴⁹My eyes pour down unceasingly, Without stopping, ⁵⁰Until the LORD looks down And sees from heaven. ⁵¹My eyes bring pain to my soul Because of all the daughters of my city. ⁵²My enemies without cause Hunted me down like a bird; ⁵³They have silenced me in the pit And have placed a stone on me. ⁵⁴Waters flowed over my head; I said, "I am cut off!" ⁵⁵I called on Your name, O LORD, Out of the lowest pit. ⁵⁶You have heard my voice, " Do not hide Your ear from my prayer for relief, From my cry for help." ⁵⁷You drew near when I called on You; You said, " Do not fear!" ⁵⁸O Lord, You have pleaded my soul's cause; You have redeemed my life. ⁵⁹O LORD, You have seen my oppression; Judge my case. ⁶⁰You have seen all their vengeance, All their schemes against me. ⁶¹You have heard their reproach, O LORD, All their schemes against me. ⁶²The lips of my assailants and their whispering Are against me all day long. ⁶³Look on their sitting and their rising; I am their mocking song. ⁶⁴You will recompense them, O LORD, According to the work of their hands. ⁶⁵You will give them hardness of heart, Your curse will be on them. ⁶⁶You will pursue them in anger and destroy them From under the heavens of the LORD!

The LORD is good to those who wait for Him, To the person who seeks Him. It is good that he waits silently For the salvation of the LORD. It is good for a man that he should bear The yoke in his youth.