The Prophet’s Anguish and Hope
I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of His wrath.
2 He has led me and made me walk
In darkness and not in light.
3 Surely He has turned His hand against me
Time and time again throughout the day.
4 He has aged amy flesh and my skin,
And bbroken my bones.
5 He has besieged me
And surrounded me with bitterness and woe.
6 aHe has set me in dark places
Like the dead of long ago.
7 aHe has hedged me in so that I cannot get out;
He has made my chain heavy.
8 Even awhen I cry and shout,
He shuts out my prayer.
9 He has blocked my ways with hewn stone;
He has made my paths crooked.
10 aHe has been to me a bear lying in wait,
Like a lion in ambush.
11 He has turned aside my ways and atorn me in pieces;
He has made me desolate.
12 He has bent His bow
And aset me up as a target for the arrow.
13 He has caused athe arrows of His quiver
To pierce my loins.
14 I have become the aridicule of all my people—
bTheir taunting song all the day.
15 aHe has filled me with bitterness,
He has made me drink wormwood.
16 He has also broken my teeth awith gravel,
And covered me with ashes.
17 You have moved my soul far from peace;
I have forgotten prosperity.
18 aAnd I said, “My strength and my hope
Have perished from the Lord.”
19 Remember my affliction and roaming,
aThe wormwood and the gall.
20 My soul still remembers
And sinks within me.
21 This I recall to my mind,
Therefore I have ahope.
22 aThrough the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed,
Because His compassions bfail not.
23 They are new aevery morning;
Great is Your faithfulness.
24 “The Lord is my aportion,” says my soul,
“Therefore I bhope in Him!”
25 The Lord is good to those who await for Him,
To the soul who seeks Him.
26 It is good that one should ahope band wait quietly
For the salvation of the Lord.
27 aIt is good for a man to bear
The yoke in his youth.
28 aLet him sit alone and keep silent,
Because God has laid it on him;
29 aLet him put his mouth in the dust—
There may yet be hope.
30 aLet him give his cheek to the one who strikes him,
And be full of reproach.
31 aFor the Lord will not cast off forever.
32 Though He causes grief,
Yet He will show compassion
According to the multitude of His mercies.
33 For aHe does not afflict willingly,
Nor grieve the children of men.
34 To crush under one’s feet
All the prisoners of the earth,
35 To turn aside the justice due a man
Before the face of the Most High,
36 Or subvert a man in his cause—
aThe Lord does not approve.
37 Who is he awho speaks and it comes to pass,
When the Lord has not commanded it?
38 Is it not from the mouth of the Most High
That awoe and well‑being proceed?
39 aWhy should a living man complain,
bA man for the punishment of his sins?
40 Let us search out and examine our ways,
And turn back to the Lord;
41 aLet us lift our hearts and hands
To God in heaven.
42 aWe have transgressed and rebelled;
You have not pardoned.
43 You have covered Yourself with anger
And pursued us;
You have slain and not pitied.
44 You have covered Yourself with a cloud,
That prayer should not pass through.
45 You have made us an aoffscouring and refuse
In the midst of the peoples.
46 aAll our enemies
Have opened their mouths against us.
47 aFear and a snare have come upon us,
bDesolation and destruction.
48 aMy eyes overflow with rivers of water
For the destruction of the daughter of my people.
49 aMy eyes flow and do not cease,
Without interruption,
50 Till the Lord from heaven
aLooks down and sees.
51 My eyes bring suffering to my soul
Because of all the daughters of my city.
52 My enemies awithout cause
Hunted me down like a bird.
53 They silenced my life ain the pit
And bthrew stones at me.
54 aThe waters flowed over my head;
bI said, “I am cut off!”
55 aI called on Your name, O Lord,
From the lowest bpit.
56 aYou have heard my voice:
“Do not hide Your ear
From my sighing, from my cry for help.”
57 You adrew near on the day I called on You,
And said, b“Do not fear!”
58 O Lord, You have apleaded the case for my soul;
bYou have redeemed my life.
59 O Lord, You have seen how I am wronged;
aJudge my case.
60 You have seen all their vengeance,
All their aschemes against me.
61 You have heard their reproach, O Lord,
All their schemes against me,
62 The lips of my enemies
And their whispering against me all the day.
63 Look at their asitting down and their rising up;
I am their taunting song.
64 aRepay them, O Lord,
According to the work of their hands.
65 Give them a veiled heart;
Your curse be upon them!
66 In Your anger,
Pursue and destroy them
aFrom under the heavens of the bLord.
The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Copyright © 1982 Thomas Nelson.
All rights reserved.