2 he has driven and brought me
minto darkness without any light;
3 surely against me he turns his hand
again and again the whole day long.
4 He has made my flesh and my skin waste away;
nhe has broken my bones;
5 ohe has besieged and enveloped me
with pbitterness and tribulation;
6 qhe has made me dwell in darkness
like the dead of long ago.
7 rHe has walled me about so that sI cannot escape;
he has made my chains heavy;
8 though tI call and cry for help,
he shuts out my prayer;
9 rhe has blocked my ways with blocks of stones;
he has made my paths crooked.
10 uHe is a bear lying in wait for me,
a lion in hiding;
11 vhe turned aside my steps and utore me to pieces;
whe has made me desolate;
12 xhe bent his bow yand set me
as a target for his arrow.
13 He drove into my kidneys
zthe arrows of his quiver;
14 aI have become the laughingstock of all peoples,
bthe object of their taunts all day long.
15 cHe has filled me with bitterness;
he has sated me with dwormwood.
16 eHe has made my teeth grind on gravel,
and fmade me cower in ashes;
17 my soul is bereft of peace;
I have forgotten what happiness1 is;
18 gso I say, “My endurance has perished;
so has my hope from the Lord.”
19 hRemember my affliction and my wanderings,
20 My soul continually remembers it
jand is bowed down within me.
21 But this I call to mind,
and ktherefore I have hope:
22 lThe steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;2
lhis mercies never come to an end;
23 they are new mevery morning;
ngreat is your faithfulness.
24 o“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
k“therefore I will hope in him.”
25 The Lord is good to those who pwait for him,
to the soul who seeks him.
26 qIt is good that one should wait quietly
for the salvation of the Lord.
27 rIt is good for a man that he bear
the yoke sin his youth.
28 Let him tsit alone in silence
when it is laid on him;
29 ulet him put his mouth in the dust—
there may yet be hope;
30 vlet him give his cheek to the one who strikes,
and let him be filled with insults.
31 wFor the Lord will not
cast off forever,
32 but, though he xcause grief, yhe will have compassion
zaccording to the abundance of his steadfast love;
33 afor he does not afflict from his heart
or bgrieve the children of men.