New King James Version

New Living Translation

1I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of His wrath.

1I am the one who has seen the afflictions that come from the rod of the LORD’s anger.

2He has led me and made me walk In darkness and not in light.

2He has led me into darkness, shutting out all light.

3Surely He has turned His hand against me Time and time again throughout the day.

3He has turned his hand against me again and again, all day long.

4He has aged my flesh and my skin, And broken my bones.

4He has made my skin and flesh grow old. He has broken my bones.

5He has besieged me And surrounded me with bitterness and woe.

5He has besieged and surrounded me with anguish and distress.

6He has set me in dark places Like the dead of long ago.

6He has buried me in a dark place, like those long dead.

7He has hedged me in so that I cannot get out; He has made my chain heavy.

7He has walled me in, and I cannot escape. He has bound me in heavy chains.

8Even when I cry and shout, He shuts out my prayer.

8And though I cry and shout, he has shut out my prayers.

9He has blocked my ways with hewn stone; He has made my paths crooked.

9He has blocked my way with a high stone wall; he has made my road crooked.

10He has been to me a bear lying in wait, Like a lion in ambush.

10He has hidden like a bear or a lion, waiting to attack me.

11He has turned aside my ways and torn me in pieces; He has made me desolate.

11He has dragged me off the path and torn me in pieces, leaving me helpless and devastated.

12He has bent His bow And set me up as a target for the arrow.

12He has drawn his bow and made me the target for his arrows.

13He has caused the arrows of His quiver To pierce my loins.

13He shot his arrows deep into my heart.

14I have become the ridicule of all my people— Their taunting song all the day.

14My own people laugh at me. All day long they sing their mocking songs.

15He has filled me with bitterness, He has made me drink wormwood.

15He has filled me with bitterness and given me a bitter cup of sorrow to drink.

16He has also broken my teeth with gravel, And covered me with ashes.

16He has made me chew on gravel. He has rolled me in the dust.

17You have moved my soul far from peace; I have forgotten prosperity.

17Peace has been stripped away, and I have forgotten what prosperity is.

18And I said, “My strength and my hope Have perished from the LORD.”

18I cry out, “My splendor is gone! Everything I had hoped for from the LORD is lost!”

19Remember my affliction and roaming, The wormwood and the gall.

19The thought of my suffering and homelessness is bitter beyond words.

20My soul still remembers And sinks within me.

20I will never forget this awful time, as I grieve over my loss.

21This I recall to my mind, Therefore I have hope.

21Yet I still dare to hope when I remember this:

22Through the LORD’s mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not.

22The faithful love of the LORD never ends! His mercies never cease.

23They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.

23Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning.

24“The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “Therefore I hope in Him!”

24I say to myself, “The LORD is my inheritance; therefore, I will hope in him!”

25The LORD is good to those who wait for Him, To the soul who seeks Him.

25The LORD is good to those who depend on him, to those who search for him.

26It is good that one should hope and wait quietly For the salvation of the LORD.

26So it is good to wait quietly for salvation from the LORD.

27It is good for a man to bear The yoke in his youth.

27And it is good for people to submit at an early age to the yoke of his discipline:

28Let him sit alone and keep silent, Because God has laid it on him;

28Let them sit alone in silence beneath the LORD’s demands.

29Let him put his mouth in the dust— There may yet be hope.

29Let them lie face down in the dust, for there may be hope at last.

30Let him give his cheek to the one who strikes him, And be full of reproach.

30Let them turn the other cheek to those who strike them and accept the insults of their enemies.

31For the Lord will not cast off forever.

31For no one is abandoned by the Lord forever.

32Though He causes grief, Yet He will show compassion According to the multitude of His mercies.

32Though he brings grief, he also shows compassion because of the greatness of his unfailing love.

33For He does not afflict willingly, Nor grieve the children of men.

33For he does not enjoy hurting people or causing them sorrow.

34To crush under one’s feet All the prisoners of the earth,

34If people crush underfoot all the prisoners of the land,

35To turn aside the justice due a man Before the face of the Most High,

35if they deprive others of their rights in defiance of the Most High,

36Or subvert a man in his cause— The Lord does not approve.

36if they twist justice in the courts— doesn’t the Lord see all these things?

37Who is he who speaks and it comes to pass, When the Lord has not commanded it?

37Who can command things to happen without the Lord’s permission?

38Is it not from the mouth of the Most High That woe and well-being proceed?

38Does not the Most High send both calamity and good?

39Why should a living man complain, A man for the punishment of his sins?

39Then why should we, mere humans, complain when we are punished for our sins?

40Let us search out and examine our ways, And turn back to the LORD;

40Instead, let us test and examine our ways. Let us turn back to the LORD.

41Let us lift our hearts and hands To God in heaven.

41Let us lift our hearts and hands to God in heaven and say,

42We have transgressed and rebelled; You have not pardoned.

42“We have sinned and rebelled, and you have not forgiven us.

43You have covered Yourself with anger And pursued us; You have slain and not pitied.

43“You have engulfed us with your anger, chased us down, and slaughtered us without mercy.

44You have covered Yourself with a cloud, That prayer should not pass through.

44You have hidden yourself in a cloud so our prayers cannot reach you.

45You have made us an offscouring and refuse In the midst of the peoples.

45You have discarded us as refuse and garbage among the nations.

46All our enemies Have opened their mouths against us.

46“All our enemies have spoken out against us.

47Fear and a snare have come upon us, Desolation and destruction.

47We are filled with fear, for we are trapped, devastated, and ruined.”

48My eyes overflow with rivers of water For the destruction of the daughter of my people.

48Tears stream from my eyes because of the destruction of my people!

49My eyes flow and do not cease, Without interruption,

49My tears flow endlessly; they will not stop

50Till the LORD from heaven Looks down and sees.

50until the LORD looks down from heaven and sees.

51My eyes bring suffering to my soul Because of all the daughters of my city.

51My heart is breaking over the fate of all the women of Jerusalem.

52My enemies without cause Hunted me down like a bird.

52My enemies, whom I have never harmed, hunted me down like a bird.

53They silenced my life in the pit And threw stones at me.

53They threw me into a pit and dropped stones on me.

54The waters flowed over my head; I said, “I am cut off!”

54The water rose over my head, and I cried out, “This is the end!”

55I called on Your name, O LORD, From the lowest pit.

55But I called on your name, LORD, from deep within the pit.

56You have heard my voice: “Do not hide Your ear From my sighing, from my cry for help.”

56You heard me when I cried, “Listen to my pleading! Hear my cry for help!”

57You drew near on the day I called on You, And said, “Do not fear!”

57Yes, you came when I called; you told me, “Do not fear.”

58O Lord, You have pleaded the case for my soul; You have redeemed my life.

58Lord, you have come to my defense; you have redeemed my life.

59O LORD, You have seen how I am wronged; Judge my case.

59You have seen the wrong they have done to me, LORD. Be my judge, and prove me right.

60You have seen all their vengeance, All their schemes against me.

60You have seen the vengeful plots my enemies have laid against me.

61You have heard their reproach, O LORD, All their schemes against me,

61LORD, you have heard the vile names they call me. You know all about the plans they have made.

62The lips of my enemies And their whispering against me all the day.

62My enemies whisper and mutter as they plot against me all day long.

63Look at their sitting down and their rising up; I am their taunting song.

63Look at them! Whether they sit or stand, I am the object of their mocking songs.

64Repay them, O LORD, According to the work of their hands.

64Pay them back, LORD, for all the evil they have done.

65Give them a veiled heart; Your curse be upon them!

65Give them hard and stubborn hearts, and then let your curse fall on them!

66In Your anger, Pursue and destroy them From under the heavens of the LORD.

66Chase them down in your anger, destroying them beneath the LORD’s heavens.

The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Copyright © 1982 Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved.

Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.