He has made my skin and my flesh waste away;
he has broken my bones.
He has besieged and encircled me with a wall
of hardship and bitterness.
He has made me sit in darkness
like those long dead.
He has walled me in with no way out
and weighed me down with heavy chains.
Even when I cry for help,
he closes his ear to my prayer.
He has made my paths a maze
and obstructed my ways.
He has become to me like a bear ready to pounce
or a lion lying in wait.
He dragged me away, tore me to pieces,
and then left me stunned and helpless.
He has drawn back his bowstring
and used me as a target for his arrows.
He shot his arrows deep into my heart,
sons from his quiver.
Everyone has made me an object of ridicule;
they mock me all day long with their songs.
He has given me my fill of bitterness
and made me drunk with wormwood.
He has ground my teeth with gravel
and crushed me down to the dust.
You have snatched peace from my soul;
I have entirely forgotten your goodness.
I thought to myself, “My endurance has evaporated;
YAHWEH has stamped out my hope for the future.”
I remember wandering around in misery,
drinking the poison of bitterness.
Whenever I ponder this,
my soul fades away within me.
Yet there is one ray of hope
when I remember this:
YAHWEH’s tender mercies have no end,
and the kindness of his endless love is never exhausted.
New, fresh mercies greet me with every sunrise.
So wonderfully great is your faithfulness!
I tell my soul, “YAHWEH is my abundant portion. I need nothing more.
So, I will put all my hope in him.”
YAHWEH
YAHWEH is always good to all who trust in him,
to the soul who searches for him.
It is always good to hope,
quietly waiting for YAHWEH’s deliverance.
It is always good to learn patience and humility
from a young age.
If your burden is heavy and hard to bear,
endure it quietly.
Bow low in humble submission,
for there may still be hope.
Offer a cheek to the one who would strike you,
and learn to endure insults.
For the Lord will not
reject you forever.
If he causes grief, he will show compassion
from the cascading overflow of his endless love.
The Lord takes no delight
in afflicting anyone with suffering.
To trample underfoot
all the earth’s prisoners,
to violate human rights
in the presence of the Most High,
to cheat someone of justice—
these things the Lord does not approve.
Who can make anything happen
unless the Lord is willing?
Is it not from the decree of the Most High
that both calamities and good things come?
Why, then, should anyone complain
over the punishment of their sins?
Let us examine our path, ponder our ways,
and return to YAHWEH’s heart.
Let us pray, offering up our hearts in our hands
to our God above.
“We have sinned and rebelled,
and you have not yet pardoned us.
“You have blanketed us with your anger and then pursued us,
slaughtering without pity.
You shrouded yourself in a cloud
too thick for prayer to pierce.
You have reduced us to rubbish;
we are the lowest scum among the nations.
“Our enemies are a choir
of scoffers and scolders.
Panic and pitfall have been our portion;
calamity and collapse have come upon us.”
My eyes stream with torrents of tears
as I weep over the ruin of my beloved people.
My eyes will weep without stopping,
with no relief in sight
until YAHWEH looks down from heaven
and sees how much we suffer.
My heart is so grieved
over Jerusalem, the daughter of my people.
My enemies, who hate me for no reason,
have trapped me like a bird.
They buried me alive in a pit
and covered it with stones.
Water rose over my head;
I thought, “I’m going to die!”
YAHWEH
I called on your name, YAHWEH,
from the bottom of the pit.
You have heard me cry out to you:
“Do not close your ears to my sighs and to my cries.”
You drew near when I called to you.
You told me, “Do not be afraid!”
Lord, like a lawyer you contended for my cause;
you liberated my life, my Redeemer.
YAHWEH, you have seen the wrong done to me;
judge in my favor.
You have seen their malice
and all their hateful plots against me.
You have heard their mockery, YAHWEH,
all their horrible schemes against me.
They murmur and whisper against me
all day long.
See, from morning to night,
I am the butt of their jokes.
YAHWEH, repay them!
Give them what their deeds deserve.
Give them dullness of heart
as you place your curse upon them.
Pursue them with anger and destroy them
from under your heavens!
Bible App
Bible App for Kids
