1
I (a) am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of God’s wrath.
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He has driven me away and made me walk in darkness instead of light.
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Indeed, He keeps turning His hand against me all day long.
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He has worn away my flesh and skin; He has shattered my bones.
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He has besieged me and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship.
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He has made me dwell in darkness like those dead for ages.
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He has walled me in so I cannot escape; He has weighed me down with chains.
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Even when I cry out and plead for help, He shuts out my prayer.
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He has barred my ways with cut stones; He has made my paths crooked.
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He is a bear lying in wait, a lion hiding in ambush.
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He forced me off my path and tore me to pieces; He left me without help.
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He bent His bow and set me as the target for His arrow.
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He pierced my kidneys with His arrows.
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I am a laughingstock to all my people; they mock me in song all day long.
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He has filled me with bitterness; He has intoxicated me with wormwood.
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He has ground my teeth with gravel and trampled me in the dust.
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My soul has been deprived of peace; I have forgotten what prosperity is.
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So I say, “My strength has perished, along with my hope from the LORD.”
The Prophet’s Hope
19
Remember my affliction and wandering, the wormwood and the gall.
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Surely my soul remembers and is humbled within me.
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Yet I call this to mind, and therefore I have hope:
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Because of the loving devotion (b) of the LORD we are not consumed, for His mercies never fail.
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They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness!
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“The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in Him.”
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The LORD is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him.
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It is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.
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It is good for a man to bear the yoke while he is still young.
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Let him sit alone in silence, for God has disciplined him.
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Let him bury his face in the dust— perhaps there is still hope.
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Let him offer his cheek to the one who would strike him; let him be filled with reproach.
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For the Lord will not cast us off forever.
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Even if He causes grief, He will show compassion according to His abundant loving devotion.
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For He does not willingly afflict or grieve the sons of men.
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To crush underfoot all the prisoners of the land,
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to deny a man justice before the Most High,
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to subvert a man in his lawsuit— of these the Lord does not approve.
God’s Justice
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Who has spoken and it came to pass, unless the Lord has ordained it?
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Do not both adversity and good come from the mouth of the Most High?
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Why should any mortal man complain, in view of his sins?
40
Let us examine and test our ways, and turn back to the LORD.
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Let us lift up our hearts and hands to God in heaven:
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“We have sinned and rebelled; You have not forgiven.”
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You have covered Yourself in anger and pursued us; You have killed without pity.
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You have covered Yourself with a cloud that no prayer can pass through.
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You have made us scum and refuse among the nations.
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All our enemies open their mouths against us.
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Panic and pitfall have come upon us— devastation and destruction.
48
Streams of tears flow from my eyes over the destruction of the daughter of my people.
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My eyes overflow unceasingly, without relief,
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until the LORD looks down from heaven and sees.
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My eyes bring grief to my soul because of all the daughters of my city.
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Without cause my enemies hunted me like a bird.
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They dropped me alive into a pit and cast stones upon me.
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The waters flowed over my head, and I thought I was going to die.
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I called on Your name, O LORD, out of the depths of the Pit.
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You heard my plea: “Do not ignore my cry for relief.”
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You drew near when I called on You; You said, “Do not be afraid.”
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You defend my cause, O Lord; You redeem my life.
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You have seen, O LORD, the wrong done to me; vindicate my cause!
60
You have seen all their malice, all their plots against me.
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O LORD, You have heard their insults, all their plots against me—
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the slander and murmuring of my assailants against me all day long.
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When they sit and when they rise, see how they mock me in song.
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You will pay them back what they deserve, O LORD, according to the work of their hands.
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Put a veil of anguish over their hearts; may Your curse be upon them!
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You will pursue them in anger and exterminate them from under Your heavens, O LORD.
Footnotes