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[1] I am the man that hath seen affliction in the rod of his indignation.
[2] He hath led me, and brought me into darkness, but not to light.
[3] Surely he is turned against me: he turneth his hand against me all the day.
[4] My flesh and my skin hath he caused to wax old, and he hath broken my bones.
[5] He hath builded against me, and compassed me with gall, and labor.
[6] He hath set me in dark places, as they that be dead forever.
[7] He hath hedged about me that I cannot get out: he hath made my chains heavy.
[8] Also when I cry and shout, he shutteth out my prayer.
[9] He hath stopped up my ways with hewn stone, and turned away my paths.
[10] He was unto me as a bear lying in wait, and as a lion in secret places.
[11] He hath stopped my ways, and pulled me in pieces: he hath made me desolate.
[12] He hath bent his bow and made me a mark for the arrow.
[13] He caused the arrows of his quiver to enter into my reins.
[14] I was a derision to all my people, and their song all the day.
[15] He hath filled me with bitterness, and made me drunken with wormwood.
[16] He hath also broken my teeth with stones, and hath covered me with ashes.
[17] Thus my soul was far off from peace: I forgot prosperity,
[18] And I said, My strength and mine hope is perished from the Lord,
[19] Remembering mine affliction, and my mourning, the wormwood and the gall.
[20] My soul hath them in remembrance, and is humbled in me.
[21] I consider this in mine heart: therefore have I hope.
[22] It is the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.
[23] They are renewed every morning: great is thy faithfulness.
[24] The Lord is my portion, saith my soul: therefore will I hope in him.
[25] The Lord is good unto them that trust in him, and to the soul that seeketh him.
[26] It is good both to trust, and to wait for the salvation of the Lord.
[27] It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.
[28] He sitteth alone, and keepeth silence, because he hath born it upon him.
[29] He putteth his mouth in the dust, if there may be hope.
[30] He giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him: he is filled full with reproaches.
[31] For the Lord will not forsake forever.
[32] But though he send affliction, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies.
[33] For he doth not punish willingly, nor afflict the children of men,
[34] In stamping under his feet all the prisoners of the earth,
[35] In overthrowing the right of a man before the face of the Most High,
[36] In subverting a man in his cause: the Lord seeth it not.
[37] Who is he then that saith, and it cometh to pass, and the Lord commandeth it not?
[38] Out of the mouth of the Most High proceedeth not evil and good?
[39] Wherefore then is the living man sorrowful? Man suffereth for his sin.
[40] Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the Lord.
[41] Let us lift up our hearts with our hands unto God in the heavens.
[42] We have sinned, and have rebelled, therefore thou hast not spared.
[43] Thou hast covered us with wrath, and persecuted us: thou hast slain and not spared.
[44] Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud, that our prayer should not pass through.
[45] Thou hast made us as the off scouring and refuse in the midst of the people.
[46] All our enemies have opened their mouth against us.
[47] Fear, and a snare is come upon us with desolation and destruction.
[48] Mine eye casteth out rivers of water, for the destruction of the daughter of my people.
[49] Mine eye droppeth without stay and ceaseth not,
[50] Till the Lord look down, and behold from heaven.
[51] Mine eye breaketh mine heart because of all the daughters of my city.
[52] Mine enemies chased me sore like a bird, without cause.
[53] They have shut up my life in the dungeon, and cast a stone upon me.
[54] Waters flowed over mine head, then thought I, I am destroyed.
[55] I called upon thy name, O Lord, out of the low dungeon.
[56] Thou hast heard my voice: stop not thine ear from my sigh and from my cry.
[57] Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee: thou saidest, Fear not.
[58] O Lord, thou hast maintained the cause of my soul, and hast redeemed my life.
[59] O Lord, thou hast seen my wrong, judge thou my cause.
[60] Thou hast seen all their vengeance, and all their devises against me.
[61] Thou hast heard their reproach, O Lord, and all their imaginations against me:
[62] The lips also of those that rose against me, and their whispering against me continually.
[63] Behold, their sitting down and their rising up, how I am their song.
[64] Give them a recompense, O Lord, according to the work of their hands.
[65] Give them sorrow of heart, even thy curse to them.
[66] Persecute with wrath and destroy them from under the heaven, O Lord.
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