Chapter 3

  I am the man that has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.  

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  He has led me and caused me to walk in darkness, and not in light.  

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  Surely against me he turns his hand again and again all the day.  

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  My flesh and my skin has he made old; he has broken my bones.  

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  He has built against me, and compassed me with gall and travail.  

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  He has made me to dwell in dark places, as those that have been long dead.  

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  He has walled me about, that I can't go forth; he has made my chain heavy.  

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  Yes, when I cry, and call for help, he shuts out my prayer.  

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  He has walled up my ways with hewn stone; he has made my paths crooked.  

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  He is to me as a bear lying in wait, as a lion in secret places.  

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  He has turned aside my ways, and pulled me in pieces; he has made me desolate.  

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  He has bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow.  

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  He has caused the shafts of his quiver to enter into my reins.  

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  I am become a derision to all my people, and their song all the day.  

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  He has filled me with bitterness, he has sated me with wormwood.  

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  He has also broken my teeth with gravel stones; he has covered me with ashes.  

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  You have removed my soul far off from peace; I forgot prosperity.  

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  I said, My strength is perished, and my expectation from Yahweh.  

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  Remember my affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall.  

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  My soul still remembers them, and is bowed down within me.  

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  This I recall to my mind; therefore have I hope.  

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  [It is of] Yahweh's lovingkindnesses that we are not consumed, because his compassion doesn't fail.  

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  They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.  

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  Yahweh is my portion, says my soul; therefore will I hope in him.  

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  Yahweh is good to those who wait for him, to the soul that seeks him.  

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  It is good that a man should hope and quietly wait for the salvation of Yahweh.  

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  It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.  

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  Let him sit alone and keep silence, because he has laid it on him.  

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  Let him put his mouth in the dust, if so be there may be hope.  

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  Let him give his cheek to him who strikes him; let him be filled full with reproach.  

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  For the Lord will not cast off forever.  

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  For though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his lovingkindnesses.  

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  For he does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men.  

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  To crush under foot all the prisoners of the earth,  

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  To turn aside the right of a man before the face of the Most High,  

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  To subvert a man in his cause, the Lord doesn't approve.  

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  Who is he who says, and it comes to pass, when the Lord doesn't command it?  

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  Doesn't evil and good come out of the mouth of the Most High?  

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  Why does a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?  

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  Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to Yahweh.  

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  Let us lift up our heart with our hands to God in the heavens.  

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  We have transgressed and have rebelled; you have not pardoned.  

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  You have covered with anger and pursued us; you have killed, you have not pitied.  

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  You have covered yourself with a cloud, so that no prayer can pass through.  

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  You have made us an off-scouring and refuse in the midst of the peoples.  

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  All our enemies have opened their mouth wide against us.  

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  Fear and the pit are come on us, devastation and destruction.  

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  My eye runs down with streams of water, for the destruction of the daughter of my people.  

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  My eye pours down, and doesn't cease, without any intermission,  

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  Until Yahweh look down, and see from heaven.  

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  My eye affects my soul, because of all the daughters of my city.  

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  They have chased me sore like a bird, those who are my enemies without cause.  

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  They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and have cast a stone on me.  

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  Waters flowed over my head; I said, I am cut off.  

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  I called on your name, Yahweh, out of the lowest dungeon.  

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  You heard my voice; don't hide your ear at my breathing, at my cry.  

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  You drew near in the day that I called on you; you said, Don't be afraid.  

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  Lord, you have pleaded the causes of my soul; you have redeemed my life.  

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  Yahweh, you have seen my wrong; judge you my cause.  

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  You have seen all their vengeance and all their devices against me.  

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  You have heard their reproach, Yahweh, and all their devices against me,  

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  The lips of those that rose up against me, and their device against me all the day.  

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  See you their sitting down, and their rising up; I am their song.  

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  You will render to them a recompense, Yahweh, according to the work of their hands.  

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  You will give them hardness of heart, your curse to them.  

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  You will pursue them in anger, and destroy them from under the heavens of Yahweh.  

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