1 I am the man who has seen misery
Because of the rod of His wrath.
2 He has driven me and made me walk
In darkness and not in light.
3 Indeed, He has turned His hand against me
Repeatedly all the day.
4 He has consumed my flesh and my skin,
He has broken my bones.
5 He has besieged and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship.
6 He has made me live in dark places,
Like those who have long been dead.
7 He has walled me in so that I cannot go out;
He has made my chain heavy.
8 Even when I cry out and call for help,
He shuts out my prayer.
9 He has blocked my ways with cut stone;
He has twisted my paths.
10 He is to me like a bear lying in wait,
Like a lion in secret places.
11 He has made my ways deviate, and torn me to pieces;
He has made me desolate.
12 He bent His bow
And took aim at me as a target for the arrow.
13 He made the arrows of His quiver
Enter my inward parts.
14 I have become a laughingstock to all my people,
Their song of ridicule all the day.
15 He has filled me with bitterness,
He has made me drink plenty of wormwood.
16 He has also made my teeth grind with gravel;
He has made me cower in the dust.
17 My soul has been excluded from peace;
I have forgotten happiness.
18 So I say, “My strength has failed,
And so has my hope from the Lord.”
19 Remember my misery and my homelessness, the wormwood and bitterness.
20 My soul certainly remembers,
And is bent over within me.
21 I recall this to my mind,
Therefore I wait.
22 The Lord’s acts of mercy indeed do not end,
For His compassions do not fail.
23 They are new every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness.
24 “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
“Therefore I wait for Him.”
25 The Lord is good to those who await Him,
To the person who seeks Him.
26 It is good that he waits silently
For the salvation of the Lord.
27 It is good for a man to bear
The yoke in his youth.
28 Let him sit alone and keep quiet,
Since He has laid it on him.
29 Let him put his mouth in the dust;
Perhaps there is hope.
30 Let him give his cheek to the one who is going to strike him;
Let him be filled with shame.
31 For the Lord will not reject forever,
32 For if He causes grief,
Then He will have compassion
In proportion to His abundant mercy.
33 For He does not afflict willingly
Or grieve the sons of mankind.
34 To crush under one’s feet
All the prisoners of the land,
35 To deprive a man of justice
In the presence of the Most High,
36 To defraud someone in his lawsuit—
Of these things the Lord does not approve.
37 Who is there who speaks and it comes to pass,
Unless the Lord has commanded it?
38 Is it not from the mouth of the Most High
That both adversity and good proceed?
39 Of what can any living mortal, or any man,
Complain in view of his sins?
40 Let’s examine and search out our ways,
And let’s return to the Lord.
41 We raise our heart and hands
Toward God in heaven;
42 We have done wrong and rebelled;
You have not pardoned.
43 You have covered Yourself with anger
And pursued us;
You have slain and have not spared.
44 You have veiled Yourself with a cloud
So that no prayer can pass through.
45 You have made us mere refuse and rubbish
In the midst of the peoples.
46 All our enemies have opened their mouths against us.
47 Panic and pitfall have come upon us,
Devastation and destruction;
48 My eyes run down with streams of water
Because of the destruction of the daughter of my people.
49 My eyes flow unceasingly,
Without stopping,
50 Until the Lord looks down
And sees from heaven.
51 My eyes bring pain to my soul
Because of all the daughters of my city.
52 My enemies without reason
Hunted me down like a bird;
53 They have silenced me in the pit
And have thrown stones on me.
54 Waters flowed over my head;
I said, “I am cut off!”
55 I called on Your name, Lord,
Out of the lowest pit.
56 You have heard my voice,
“Do not cover Your ear from my plea for relief,
From my cry for help.”
57 You came near on the day I called to You;
You said, “Do not fear!”
58 Lord, You have pleaded my soul’s cause;
You have redeemed my life.
59 Lord, You have seen my oppression;
Judge my case.
60 You have seen all their vengeance,
All their schemes against me.
61 You have heard their reproach, Lord,
All their schemes against me.
62 The lips of my assailants and their talk
Are against me all day long.
63 Look at their sitting and their rising;
I am their mocking song.
64 You will repay them, Lord,
In accordance with the work of their hands.
65 You will give them shamelessness of heart,
Your curse will be on them.
66 You will pursue them in anger and eliminate them
From under the heavens of the Lord!
1 God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, 2 in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom He also made the world. 3 And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 4 having become so much better than the angels, to the extent that He has inherited a more excellent name than they.
5 For to which of the angels did He ever say,
“You are My Son,
Today I have fathered You”?
And again,
“I will be a Father to Him
And He will be a Son to Me”?
6 And when He again brings the firstborn into the world, He says,
“And let all the angels of God worship Him.”
7 And regarding the angels He says,
“He makes His angels winds,
And His ministers a flame of fire.”
8 But regarding the Son He says,
“Your throne, God, is forever and ever,
And the scepter of righteousness is the scepter of His kingdom.
9 You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness;
Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You
With the oil of joy above Your companions.”
10 And,
“You, Lord, in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth,
And the heavens are the works of Your hands;
11 They will perish, but You remain;
And they all will wear out like a garment,
12 And like a robe You will roll them up;
Like a garment they will also be changed.
But You are the same,
And Your years will not come to an end.”
13 But to which of the angels has He ever said,
“Sit at My right hand,
Until I make Your enemies
A footstool for Your feet”?
14 Are they not all ministering spirits, sent out to provide service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation?
1 Hear my prayer, Lord!
And let my cry for help come to You.
2 Do not hide Your face from me on the day of my distress;
Incline Your ear to me;
On the day when I call answer me quickly.
3 For my days have ended in smoke,
And my bones have been scorched like a hearth.
4 My heart has been struck like grass and has withered,
Indeed, I forget to eat my bread.
5 Because of the loudness of my groaning
My bones cling to my flesh.
6 I resemble a pelican of the wilderness;
I have become like an owl of the ruins.
7 I lie awake,
I have become like a solitary bird on a housetop.
8 My enemies have taunted me all day long;
Those who deride me have used my name as a curse.
9 For I have eaten ashes like bread,
And mixed my drink with weeping
10 Because of Your indignation and Your wrath;
For You have lifted me up and thrown me away.
11 My days are like a lengthened shadow,
And I wither away like grass.
12 But You, Lord, remain forever,
And Your name remains to all generations.
13 You will arise and have compassion on Zion;
For it is time to be gracious to her,
For the appointed time has come.
14 Surely Your servants take pleasure in her stones,
And feel pity for her dust.
15 So the nations will fear the name of the Lord,
And all the kings of the earth, Your glory.
16 For the Lord has built up Zion;
He has appeared in His glory.
17 He has turned His attention to the prayer of the destitute
And has not despised their prayer.
18 This will be written for the generation to come,
That a people yet to be created may praise the Lord:
19 For He looked down from His holy height;
From heaven the Lord looked upon the earth,
20 To hear the groaning of the prisoner,
To set free those who were doomed to death,
21 So that people may tell of the name of the Lord in Zion,
And His praise in Jerusalem,
22 When the peoples are gathered together,
And the kingdoms, to serve the Lord.
23 He has broken my strength in the way;
He has shortened my days.
24 I say, “My God, do not take me away in the middle of my days,
Your years are throughout all generations.
25 In time of old You founded the earth,
And the heavens are the work of Your hands.
26 Even they will perish, but You endure;
All of them will wear out like a garment;
Like clothing You will change them and they will pass away.
27 But You are the same,
And Your years will not come to an end.
28 The children of Your servants will continue,
And their descendants will be established before You.”
21 Like charcoal to hot embers and wood to fire,
So is a contentious person to kindle strife.
22 The words of a gossiper are like dainty morsels,
And they go down into the innermost parts of the body.
