3:1 I am the [noble] man who has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.
3:2 He has led me and caused me to walk in darkness, and not in light.
3:3 Surely against me he turns his hand again and again all the day.
3:4 My flesh and my skin he has made old; he has broken my bones.
3:5 He has built against me, and surrounded me with gall and travail.
3:6 He has made me to dwell in dark places, as those who have been long dead.
3:7 He has walled me about, that I can't go forth; he has made my chain heavy.
3:8 Yes, when I cry, and call for help, he shuts out my prayer.
3:9 He has walled up my ways with cut stone; he has made my paths crooked.
3:10 He is to me as a bear lying in wait, as a lion in secret places.
3:11 He has turned aside my ways, and pulled me in pieces; he has made me desolate.
3:12 He has bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow.
3:13 He has caused the shafts of his quiver to enter into my reins.
3:14 I have become a derision for my whole nation, and their song all the day.
3:15 He has filled me with bitterness, he has sated me with wormwood.
3:16 He has also broken my teeth with gravel stones; he has covered me with ashes.
3:17 And you have removed my soul far off from peace; I forgot prosperity.
3:18 And I said, My strength has perished, and my expectation from Yahweh.
3:19 Remember my affliction and my wandering, the wormwood and the gall.
3:20 My soul has them still in remembrance, and is bowed down inside me.
3:21 This I recall to my mind; therefore I have hope.
3:22 [It is of] Yahweh's loving-kindnesses that we are not consumed, because his compassions do not fail.
3:23 They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
3:24 Yahweh is my portion, says my soul; therefore I will hope in him.
3:25 Yahweh is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.
3:26 It is good that a man should hope and quietly wait for the salvation of Yahweh.
3:27 It is good for a [noble] man that he bear the yoke in his youth.
3:28 Let him sit alone and keep silent, because he has laid it on him.
3:29 Let him put his mouth in the dust, if perhaps there may be hope.
3:30 Let him give his cheek to him who strikes him; let him be filled full with reproach.
3:31 For the Lord will not cast off forever.
3:32 For though he causes grief, yet he will have compassion according to the multitude of his loving-kindnesses.
3:33 For he does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the sons of a man.
3:34 To crush under foot all the prisoners of the earth,
3:35 To turn aside the right of a [noble] man before the face of the Most High,
3:36 To subvert man in his cause, the Lord does not approve.
3:37 Who is he that says, and it comes to pass, when the Lord does not command it?
3:38 Out of the mouth of the Most High does there not come evil and good?
3:39 Why does man complain, a living [noble] man for the punishment of his sins?
3:40 Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to Yahweh.
3:41 Let us lift up our heart with our hands to God in the heavens.
3:42 We have transgressed and have rebelled; you have not pardoned.
3:43 You have covered with anger and pursued us; you have slain, you have not pitied.
3:44 You have covered yourself with a cloud, so that no prayer can pass through.
3:45 You have made us an offscouring and refuse in the midst of the peoples.
3:46 All our enemies have opened their mouth wide against us.
3:47 Fear and the pit have come upon us, devastation and destruction.
3:48 My eye runs down with streams of water, for the destruction of the daughter of my people.
3:49 My eye pours down, and does not cease, without any intermission,
3:50 Until Yahweh looks down, and beholds from heaven.
3:51 My eye affects my soul, because of all the daughters of my city.
3:52 They have chased me intensely like a bird, those who are my enemies without cause.
3:53 They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and have cast a stone on me.
3:54 Waters flowed over my head; I said, I am cut off.
3:55 I called on your name, O Yahweh, out of the lowest dungeon.
3:56 You heard my voice; don't hide your ear at my breathing, at my cry.
3:57 You drew near in the day that I called on you; you said, Don't be afraid.
3:58 O Lord, you have pleaded the causes of my soul; you have redeemed my life.
3:59 O Yahweh, you have seen my wrong; judge my cause.
3:60 You have seen all their vengeance and all their devices against me.
3:61 You have heard their reproach, O Yahweh, and all their devices against me,
3:62 The lips of those who rose up against me, and their device against me all the day.
3:63 Look at their sitting down, and their rising up; I am their song.
3:64 You will render to them a recompense, O Yahweh, according to the work of their hands.
3:65 You will give them hardness of heart, your curse to them.
3:66 You will pursue them in anger, and destroy them from under the heavens of Yahweh.