The Prophet’s Afflictions
I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of his fury.
Me he has driven and made to walk in darkness and not in light.
Surely against me he turns; he turns his hand all the day.
He has worn away my flesh and my skin; he has broken my bones.
He has built against me and encircled me with poison and hardship.
In dark places he has made me sit, like the dead of long ago.
He has walled me about and I cannot go out; he has made my bronze chain heavy.
Even when I cry out and call for help, he shuts out my prayer.
He has walled up my ways with hewn stone; he has made my paths crooked.
A bear lying in ambush is he to me, a lion in hiding places.
He has led my ways astray and torn me to pieces; he has made me desolate.
He has bent his bow and set me as the mark for the arrow.
He has brought into my kidneys the sons of his quiver.
I have become laughter to all my people, their song all the day.
He has filled me with bitter things; he has soaked me with wormwood.
And he has broken my teeth on gravel; he has pressed me down in the ashes.
And my soul was cast off from peace; I have forgotten what is good.
And I said: My endurance has perished, and my hope from the LORD.
The Prophet’s Hope
Remember my affliction and my wandering, the wormwood and the poison.
My soul surely remembers and is bowed down within me.
This I bring back to my heart; therefore I hope.
The loyal loves of the LORD — for they are not finished, for his compassions are not spent.
New every morning; great is your faithfulness.
The LORD is my portion, my soul has said; therefore I hope in him.
The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul that seeks him.
It is good that one should hope, and in silence, for the salvation of the LORD.
It is good for a man that he carry the yoke in his youth.
Let him sit alone and be silent, for he has laid it upon him.
Let him put his mouth in the dust — perhaps there is hope.
Let him give his cheek to the one striking him; let him be filled with reproach.
For the Lord will not cast off forever.
For though he has grieved, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his loyal loves.
For he does not afflict from his heart, nor grieve the sons of man.
To crush under his feet all the prisoners of the earth,
to bend aside the justice of a man before the face of the Most High,
to pervert a man in his dispute — does the Lord not see?
God’s Justice
Who is this who spoke and it came to be, when the Lord had not commanded?
From the mouth of the Most High do not the evils and the good go out?
Why should living mankind complain, a man over his sins?
Let us examine our ways and search them out, and let us return to the LORD.
Let us lift our heart with our palms to God in the heavens.
We ourselves have transgressed and rebelled; you have not forgiven.
You covered yourself in anger and pursued us; you killed, you did not spare.
You covered yourself in a cloud, so that no prayer could pass through.
You have made us offscouring and refuse in the midst of the peoples.
All our enemies have opened their mouth wide against us.
Dread and the pit have been ours, the wasting and the breaking.
Streams of water run down my eye over the breaking of the daughter of my people.
My eye pours down and does not cease, without respite,
until the LORD looks down and sees from heaven.
My eye deals harshly with my soul, because of all the daughters of my city.
They hunted me hard like a bird, my enemies for nothing.
They silenced my life in the pit and cast a stone on me.
Waters flowed over my head; I said: I am cut off.
I called your name, LORD, from the lowest pit.
You heard my voice: do not hide your ear from my relief, from my cry for help.
You drew near on the day I called you; you said: Do not fear.
You pleaded, O Lord, the disputes of my soul; you redeemed my life.
You have seen, LORD, the wrong done to me; judge my cause.
You have seen all their vengeance, all their devices against me.
You have heard their reproach, LORD, all their devices against me,
the lips of those rising against me and their muttering against me all the day.
Their sitting and their rising — look: I am their song.
Return to them a recompense, LORD, according to the work of their hands.
Give them dullness of heart — your curse be upon them.
Pursue in anger and destroy them from under the heavens of the LORD.