3:1 *I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of the Lord’s wrath. / *This chapter is an acrostic poem; the verses of each stanza begin with the successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet, and the verses within each stanza begin with the same letter.
3:2 He has driven me away and made me walk in darkness rather than light;
3:3 indeed, he has turned his hand against me again and again, all day long.
3:4 He has made my skin and my flesh grow old and has broken my bones.
3:5 He has besieged me and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship.
3:6 He has made me dwell in darkness like those long dead.
3:7 He has walled me in so I cannot escape; he has weighed me down with chains.
3:8 Even when I call out or cry for help, he shuts out my prayer.
3:9 He has barred my way with blocks of stone; he has made my paths crooked.
3:10 Like a bear lying in wait, like a lion in hiding,
3:11 he dragged me from the path and mangled me and left me without help.
3:12 He drew his bow and made me the target for his arrows.
3:13 He pierced my heart with arrows from his quiver.
3:14 I became the laughingstock of all my people; they mock me in song all day long.
3:15 He has filled me with bitter herbs and given me gall to drink.
3:16 He has broken my teeth with gravel; he has trampled me in the dust.
3:17 I have been deprived of peace; I have forgotten what prosperity is.
3:18 So I say, “My splendor is gone and all that I had hoped from the Lord.”
3:19 I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall.
3:20 I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me.
3:21 Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope:
3:22 Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.
3:23 They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
3:24 I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.”
3:25 The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him;
3:26 it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.
3:27 It is good for a man to bear the yoke while he is young.
3:28 Let him sit alone in silence, for the Lord has laid it on him.
3:29 Let him bury his face in the dust - there may yet be hope.
3:30 Let him offer his cheek to one who would strike him, and let him be filled with disgrace.
3:31 For no one is cast off by the Lord forever.
3:32 Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love.
3:33 For he does not willingly bring affliction or grief to anyone.
3:34 To crush underfoot all prisoners in the land,
3:35 to deny people their rights before the Most High,
3:36 to deprive them of justice - would not the Lord see such things?
3:37 Who can speak and have it happen if the Lord has not decreed it?
3:38 Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that both calamities and good things come?
3:39 Why should the living complain when punished for their sins?
3:40 Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the Lord.
3:41 Let us lift up our hearts and our hands to God in heaven, and say:
3:42 “We have sinned and rebelled and you have not forgiven.
3:43 “You have covered yourself with anger and pursued us; you have slain without pity.
3:44 You have covered yourself with a cloud so that no prayer can get through.
3:45 You have made us scum and refuse among the nations.
3:46 “All our enemies have opened their mouths wide against us.
3:47 We have suffered terror and pitfalls, ruin and destruction.”
3:48 Streams of tears flow from my eyes because my people are destroyed.
3:49 My eyes will flow unceasingly, without relief,
3:50 until the Lord looks down from heaven and sees.
3:51 What I see brings grief to my soul because of all the women of my city.
3:52 Those who were my enemies without cause hunted me like a bird.
3:53 They tried to end my life in a pit and threw stones at me;
3:54 the waters closed over my head, and I thought I was about to perish.
3:55 I called on your name, Lord, from the depths of the pit.
3:56 You heard my plea: “Do not close your ears to my cry for relief.”
3:57 You came near when I called you, and you said, “Do not fear.”
3:58 You, Lord, took up my case; you redeemed my life.
3:59 Lord, you have seen the wrong done to me. Uphold my cause!
3:60 You have seen the depth of their vengeance, all their plots against me.
3:61 Lord, you have heard their insults, all their plots against me -
3:62 what my enemies whisper and mutter against me all day long.
3:63 Look at them! Sitting or standing, they mock me in their songs.
3:64 Pay them back what they deserve, Lord, for what their hands have done.
3:65 Put a veil over their hearts, and may your curse be on them!
3:66 Pursue them in anger and destroy them from under the heavens of the Lord.