1
I AM the man that has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.
2
He has led me, and brought me into darkness, but not into light.
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Surely against me is he turned; he turns his hand against me 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 set me in dark places, as they that be dead of old.
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He has hedged me about, that I cannot get out: he has made my chain heavy.
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Also when I cry and shout, he shuts out my prayer.
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He has enclosed my ways with hewn stone, he has made my paths crooked.
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He was to me as a bear lying in wait, and 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 arrows of his quiver to enter into my reins.
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I was a derision to all my people; and their song all the day.
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He has filled me with bitterness, he has made me drunken 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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And you have removed my soul far off from peace: I forgot prosperity.
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And I said, My strength and my hope is perished from the LORD:
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Remembering my affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall.
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My soul has them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me.
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This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope.
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It is of the LORD's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.
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They are new every morning: great is your faithfulness.
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The LORD is my portion, said my soul; therefore will I hope in him.
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The LORD is good to them that wait for him, to the soul that seeks him.
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It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD.
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It is good for a man that he bear the yoke of his youth.
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He sits alone and keeps silence, because he has borne it on him.
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He puts his mouth in the dust; if so be there may be hope.
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He gives his cheek to him that smites him: he is filled full with reproach.
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For the LORD will not cast off for ever:
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But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies.
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For he does not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men.
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To crush under his feet 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 approves not.
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Who is he that said, and it comes to pass, when the Lord commands it not?
38
Out of the mouth of the most High proceeds not evil and good?
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Why does a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?
40
Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the LORD.
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Let us lift up our heart with our hands to God in the heavens.
42
We have transgressed and have rebelled: you have not pardoned.
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You have covered with anger, and persecuted us: you have slain, you have not pitied.
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You have covered yourself with a cloud, that our prayer should not pass through.
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You have made us as the offscouring and refuse in the middle of the people.
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All our enemies have opened their mouths against us.
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Fear and a snare is come on us, desolation and destruction.
48
My eye runs down with rivers of water for the destruction of the daughter of my people.
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My eye trickles down, and ceases not, without any intermission.
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Till the LORD look down, and behold from heaven.
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My eye affects my heart because of all the daughters of my city.
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My enemies chased me sore, like a bird, without cause.
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They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and cast a stone on me.
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Waters flowed over my head; then I said, I am cut off.
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I called on your name, O LORD, out of the low dungeon.
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You have heard my voice: hide not 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, Fear not.
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O LORD, you have pleaded the causes of my soul; you have redeemed my life.
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O LORD, you have seen my wrong: judge you my cause.
60
You have seen all their vengeance and all their imaginations against me.
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You have heard their reproach, O LORD, and all their imaginations 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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Behold their sitting down, and their rising up; I am their music.
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Render to them a recompense, O LORD, according to the work of their hands.
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Give them sorrow of heart, your curse to them.
66
Persecute and destroy them in anger from under the heavens of the LORD.
