Chapter 3

  I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.  

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  Me hath he led, and brought into darkness, and not into light.  

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  Surely against me hath he turned again and again his hand all the day.  

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  My flesh and my skin hath he wasted away, he hath broken my bones.  

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  He hath built against me, and encompassed [me] with gall and toil.  

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  He hath made me to dwell in dark places as those that have been long dead.  

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  He hath hedged me about that I cannot get out: he hath made my chain heavy.  

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  Even when I cry and shout, he shutteth out my prayer.  

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  He hath inclosed my ways with hewn stone, he hath made my paths crooked.  

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  He is unto me [as] a bear lying in wait, a lion in secret places.  

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  He hath turned aside my ways, and pulled me in pieces; he hath made me desolate.  

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  He hath bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow.  

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  He hath caused the arrows of his quiver to enter into my reins.  

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  I am become a derision to all my people; their song all the day.  

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  He hath sated me with bitterness, he hath made me drunk with wormwood.  

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  He hath also broken my teeth with gravel stones, he hath covered me with ashes.  

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  And thou hast removed my soul far off from peace: I have forgotten prosperity.  

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  And I said, My strength is perished, and my hope in Jehovah.  

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  Remember thou mine affliction and my wandering, the wormwood and the gall.  

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  My soul hath [them] constantly in remembrance, and is humbled in me.  

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  -- This I recall to heart, therefore have I hope.  

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  It is of Jehovah's loving-kindness we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not;  

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  they are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.  

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  Jehovah is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him.  

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  Jehovah is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul [that] seeketh him.  

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  It is good that one should both wait, and that in silence, for the salvation of Jehovah.  

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  It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth:  

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  He sitteth solitary and keepeth silence, because he hath laid it upon him;  

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  he putteth his mouth in the dust, if so be there may be hope;  

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  he giveth his cheek to him that smiteth 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 if he have caused grief, he will have compassion according to the multitude of his loving-kindnesses:  

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  for he doth not willingly afflict or grieve the children of men.  

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  To crush under foot 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 wrong a man in his cause, -- will not the Lord see it?  

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  Who is he that saith, and there cometh to pass, what the Lord hath not commanded?  

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  Out of the mouth of the Most High doth not there proceed evil and good?  

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  Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?  

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  Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to Jehovah.  

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  Let us lift up our heart with [our] hands unto ùGod in the heavens.  

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  We have transgressed and have rebelled: thou hast not pardoned.  

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  Thou hast covered thyself with anger, and pursued us; thou hast slain, thou hast not spared.  

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  Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud, that prayer should not pass through.  

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  Thou hast made us the offscouring and refuse in the midst of the peoples.  

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  All our enemies have opened their mouth against us.  

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  Fear and the pit are come upon us, devastation and ruin.  

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  Mine eye runneth down with streams of water for the ruin of the daughter of my people.  

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  Mine eye poureth down, and ceaseth not, without any intermission,  

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  till Jehovah look down and behold from the heavens.  

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  Mine eye affecteth my soul, because of all the daughters of my city.  

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  They that are mine enemies without cause have chased me sore like a bird.  

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  They have cut off my life in a pit, and cast a stone upon me.  

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  Waters streamed over my head; I said, I am cut off.  

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  I called upon thy name, Jehovah, out of the lowest pit.  

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  Thou hast heard my voice: hide not thine ear at my sighing, at my cry.  

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  Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee; thou saidst, Fear not.  

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  Lord, thou hast pleaded the cause of my soul, thou hast redeemed my life.  

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  Jehovah, thou hast seen my wrong: judge thou my cause.  

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  Thou hast seen all their vengeance, all their imaginations against me.  

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  Thou hast heard their reproach, O Jehovah, all their imaginations against me;  

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  the lips of those that rise up against me and their meditation against me all the day.  

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  Behold thou their sitting down and their rising up: I am their song.  

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  Render unto them a recompence, O Jehovah, according to the work of their hands;  

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  give them obduracy of heart, thy curse unto them;  

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  pursue them in anger, and destroy them from under the heavens of Jehovah.  

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