Chapter 3

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

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  He hath led me, and brought me into darkness, but not into light.  

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  Surely against me is he turned; he turneth his hand against me all the day.  

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  My flesh and my skin hath he made old; he hath broken my bones.  

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  He hath built against me, and compassed me with gall and labor.  

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  He hath set me in dark places, as they that are dead of old.  

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

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  Also 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 was to me as a bear lying in wait, and as 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 was a derision to all my people; and their song all the day.  

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  He hath filled me with bitterness, he hath made me drunken 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 forgat prosperity.  

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  And I said, My strength and my hope hath 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 hath 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 thy faithfulness.  

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  The LORD is my portion, saith 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 seeketh 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 should bear the yoke in his youth.  

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  He sitteth alone, and keepeth silence, because he hath borne it upon him.  

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  He putteth his mouth in the dust; if 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 though he causeth grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies.  

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  For he doth 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 approveth not.  

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  Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth it not?  

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  Out of the mouth of the most High proceedeth not evil and good?  

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  Why 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 the LORD.  

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  Let us lift up our heart with our hands to God in the heavens.  

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

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  Thou hast covered with anger, and persecuted us: thou hast slain, thou hast not pitied.  

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

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  Thou hast made us as the offscouring and refuse in the midst 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 upon us, desolation and destruction.  

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  My eye runneth down with rivers of water for the destruction of the daughter of my people.  

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  My eye trickleth down, and ceaseth not, without any intermission,  

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  Till the LORD shall look down, and behold from heaven.  

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  My eye affecteth my heart because of all the daughters of my city.  

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  My enemies chased me fiercely, like a bird without cause.  

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

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

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  I called upon thy name, O LORD, out of the low dungeon.  

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  Thou hast heard my voice: hide not thy ear at my breathing, 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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  O Lord, thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul; thou hast redeemed my life.  

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  O LORD, thou hast seen my wrong: judge thou my cause.  

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

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  Thou hast 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, thy curse to them.  

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  Persecute and destroy them in anger from under the heavens of the LORD.  

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