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I am a man who has seen misery under the rod of Yahweh’s fury.
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He drove me away and caused me to walk in darkness rather than light.
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Surely he turned his hand against me again and again, the whole day long.
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He made my flesh and my skin waste away; he broke my bones.
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He built up siege works against me, and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship.
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He made me live in dark places, like those who died long ago.
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He built a wall around me and I cannot escape. He made my chains heavy
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and though I call out and cry for help, he shut out my prayer.
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He blocked my path with a wall of hewn stone; he made my paths crooked.
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He is like a bear waiting to ambush me, a lion in hiding;
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he turned aside my paths, he has made me desolate.
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He bent his bow and set me as a target for his arrow.
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He pierced my kidneys with the arrows of his quiver.
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I became a laughingstock to all my people, the object of their taunting all day long.
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He filled me with bitterness and forced me to drink wormwood.
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He crushed my teeth with gravel; he has pushed me down into the dust.
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My soul is deprived of peace; I have forgotten what happiness is.
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So I say, “My endurance has perished and so has my hope in Yahweh.”
The Prophet’s Hope
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Remember my affliction and my wanderings, the wormwood and bitterness.
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I continually remember it and I am bowed down within me.
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But I call this to mind and therefore I have hope:
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The steadfast love of Yahweh never ceases and his compassions never end,
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they are new every morning; your faithfulness is great.
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“Yahweh is my inheritance,” I said, therefore I will hope in him.
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Yahweh is good to those who wait for him, to the one who seeks him.
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It is good to wait silently for the salvation of Yahweh.
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It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.
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Let him sit alone in silence, when it is laid upon him.
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Let him put his mouth in the dust-there may yet be hope.
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Let him give his cheek to the one who strikes him, and let him be filled full with disgrace.
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For the Lord will not reject us forever,
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but though he causes grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love.
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For he does not afflict from his heart or torment the children of mankind.
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To crush underfoot all the prisoners of the earth,
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to deny a man justice in the presence of the Most High,
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to deny justice to a person-the Lord would not approve such things!
God’s Justice
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Who has spoken and it came to pass, unless the Lord decreed it?
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Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that both calamities and the good come?
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How can any person alive complain? How can a person complain about the punishment for his sins?
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Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to Yahweh.
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Let us lift up our hearts and our hands to God in the heavens:
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“We have transgressed and rebelled, and you have not forgiven.
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You have covered yourself with anger and pursued us, you have killed and you have not spared.
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You have covered yourself with a cloud so that no prayer can pass through.
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You have made us like filthy scum and refuse among the nations.
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All our enemies curse us,
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panic and pitfall have come upon us, ruin and destruction.
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My eyes flow with streams of tears because my people are destroyed.
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My eyes will shed tears without ceasing; without relief,
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until he will look down and Yahweh will see from heaven.
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My eyes cause me grief because of all the daughters of my city.
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I have been hunted like a bird by those who were my enemies; they hunted me without a reason.
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They cast me into a pit and they threw a stone on me,
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and waters poured over my head. I said, “I have been cut off!”
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I called on your name, Yahweh, from the depths of the pit.
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You heard my voice when I said, “Do not close your ear to my cry for help.”
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You came near on the day I called on you; you said, “Do not fear.”
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Lord, you defended my case, you saved my life!
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Yahweh, you have seen the wrong they have done to me; judge my case.
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You have seen their insults, all their plots against me-
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You have heard their scorn, Yahweh, and all their plans regarding me.
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The lips of those who rise up against me, and their accusations, come against me all the day.
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Look at how they sit and then rise up; they mock me with their songs.
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Pay back to them, Yahweh, according to what they have done.
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You will let their hearts be shameless! May your condemnation be upon them!
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You pursue them in anger and destroy them from under the heavens, Yahweh!
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