¹⁸ He will not let me catch my breath,
    but fills me instead with bitter sorrows.

¹⁹ Why won’t you leave me alone,
    at least long enough for me to swallow!

¹⁵ He has filled me with bitterness
    and given me a bitter cup of sorrow to drink.

¹⁸ I cry out, “My splendor is gone!
    Everything I had hoped for from the Lord is lost!”

¹⁹ The thought of my suffering and homelessness
    is bitter beyond words.^[a]

¹⁵ I have been sick and close to death since my youth.
    I stand helpless and desperate before your terrors.
¹⁶ Your fierce anger has overwhelmed me.
    Your terrors have paralyzed me.
¹⁷ They swirl around me like floodwaters all day long.
    They have engulfed me completely.
¹⁸ You have taken away my companions and loved ones.
    Darkness is my closest friend.

⁷ Your anger weighs me down;
    with wave after wave you have engulfed me. Interlude

¹³ Leave me alone so I can smile again
    before I am gone and exist no more.

² “I vow by the living God, who has taken away my rights,
    by the Almighty who has embittered my soul—