3 ^[a]I am the man who has seen affliction^(A)
    by the rod of the Lord’s wrath.^(B)

⁷ Your wrath^(A) lies heavily on me;
    you have overwhelmed me with all your waves.^[a](B)

¹⁵ From my youth^(A) I have suffered^(B) and been close to death;
    I have borne your terrors^(C) and am in despair.^(D)
16 Your wrath^(E) has swept over me;
    your terrors^(F) have destroyed me.

²¹ “Have pity on me, my friends,^(A) have pity,
    for the hand of God has struck^(B) me.

¹² “Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by?^(A)
    Look around and see.
Is any suffering like my suffering^(B)
    that was inflicted on me,
that the Lord brought on me
    in the day of his fierce anger?^(C)

¹³ “From on high he sent fire,
    sent it down into my bones.^(D)
He spread a net^(E) for my feet
    and turned me back.
He made me desolate,^(F)
    faint^(G) all the day long.

¹⁴ “My sins have been bound into a yoke^[a];^(H)
    by his hands they were woven together.
They have been hung on my neck,
    and the Lord has sapped my strength.
He has given me into the hands^(I)
    of those I cannot withstand.

¹⁴ Cursed be the day I was born!^(A)
    May the day my mother bore me not be blessed!
¹⁵ Cursed be the man who brought my father the news,
    who made him very glad, saying,
    “A child is born to you—a son!”
¹⁶ May that man be like the towns^(B)
    the Lord overthrew without pity.
May he hear wailing^(C) in the morning,
    a battle cry at noon.
¹⁷ For he did not kill me in the womb,^(D)
    with my mother as my grave,
    her womb enlarged forever.
¹⁸ Why did I ever come out of the womb^(E)
    to see trouble^(F) and sorrow
    and to end my days in shame?^(G)

¹⁷ I never sat^(A) in the company of revelers,
    never made merry with them;
I sat alone because your hand^(B) was on me
    and you had filled me with indignation.
¹⁸ Why is my pain unending
    and my wound grievous and incurable?^(C)
You are to me like a deceptive brook,
    like a spring that fails.^(D)

³ He was despised and rejected by mankind,
    a man of suffering,^(A) and familiar with pain.^(B)
Like one from whom people hide^(C) their faces
    he was despised,^(D) and we held him in low esteem.