I say to God my Rock,(A)
    “Why have you forgotten(B) me?
Why must I go about mourning,(C)
    oppressed(D) by the enemy?”(E)

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I will say unto God my rock, Why hast thou forgotten me? why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?

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I am bowed down(A) and brought very low;
    all day long I go about mourning.(B)

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I am troubled; I am bowed down greatly; I go mourning all the day long.

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You are God my stronghold.
    Why have you rejected(A) me?
Why must I go about mourning,(B)
    oppressed by the enemy?(C)

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For thou art the God of my strength: why dost thou cast me off? why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?

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The Lord is my rock,(A) my fortress(B) and my deliverer;(C)
    my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge,(D)
    my shield[a](E) and the horn[b] of my salvation,(F) my stronghold.

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Footnotes

  1. Psalm 18:2 Or sovereign
  2. Psalm 18:2 Horn here symbolizes strength.

The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower.

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Remember, Lord, what has happened to us;
    look, and see our disgrace.(A)
Our inheritance(B) has been turned over to strangers,(C)
    our homes(D) to foreigners.(E)
We have become fatherless,
    our mothers are widows.(F)
We must buy the water we drink;(G)
    our wood can be had only at a price.(H)
Those who pursue us are at our heels;
    we are weary(I) and find no rest.(J)
We submitted to Egypt and Assyria(K)
    to get enough bread.
Our ancestors(L) sinned and are no more,
    and we bear their punishment.(M)
Slaves(N) rule over us,
    and there is no one to free us from their hands.(O)
We get our bread at the risk of our lives
    because of the sword in the desert.
10 Our skin is hot as an oven,
    feverish from hunger.(P)
11 Women have been violated(Q) in Zion,
    and virgins in the towns of Judah.
12 Princes have been hung up by their hands;
    elders(R) are shown no respect.(S)
13 Young men toil at the millstones;
    boys stagger under loads of wood.
14 The elders are gone from the city gate;
    the young men have stopped their music.(T)
15 Joy is gone from our hearts;
    our dancing has turned to mourning.(U)
16 The crown(V) has fallen from our head.(W)
    Woe to us, for we have sinned!(X)

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Remember, O Lord, what is come upon us: consider, and behold our reproach.

Our inheritance is turned to strangers, our houses to aliens.

We are orphans and fatherless, our mothers are as widows.

We have drunken our water for money; our wood is sold unto us.

Our necks are under persecution: we labour, and have no rest.

We have given the hand to the Egyptians, and to the Assyrians, to be satisfied with bread.

Our fathers have sinned, and are not; and we have borne their iniquities.

Servants have ruled over us: there is none that doth deliver us out of their hand.

We gat our bread with the peril of our lives because of the sword of the wilderness.

10 Our skin was black like an oven because of the terrible famine.

11 They ravished the women in Zion, and the maids in the cities of Judah.

12 Princes are hanged up by their hand: the faces of elders were not honoured.

13 They took the young men to grind, and the children fell under the wood.

14 The elders have ceased from the gate, the young men from their musick.

15 The joy of our heart is ceased; our dance is turned into mourning.

16 The crown is fallen from our head: woe unto us, that we have sinned!

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26 Yet when I hoped for good, evil came;
    when I looked for light, then came darkness.(A)
27 The churning inside me never stops;(B)
    days of suffering confront me.(C)
28 I go about blackened,(D) but not by the sun;
    I stand up in the assembly and cry for help.(E)
29 I have become a brother of jackals,(F)
    a companion of owls.(G)
30 My skin grows black(H) and peels;(I)
    my body burns with fever.(J)
31 My lyre is tuned to mourning,(K)
    and my pipe(L) to the sound of wailing.

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26 When I looked for good, then evil came unto me: and when I waited for light, there came darkness.

27 My bowels boiled, and rested not: the days of affliction prevented me.

28 I went mourning without the sun: I stood up, and I cried in the congregation.

29 I am a brother to dragons, and a companion to owls.

30 My skin is black upon me, and my bones are burned with heat.

31 My harp also is turned to mourning, and my organ into the voice of them that weep.

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15 “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast
    and have no compassion on the child(A) she has borne?
Though she may forget,
    I will not forget you!(B)

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15 Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee.

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27 Why do you complain, Jacob?
    Why do you say, Israel,
“My way is hidden from the Lord;
    my cause is disregarded by my God”?(A)

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27 Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, My way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over from my God?

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Oppression, Toil, Friendlessness

Again I looked and saw all the oppression(A) that was taking place under the sun:

I saw the tears of the oppressed—
    and they have no comforter;
power was on the side of their oppressors—
    and they have no comforter.(B)

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So I returned, and considered all the oppressions that are done under the sun: and behold the tears of such as were oppressed, and they had no comforter; and on the side of their oppressors there was power; but they had no comforter.

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    my eyes(A) are dim with grief.

I call(B) to you, Lord, every day;
    I spread out my hands(C) to you.

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Mine eye mourneth by reason of affliction: Lord, I have called daily upon thee, I have stretched out my hands unto thee.

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35 They remembered that God was their Rock,(A)
    that God Most High was their Redeemer.(B)

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35 And they remembered that God was their rock, and the high God their redeemer.

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Has God forgotten to be merciful?(A)
    Has he in anger withheld his compassion?(B)

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Hath God forgotten to be gracious? hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies? Selah.

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Truly he is my rock and my salvation;
    he is my fortress, I will not be shaken.
My salvation and my honor depend on God[a];
    he is my mighty rock, my refuge.(A)

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Footnotes

  1. Psalm 62:7 Or / God Most High is my salvation and my honor

He only is my rock and my salvation: he is my defence; I shall not be moved.

In God is my salvation and my glory: the rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in God.

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