Beginning
37 Who can command, and it happens,
without the Lord having ordered it?
38 Do not both good and evil things proceed
from the mouth of the Most High?
39 Why should anyone living complain,
any mortal, about being punished for sin?
40 Let us examine our lifestyles,
putting them to the test,
and turn back to the Lord.
41 Let us lift up our hearts
and our hands
to God in heaven.
42 As for us, we have sinned and rebelled;
but you have not pardoned us.[a]
43 Clothing yourself with anger, you pursued us.
You killed without pity,
44 You covered yourself with a cloud
that prayer cannot pierce.
45 You have reduced us to scum and garbage
among the nations.
46 All our enemies
jeer at us with gaping mouths.
47 Panic and pitfalls beset us,
along with devastation and ruin.
48 My eyes run with rivers of tears
over the destruction of my cherished[b] people.
49 My tears pour[c] down ceaselessly;
I am far from relief
50 until the Lord bends down
to see from heaven.
51 What I see[d] grieves my soul
because of all the young women[e] of my city.
52 My enemies hunted me like a bird,
viciously and without justification.
53 They dumped me alive into a pit,
sealing me in with stone.[f]
54 Water closed over my head,
and I said, “I’m a dead man.”[g]
55 I called on your name, Lord,
from the depths of the Pit,[h]
56 You heard my voice—
don’t close your ear to my sighs and cries.[i]
57 You drew near when I called out to you.
You said, “Stop being afraid”
58 Lord, you have defended my cause;
you have redeemed my life.
59 Lord, you observed how I have been wronged;
now make your ruling in my case.
60 You examined their plans for vengeance,
all of their plots against me.
61 Lord, you listened to their insults—
all their plots against me,
62 the whisperings of my opponents,
their scheming against me all day long.
63 Watch! Whether they sit down or stand up,
they mock me with their songs.
64 Pay them back, Lord,
according to their actions.
65 Give them an anguished heart;
may your curse be upon them!
66 Pursue them in your anger
and destroy them from under the Lord’s heaven.
Zion’s Punishment
4 How tarnished the gold has become,
the finest gold debased!
Sacred stones[j] have been scattered
at every street corner.
2 Though the precious people of Zion
were like fine gold,
how they are valued like clay vessels,
the handiwork of a potter!
3 Even wild animals nurse,
suckling their young;
but the women of my people are cruel,
like ostriches in the wilderness.
4 The nursing child’s tongue
cleaves to its palate from thirst.
Young children beg for bread,
but no one gives them any.
5 Those who enjoyed delicacies
lie desolate in the streets.
Those who were reared wearing purple
scavenge in piles of trash.
6 The guilt of my cherished people surpasses the sin of Sodom,
which was overthrown in a moment,
without a hand to help her.
7 Her princes[k] were purer than snow,
whiter than milk.
Their bodies were more ruddy[l] than rubies,
their beards like the color of precious stones.
8 Now their faces are blacker than coal;
they are unrecognized in the streets.
Their skin clings to their bones;
it has become dry like a stick.
9 Those who die by the sword are better off
than those who die from starvation,
who slowly waste away like those pierced through
for lack of food from the fields.
10 With their own hands, compassionate women
boil their own children—
they become their food—
when my beloved people were[m] destroyed.
11 The Lord has exhausted his wrath,
pouring out his fierce anger.
He kindled a fire in Zion,
consuming its foundations.
12 None of the kings of the earth would have believed,
nor the world’s inhabitants,
that the adversary and the enemy
could have breached the gates of Jerusalem.
13 Due to the sins committed by her prophets,
and the iniquities of her priests
who shed in her midst,
the blood of the righteous,
14 people stagger around in the streets like the blind,
defiled by blood
unclean so that no one is able
to touch their clothing.
15 “Go away! Unclean!”
they shouted at them.
“Go away! Go away! Don’t touch!”
When they fled away and wandered,
those among the nations decreed,
“They cannot live here!”
16 The Lord himself separated them;
he will do nothing more for them.
They did not respect their own priests;
they did not honor their elders.
17 Our eyes failed,
searching in vain for hope;
we kept watching and looking
for a nation that would not help.
18 Our steps were closely stalked,
so we couldn’t travel on our own streets.
Our end is near,
our days are over;
indeed, our end has come.
19 Our pursuers were swifter
than soaring eagles;[n]
they pursued us over the mountains,
lying in wait for us in the wilderness.
20 The Lord’s anointed,
the breath of our life,
was captured in their pits.
About him we had said,
“Under his protection we will survive
among the nations.”
21 Celebrate and rejoice, you women[o] of Edom,
who live in the land of Uz.
But to you the cup also will pass—
you will become drunk and stripped naked.
22 The punishment for your sin is complete, you women[p] of Zion,
and God[q] will no longer exile you.
He will punish your iniquity, you women[r] of Edom,
and he will expose your sins.
A Prayer for Deliverance
5 Lord, remember what has happened to us.
Pay attention, and look at our shame!
2 Our inheritance has[s] been turned over to strangers,
and our homes to foreigners.
3 We are now orphans—without fathers—
and our mothers are like widows.
4 We pay to drink our own water,
and our own wood is sold to us at high price.
5 Our pursuers breathe down[t] our necks;
we are weary, but there is no rest for us.
6 We made a deal with the Egyptians and the Assyrians
for the price of food.[u]
7 Our ancestors sinned and no longer exist
yet we continue to bear the consequences of their sin.
8 Slaves rule over us,
and no one delivers us from their control.[v]
9 We risk our lives to obtain our food,
facing death[w] in the desert.
10 Our skin blisters[x] as from an oven,
due to ravaging blasts of the famine.
11 They have raped women in Zion,
young women[y] in the towns of Judah.
12 Princes they have hung by their hands;
elders[z] they have disrespected.
13 Our[aa] young men must grind grain with a millstone;
our[ab] youths stumble under the weight of wood.
14 Our[ac] elders have ceased ruling[ad] at the gate;
our[ae] young men have abandoned[af] their music.
15 The joy of our hearts has ceased,
and our dancing has turned into dirges.
16 The crown has fallen from our head—
woe to us, because we have sinned!
17 This is why our hearts faint,
and why our eyes grow dim:
18 Because Mount Zion is desolate;
foxes roam around it.
19 You, Lord, are forever—
your throne endures from generation to generation.
20 So why have you completely forgotten us,
forsaking us for so long?
21 Restore us to yourself, Lord,
so that we may return.
Renew our days as before,
22 unless you have utterly rejected us
and are angry with us without limit.
Copyright © 1995-2014 by ISV Foundation. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED INTERNATIONALLY. Used by permission of Davidson Press, LLC.