Old/New Testament
3 I am the strong man who has seen affliction
by the rod of His wrath.
2 He has driven me and made me walk
in darkness and not light.
3 Surely, He has turned His hand against me
again and again all day long.
4 He made my flesh and my skin
waste away, broken my bones.
5 He has besieged me and surrounded me
with bitterness and hardship.
6 He made me dwell in dark places
like those long dead.
7 He has walled me in so I cannot get out.
He made my chain heavy.
8 Even when I cry out and call for help,
He shuts out my prayer.
9 He walled in my ways with hewn stone.
He twisted my paths.
10 He is a lurking bear to me,
a lion in hiding.
11 He turned aside my paths and tore me to pieces.
He has made me desolate.
12 He bent His bow and made me
the target for His arrow.
13 He shot into my kidneys
arrows from His quiver.
14 I have become a laughing stock
to all my people,
their song all day long.
15 He has filled me with bitterness
and made me drink wormwood.
16 He broke my teeth with gravel.
He made me wallow in ashes.
17 My soul has been deprived of shalom,
I have forgotten goodness.
18 So I said, “My endurance has perished,
and my hope from Adonai.”
19 Remember my affliction
my homelessness, bitterness and gall.
20 Whenever I remember,
my soul is downcast within me.
Our Hope—His Faithfulness
21 This I recall to my heart—
therefore I have hope:
22 Because of the mercies of Adonai
we will not be consumed,
for His compassions never fail.
23 They are new every morning!
Great is Your faithfulness.
24 “Adonai is my portion,” says my soul,
“therefore I will hope in Him.”
25 Adonai is good to those who wait for Him,
to the soul that seeks Him.
26 It is good to wait quietly
for the salvation of Adonai.
27 It is good for a man
to bear the yoke in his youth.
28 Let him sit alone and be silent,
since He has laid it upon him.
29 Let him put his mouth in the dust—
there may yet be hope.
Intercession for Justice
30 Let him offer his cheek
to the one who strikes him.[a]
Let him have his fill of disgrace.
31 For the Lord will not reject forever.
32 For though He has caused grief,
yet He will have compassion
according to His abundant mercies.
33 For He does not afflict from His heart
or grieve the sons of men.
34 To crush under His foot
all the prisoners of the land,
35 to deprive a person of justice
before the face of Elyon,
36 to defraud a person in his lawsuit—
would the Lord not see?
37 Who speaks and it comes to pass
unless the Lord has decreed it?
38 Is it not from the mouth of Elyon
that both calamities and good things proceed?
39 Why should any living person complain
when punished for his sins?
40 Let us examine and test our ways,
and let us return to Adonai.
41 Let us lift up our heart and hands
to God in heaven.
42 We have transgressed and rebelled—
You have not pardoned.
43 You covered Yourself with anger and pursued us.
You have slain without pity.
44 You shrouded Yourself with a cloud
so that no prayer can get through.
45 You have made us scum and refuse
in the midst of the peoples.
46 All our enemies opened their mouth
wide against us.
47 Panic and pitfall have befallen us,
devastation and destruction.
48 Streams of tears run down my eyes
because of the destruction of the daughter of my people.
49 My eye flows unceasingly,
without stopping,
50 until Adonai looks down
from heaven and sees.
51 My eye torments my soul
because of all the daughters of my city.
52 For no reason, my enemies
hunted me down like a bird.
53 They cut off my life in the Pit,
and cast stones upon me.
54 Waters flowed over my head.
I said, “I have been cut off!”
55 I called on Your Name, Adonai,
from the depths of the Pit.
56 You heard my voice,
“Do not close Your ears to my cry for relief.”
57 You drew near on the day I called to You.
You said, “Do not fear!”
58 Lord, You pled my soul’s case,
You redeemed my life.[b]
59 Adonai, You saw the wrong done to me;
judge my cause!
60 You have seen all their vengefulness,
all their schemes against me.
61 You heard their taunt, Adonai,
all their plots against me.
62 The lips of my assailants and their whispering
are against me all day long.
63 Look at them, sitting or standing,
they mock me in their song.
64 Pay them back what they deserve, Adonai,
according to the work of their hands.
65 Give them a distraught heart.
May Your curse be on them.
66 Pursue them in anger and destroy them
from under the heavens of Adonai.
Devastation of Jerusalem
4 How dulled is the gold,
how tarnished the fine gold.
The sacred gems are poured out
at the corner of every street.
2 The precious sons of Zion,
once worth their weight in gold—
alas! now they are treated like clay jars,
the work of a potter’s hands!
3 Even jackals offer their breast
to nurse their young.
The daughter of my people has become cruel,
like ostriches in the desert.
4 The nursing infant’s tongue clings
to the roof of his mouth for thirst.
Little children ask for bread,
but no one gives it t0 them.
5 Those who used to eat delicacies
are desolate in the streets.
Those who were brought up in purple
embrace trash heaps.
6 For the iniquities of the daughter of my people
is greater than the sin of Sodom,
which was overthrown in a moment,[c]
yet no hands turned to her.
7 Purer than snow were her princes,[d]
whiter than milk,
their bodies more ruddy than rubies,
their appearance like sapphire.
8 Their form has become darker than soot!
They are not recognized in the street.
Their skin has shriveled on their bones,
withered like a tree.
9 Better are those slain by the sword
than those struck down by famine—
they waste away, racked with pain,
for lack of fruits of the field.
10 The hands of compassionate women
boiled their own children.
They became their food
when the daughter of my people were destroyed.
11 Adonai has vented His fury.
He has poured out His burning anger.
Yes, He kindled a fire in Zion
that devoured her foundations.
12 The kings of the earth did not believe,
nor did the inhabitations of the world,
that enemy and foe would enter
the gates of Jerusalem.
13 Yet it happened because of the sins of her prophets,
and the iniquities of her kohanim,
who shed in her midst
the blood of the tzadikim[e].
14 They wander in the streets,
like blind men.
They are so defiled with blood,
no one can touch their garments.
15 “Turn away! Unclean!”
They cry to them.
“Turn away, turn away! Don’t touch!”
So they fled and wandered about.
People among the nations say,
“They can stay here no longer.”
16 Adonai Himself has scattered them.
He will look on them no more.
They did not respect the kohanim.
They did not favor the elders.
17 Even now our eyes waste away
looking in vain for our help.
From our towers we watched
for a nation that could not save us.
18 They hunted our steps,
so we could not walk in our streets.
Our end was near.
Our days were numbered, for our end had come.
19 Our pursuers were swifter
than eagles of the sky;
they pursued us over the mountains;
they ambushed us in the wilderness.
20 The anointed of Adonai,
the breath of our nostrils,
was captured in their pits,
of whom we have said,
“Under His shadow we will live among the nations.”
21 Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom,
you who dwell in the land of Uz.
To you also will the cup be passed.
You will be drunk and stripped naked.
22 O daughter of Zion,
your punishment is accomplished;
He will exile you no longer.
But, O daughter of Edom,
He will punish your iniquity
and uncover your sins.
Remember Us!
5 Remember, Adonai,
what has come upon us.
Look, and see our disgrace!
2 Our inheritance is turned over to strangers,
our homes to foreigners.
3 We have become orphans, fatherless,
our mothers are like widows.
4 We pay silver for the water we drink;
our wood comes at a price.
5 Our pursuers are at our necks.
We are weary and have no rest.
6 We have held out our hand to Egypt
and Assyria to be satisfied with bread.
7 Our fathers sinned and are no more,
but we bear their punishment.
8 Slaves rule over us.
There is no one to deliver us from their hand.
9 We get our bread at the peril of our lives
because of the sword in the desert.
10 Our skin is hot as an oven
due to fever from famine.
11 The women in Zion have been ravished,
maidens in the towns of Judah.
12 Princes are hung up by their hands;
elders are dishonored.
13 Young men toil at the millstone.
Boys stagger under loads of wood.
14 Elders are gone from the gate,
young men from their music.
15 Joy has ceased in our hearts.
Our dance has turned into mourning.
16 The crown has fallen from our head.
Oy to us, for we have sinned!
17 Because of this our heart is faint,
for these things our eyes are dim,
18 for Mount Zion, which lies desolate,
as jackals prowl over it.
Hashiveinu (Restore Us)
19 You, Adonai, are enthroned forever;
Your throne endures from generation to generation.[f]
20 Why do You always forget us
and forsake us for so long?
21 Bring us back to You, Adonai,
and we will return.
Renew our days as of old—
22 unless You have utterly rejected us
and are exceedingly angry with us.
Let Us Pray Boldly in God’s Presence
19 Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have boldness to enter into the Holies by the blood of Yeshua. 20 He inaugurated a new and living way for us through the curtain—that is, His flesh. 21 We also have a Kohen Gadol over God’s household.
22 So let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and body washed with pure water.
23 Let us hold fast the unwavering confession of hope, for He who promised is faithful.
24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good deeds.
25 And do not neglect our own meetings, as is the habit of some, but encourage one another—and all the more so as you see the Day[a] approaching.
26 For if we keep on sinning willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, 27 but only a terrifying expectation of judgment and a fury of fire about to devour the enemies of God. [b] 28 Anyone who rejected the Torah of Moses dies without compassion on the word of two or three witnesses. [c] 29 How much more severe do you think the punishment will be for the one who has trampled Ben-Elohim underfoot, and has regarded as unholy the blood of the covenant by which he was made holy, and has insulted the Spirit of grace? 30 For we know the One who said, “Vengeance is Mine; I will repay,” and again, “Adonai will judge His people.” [d] 31 It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
Suffering Perfects Yeshua’s Followers
32 But remember the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a great struggle with sufferings. 33 Sometimes you were publicly exposed to abuses and afflictions, and other times you became partners with those who were treated this way. 34 For you suffered along with the prisoners and joyfully accepted the plundering of your possessions, knowing that you have for yourselves a better and lasting possession. 35 Therefore, do not lose your boldness, which has great reward. 36 For you need perseverance so that, after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise. 37 For yet
“in a very little while,[e]
the Coming One will come,
and He will not delay.[f]
38 But My righteous one shall live by emunah;
and if he shrinks back,
My soul takes no pleasure in him.”[g]
39 But we are not among the timid ones on the path to destruction, but among the faithful ones on the path to the preservation of the soul.
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.