Old/New Testament
3 I am the man who has seen affliction in the rod of His indignation.
2 He has led me, and brought me into darkness, but not to light.
3 Surely, He has turned against me; His Hand overturns me all day long.
4 He has caused my flesh and my skin to grow old. He has broken my bones.
5 He has built against me and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship.
6 He has set me in dark places, as those who are dead forever.
7 He has put a hedge around me, so that I cannot get out. He has made my chains heavy.
8 Also, when I cry and shout, He shuts out my prayer.
9 He has blocked my way with hewn stone, turned away my paths.
10 He was, to me, like a bear lying in wait, as a lion in secret places.
11 He has blocked my way and torn me in pieces. He has made me desolate.
12 He has bent His bow and made me a mark for the arrow.
13 He caused the arrows of His quiver to enter into my core.
14 I was a laughingstock to all my people, their song all day long.
15 He has filled me with bitterness, made me drunk with wormwood.
16 He has also broken my teeth with gravel and covered me with ashes.
17 Thus, my soul was far away from peace. I forgot what is good.
18 And I said, “My strength and my hope have perished from the LORD.”
19 Remember my affliction and my mourning, the wormwood and the bitterness.
20 My soul has remembered them and is humbled in me.
21 I consider this in my heart; therefore, I have hope.
22 It is because of the LORD’s mercies that we are not consumed. His compassions do not fail.
23 They are renewed every morning. Great is Your faithfulness!
24 “The LORD is my portion;” says my soul, “therefore, I will hope in Him!”
25 The LORD is good to those who trust in Him, to the soul that seeks Him.
26 It is good to wait, watchfully yet silently, for the salvation of the LORD.
27 It is good for a man that he bears the yoke in his youth.
28 He sits alone and keeps silent because he has borne it upon him.
29 Let him put his mouth in the dust. Perhaps there may be hope.
30 He gives his cheek to him who strikes him. He is fully filled with reproach.
31 For the LORD will not forsake forever.
32 But though He sends affliction, He will still have compassion, according to the multitude of His mercies.
33 For He does not afflict willingly or grieve the children of men.
34 To stamp under His feet all the prisoners of the Earth,
35 to divert the rights of a man before the Face of the Most High,
36 to subvert a man in his cause, the LORD does not approve.
37 Who is he, then, who speaks and it happens, if the LORD has not Commanded it?
38 Does not both misery and prosperity proceed out of the Mouth of the Most High?
39 Why, then, does a man, living and mighty, complain about the penalty for his sins?
40 Let us search and test our ways and turn back to the LORD.
41 Let us lift up our hearts with our hands to God in the heavens.
42 We have sinned and have rebelled. You have not spared.
43 You have covered us with wrath, and persecuted us. You have killed, not spared.
44 You have covered Yourself with a cloud, so that prayer would not pass through.
45 You have made us offscouring and refuse in the midst of the people.
46 All our enemies have opened their mouths against us.
47 Fear and a snare have come upon us, desolation and destruction.
48 My eyes run down with rivers of water for the destruction of the Daughter of my people.
49 My eyes run down without pause, and will not cease
50 until the LORD looks down and beholds from Heaven.
51 My eyes break my heart, because of all the daughters of my city.
52 My enemies hunted me like a bird, without cause.
53 They have shut up my life in the dungeon, and cast a stone upon me.
54 Waters flowed over my head. I thought, “I am destroyed.”
55 I called upon Your Name, O LORD, out of the low dungeon.
56 You have heard my voice. Do not hide Your Ear from my sigh, from my cry.
57 You drew near on the day that I called upon You. You said: “Do not fear.”
58 O LORD, You have maintained the cause of my soul, have redeemed my life.
59 O LORD, You have seen my wrong. Judge my cause.
60 You have seen all their vengeance, all their devices against me:
61 You have heard their reproach, O LORD, and all their imaginations against me,
62 the lips of those who rose against me, and their continual whispering against me.
63 Behold their sitting down and their rising up. I am their song.
64 Give them recompense, O LORD, according to the work of their hands.
65 Give them sorrow of heart. Your curse be upon them!
66 Persecute with wrath and destroy them from under the heavens, O LORD.
4 How dim the gold has become? The most fine gold has changed. The stones of the Sanctuary are scattered in the corner of every street.
2 The noble men of Zion, comparable to fine gold, how they are regarded as earthen pitchers, the work of the potter’s hands!
3 Even the dragons present their breasts to nurse their young; but the daughter of my people has become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness.
4 The tongue of the infant child clings to the roof of his mouth for thirst. The young children ask for bread, but no one breaks it for them.
5 Those who fed on delicacies perish in the streets. Those who were brought up in scarlet embrace the dung.
6 For the iniquity of the daughter of my people has become greater than the sin of Sodom, which was destroyed in a moment with no hand raised.
7 Her Nazirites were purer than the snow, whiter than milk. They were more ruddy in body than the red precious stones. They were polished sapphire.
8 Now, their visage is blacker than coal. They are unrecognizable in the streets. Their skin clings to their bones. It is withered, like a stick.
9 Those who are killed with the sword are better than those who are killed with hunger. For they fade away, stricken through by the fruits of the field.
10 The hands of the pitiful women have boiled their own children, which were their food in the destruction of the daughter of my people.
11 The LORD has accomplished His indignation. He has poured out His fierce wrath. He has kindled a fire in Zion, which has devoured its foundations.
12 The kings of the Earth, and all the inhabitants of the world, would not have believed that the adversary and the enemy could have entered into the gates of Jerusalem,
13 because of the sins of her prophets and the iniquities of her priests, who have shed the blood of the just in her midst.
14 They have wandered like blind men in the streets. And they were polluted with blood, so that they would not touch their garments.
15 They cried to them, “Depart, you polluted! Depart! Depart! Do not touch!” Therefore, they fled away and wandered. They have said among the heathen, “They shall no longer dwell there.”
16 The anger of the LORD has scattered them. He will no longer regard them. They did not respect the face of the Priest, nor have compassion on the elders.
17 While we waited in vain for help, our eyes failed. For in our waiting we looked for a nation that could not save us.
18 They hunt our steps, so that we cannot walk in our streets. Our end is near. Our days are fulfilled, for our end has come.
19 Our persecutors are swifter than the eagles of the sky. They pursued us upon the mountains and laid in wait for us in the wilderness.
20 The breath of our nostrils, the Anointed of the LORD, was taken in their nets, of whom we said, “Under his shadow we shall be preserved alive among the heathen.”
21 Rejoice and be glad, O daughter Edom, who dwells in the land of Uz! The cup shall also pass through to you. You shall be drunk and vomit.
22 Your punishment is accomplished, O daughter Zion! He will no longer carry you away into captivity. He will visit your iniquity, O daughter Edom! He will discover your sins!
5 Remember, O LORD, what has come upon us. Consider, and behold our reproach.
2 Our inheritance has turned to strangers, our houses to the aliens.
3 We are orphans, without fathers. Our mothers are like widows.
4 We pay money for our drinking water. Our wood is sold to us.
5 Our necks are under persecution. We are weary and have no rest.
6 We have given our hands to the Egyptians, and to Assyria, to be satisfied with bread.
7 Our fathers have sinned, and are no more, but we have borne their iniquities.
8 Servants have ruled over us. No one would deliver us out of their hands.
9 We get our bread at the risk of our lives, because of the sword of the wilderness.
10 Our skin is black, like an oven, because of the terrible famine.
11 They defile the women in Zion, and the maids in the cities of Judah.
12 The princes were hung up by their hands. The faces of the elders were not respected.
13 They took the young men for the grindstone, and the children fell under the loads of wood.
14 The elders are gone from the gate, and the young men from their songs.
15 The joy of our heart has gone. Our dance has turned into mourning.
16 The crown of our head has fallen. Woe, now, to us! For we have sinned!
17 Therefore, our heart is heavy for these things. Our eyes are dim,
18 because of the mountain of Zion, which is desolate. The foxes run upon it.
19 But You, O LORD, remain forever! Your throne is from generation to generation!
20 Why do You forget us forever, forsake us for such a long time?
21 Turn us to You, O LORD, and we shall be turned! Renew our days, as of old!
22 But You have utterly rejected us. You are exceedingly angry with us.
19 Seeing therefore, brothers, that by the blood of Jesus we may be bold to enter into the Holy Place,
20 By the new and living way through the veil, which He has prepared for us (that is, His flesh).
21 And seeing we have a High Priest over the house of God,
22 let us draw near with a true heart, in assurance of faith; our hearts being sprinkled clean from an evil conscience
23 and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us keep the profession of our hope without wavering. For He Who promised is faithful.
24 And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and to good works,
25 not forsaking the fellowship that we have among ourselves (as is the manner of some). But let us exhort one another, and so much more so because you see that the Day draws near.
26 For if we sin willingly after we have received and acknowledged the Truth, sacrifice for sins no longer remains;
27 but rather a fearful expectation of judgment and violent fire, which shall devour the adversaries.
28 Anyone who ignores Moses’ Law dies without mercy upon two or three witnesses.
29 Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, shall he be worthy who treads the Son of God under foot, and counts the blood of the Testament (with which he was sanctified) as an unholy thing, insulting the Spirit of Grace?
30 For we know Him Who has said, “Vengeance belongs to Me. I will repay,” says the Lord. And again, “The Lord shall judge His people.”
31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
32 Now call to remembrance the days that are passed in which - after you had received light - you endured a great fight in afflictions;
33 partly while you were made a spectacle by both reproaches and afflictions and partly while you became companions of those who were so tossed to and fro.
34 For you sorrowed with me for my bonds; and also joyfully suffered the plundering of your goods, knowing in yourselves that you have a better and an enduring substance in Heaven.
35 Therefore, do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward.
36 For you need patience, so that after you have done the will of God you might receive the promise.
37 For yet a very little while and He Who shall come, will come, and will not wait.
38 For “The just shall live by faith. But if anyone withdraws himself, My soul shall have no pleasure in him.”
39 However, we are not those who withdraw into destruction, but those who follow faith to the preservation of the soul.
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