King James Version KJV
Good News Translation GNT
1 I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.
1
I am one who knows what it is to be punished by God.
2 He hath led me, and brought me into darkness, but not into light.
2
He drove me deeper and deeper into darkness
3 Surely against me is he turned; he turneth his hand against me all the day.
3
And beat me again and again with merciless blows.
4 My flesh and my skin hath he made old; he hath broken my bones.
4
He has left my flesh open and raw, and has broken my bones.
5 He hath builded against me, and compassed me with gall and travail.
5
He has shut me in a prison of misery and anguish.
6 He hath set me in dark places, as they that be dead of old.
6
He has forced me to live in the stagnant darkness of death.
7 He hath hedged me about, that I cannot get out: he hath made my chain heavy.
7
He has bound me in chains; I am a prisoner with no hope of escape.
8 Also when I cry and shout, he shutteth out my prayer.
8
I cry aloud for help, but God refuses to listen;
9 He hath inclosed my ways with hewn stone, he hath made my paths crooked.
9
I stagger as I walk; stone walls block me wherever I turn.
10 He was unto me as a bear lying in wait, and as a lion in secret places.
10
He waited for me like a bear; he pounced on me like a lion.
11 He hath turned aside my ways, and pulled me in pieces: he hath made me desolate.
11
He chased me off the road, tore me to pieces, and left me.
12 He hath bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow.
12
He drew his bow and made me the target for his arrows.
13 He hath caused the arrows of his quiver to enter into my reins.
13
He shot his arrows deep into my body.
14 I was a derision to all my people; and their song all the day.
14
People laugh at me all day long; I am a joke to them all.
15 He hath filled me with bitterness, he hath made me drunken with wormwood.
15
Bitter suffering is all he has given me for food and drink.
16 He hath also broken my teeth with gravel stones, he hath covered me with ashes.
16
He rubbed my face in the ground and broke my teeth on rocks.
17 And thou hast removed my soul far off from peace: I forgat prosperity.
17
I have forgotten what health and peace and happiness are.
18 And I said, My strength and my hope is perished from the LORD:
18
I do not have much longer to live; my hope in the Lord is gone.
19 Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall.
19
The thought of my pain, my homelessness, is bitter poison.
20 My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me.
20
I think of it constantly, and my spirit is depressed.
21 This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope.
21
Yet hope returns when I remember this one thing:
22 It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.
22
The Lord's unfailing love and mercy still continue,
23 They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.
23
Fresh as the morning, as sure as the sunrise.
24 The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him.
24
The Lord is all I have, and so in him I put my hope.
25 The LORD is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him.
25
The Lord is good to everyone who trusts in him,
26 It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD.
26
So it is best for us to wait in patience - to wait for him to save us -
27 It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.
27
And it is best to learn this patience in our youth.
28 He sitteth alone and keepeth silence, because he hath borne it upon him.
28
When we suffer, we should sit alone in silent patience;
29 He putteth his mouth in the dust; if so be there may be hope.
29
We should bow in submission, for there may still be hope.
30 He giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him: he is filled full with reproach.
30
Though beaten and insulted, we should accept it all.
31 For the Lord will not cast off for ever:
31
The Lord is merciful and will not reject us forever.
32 But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies.
32
He may bring us sorrow, but his love for us is sure and strong.
33 For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men.
33
He takes no pleasure in causing us grief or pain.
34 To crush under his feet all the prisoners of the earth,
34
The Lord knows when our spirits are crushed in prison;
35 To turn aside the right of a man before the face of the most High,
35
He knows when we are denied the rights he gave us;
36 To subvert a man in his cause, the Lord approveth not.
36
When justice is perverted in court, he knows.
37 Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth it not?
37
The will of the Lord alone is always carried out.
38 Out of the mouth of the most High proceedeth not evil and good?
38
Good and evil alike take place at his command.
39 Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?
39
Why should we ever complain when we are punished for our sin?
40 Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the LORD.
40
Let us examine our ways and turn back to the Lord.
41 Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens.
41
Let us open our hearts to God in heaven and pray,
42 We have transgressed and have rebelled: thou hast not pardoned.
42
"We have sinned and rebelled, and you, O Lord, have not forgiven us.
43 Thou hast covered with anger, and persecuted us: thou hast slain, thou hast not pitied.
43
"You pursued us and killed us; your mercy was hidden by your anger,
44 Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud, that our prayer should not pass through.
44
By a cloud of fury too thick for our prayers to get through.
45 Thou hast made us as the offscouring and refuse in the midst of the people.
45
You have made us the garbage dump of the world.
46 All our enemies have opened their mouths against us.
46
"We are insulted and mocked by all our enemies.
47 Fear and a snare is come upon us, desolation and destruction.
47
We have been through disaster and ruin; we live in danger and fear.
48 Mine eye runneth down with rivers of water for the destruction of the daughter of my people.
48
My eyes flow with rivers of tears at the destruction of my people.
49 Mine eye trickleth down, and ceaseth not, without any intermission,
49
"My tears will pour out in a ceaseless stream
50 Till the LORD look down, and behold from heaven.
50
Until the Lord looks down from heaven and sees us.
51 Mine eye affecteth mine heart because of all the daughters of my city.
51
My heart is grieved when I see what has happened to the women of the city.
52 Mine enemies chased me sore, like a bird, without cause.
52
"I was trapped like a bird by enemies who had no cause to hate me.
53 They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and cast a stone upon me.
53
They threw me alive into a pit and closed the opening with a stone.
54 Waters flowed over mine head; then I said, I am cut off.
54
Water began to close over me, and I thought death was near.
55 I called upon thy name, O LORD, out of the low dungeon.
55
"From the bottom of the pit, O Lord, I cried out to you,
56 Thou hast heard my voice: hide not thine ear at my breathing, at my cry.
56
And when I begged you to listen to my cry, you heard.
57 Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee: thou saidst, Fear not.
57
You answered me and told me not to be afraid.
58 O Lord, thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul; thou hast redeemed my life.
58
"You came to my rescue, Lord, and saved my life.
59 O LORD, thou hast seen my wrong: judge thou my cause.
59
Judge in my favor; you know the wrongs done against me.
60 Thou hast seen all their vengeance and all their imaginations against me.
60
You know how my enemies hate me and how they plot against me.
61 Thou hast heard their reproach, O LORD, and all their imaginations against me;
61
"You have heard them insult me, O Lord; you know all their plots.
62 The lips of those that rose up against me, and their device against me all the day.
62
All day long they talk about me and make their plans.
63 Behold their sitting down, and their rising up; I am their musick.
63
From morning till night they make fun of me.
64 Render unto them a recompence, O LORD, according to the work of their hands.
64
"Punish them for what they have done, O Lord;
65 Give them sorrow of heart, thy curse unto them.
65
Curse them and fill them with despair!
66 Persecute and destroy them in anger from under the heavens of the LORD.
66
Hunt them down and wipe them off the earth!"
The King James Version is in the public domain.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.