God

as water wears away the stones and torrents wash away the soil, so You destroy a man’s hope.

You forever overpower him, and he passes on; You change his countenance and send him away.

But you even undermine the fear of God and hinder meditation before Him.

Do you listen in on the council of God or limit wisdom to yourself?

Are the consolations of God not enough for you, even words spoken gently to you?

as you turn your spirit against God and pour such words from your mouth?

If God puts no trust in His holy ones, if even the heavens are not pure in His eyes,

For he has stretched out his hand against God and has vaunted himself against the Almighty,

rushing headlong at Him with a thick, studded shield.

God has delivered me to unjust men; He has thrown me to the clutches of the wicked.

I was at ease, but He shattered me; He seized me by the neck and crushed me. He has set me up as His target;

His archers surround me. He pierces my kidneys without mercy and spills my gall on the ground.

He breaks me with wound upon wound; He rushes me like a mighty warrior.

My friends are my scoffers as my eyes pour out tears to God.

Oh, that a man might plead with God as he pleads with his neighbor!

Give me, I pray, the pledge You demand. Who else will be my guarantor?

You have closed their minds to understanding; therefore You will not exalt them.

Surely such is the dwelling of the wicked and the place of one who does not know God.”

then understand that it is God who has wronged me and drawn His net around me.

He has blocked my way so I cannot pass; He has veiled my paths with darkness.

He tears me down on every side until I am gone; He uproots my hope like a tree.

His anger burns against me, and He counts me among His enemies.

Have pity on me, my friends, have pity, for the hand of God has struck me.

Why do you persecute me as God does? Will you never get enough of my flesh?

Even after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God.