The Babylonian Exile

He has walled me in so I cannot escape; He has weighed me down with chains.

Even when I cry out and plead for help, He shuts out my prayer.

He has barred my ways with cut stones; He has made my paths crooked.

He is a bear lying in wait, a lion hiding in ambush.

He forced me off my path and tore me to pieces; He left me without help.

He bent His bow and set me as the target for His arrow.

He pierced my kidneys with His arrows.

I am a laughingstock to all my people; they mock me in song all day long.

He has filled me with bitterness; He has intoxicated me with wormwood.

He has ground my teeth with gravel and trampled me in the dust.

My soul has been deprived of peace; I have forgotten what prosperity is.

So I say, “My strength has perished, along with my hope from the LORD.”

Remember my affliction and wandering, the wormwood and the gall.

Surely my soul remembers and is humbled within me.

Yet I call this to mind, and therefore I have hope:

Because of the loving devotion of the LORD we are not consumed, for His mercies never fail.

They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness!

“The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in Him.”

The LORD is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him.

It is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.

It is good for a man to bear the yoke while he is still young.

Let him sit alone in silence, for God has disciplined him.

Let him bury his face in the dust— perhaps there is still hope.

Let him offer his cheek to the one who would strike him; let him be filled with reproach.

For the Lord will not cast us off forever.