The Babylonian Exile

He has walled me in, so I can't escape; he has weighed me down with chains.

Even when I cry out, pleading for help, he shuts out my prayer.

He has barred my way with blocks of stone, he has made my paths crooked.

He lies in wait for me like a bear, like a lion in hiding.

He has forced me aside and torn me to pieces, leaving me stunned.

He has bent his bow and used me as a target for his arrows.

He has pierced my vital organs with shafts from his quiver.

I'm a laughingstock to all my people, the butt of their taunts all day long.

He has filled me with bitterness, sated me with wormwood.

He has broken my teeth with gravel and pressed me down into ashes.

I have been so deprived of peace, I have so forgotten what happiness is,

that I think, "My strength is gone, and so is my hope in ADONAI."

Remember my utter misery, the wormwood and the gall.

They are always on my mind; this is why I am so depressed.

But in my mind I keep returning to something, something that gives me hope -

that the grace of ADONAI is not exhausted, that his compassion has not ended.

[On the contrary,] they are new every morning! How great your faithfulness!

"ADONAI is all I have," I say; "therefore I will put my hope in him.

ADONAI is good to those waiting for him, to those who are seeking him out.

It is good to wait patiently for the saving help of ADONAI.

It is good for a man to bear the yoke from his youth.

Let him sit alone in silence when he has laid it on him.

Let him submit absolutely; there may yet be hope.

Let him offer his cheek to the one who strikes it, and receive his fill of insults.

For rejection by Adonai does not last forever.