All my familiar friends abhor me. They whom I loved have turned against me.
When I remember, I am troubled. Horror takes hold of my flesh.
“How often is it that the lamp of the wicked is put out, that their calamity comes on them, that God distributes sorrows in his anger?
Another dies in bitterness of soul, and never tastes of good.
“Even today my complaint is rebellious. His hand is heavy in spite of my groaning.
Those who remain of him shall be buried in death. His widows shall make no lamentation.
“But now those who are younger than I have me in derision, whose fathers I would have disdained to put with my sheep dogs.
“Now I have become their song. Yes, I am a byword to them.
They abhor me, they stand aloof from me, and don’t hesitate to spit in my face.
They mar my path, They set forward my calamity, without anyone’s help.
Terrors have turned on me. They chase my honor as the wind. My welfare has passed away as a cloud.
“Now my soul is poured out within me. Days of affliction have taken hold on me.
He has cast me into the mire. I have become like dust and ashes.
Didn’t I weep for him who was in trouble? Wasn’t my soul grieved for the needy?
When I looked for good, then evil came; When I waited for light, there came darkness.
My heart is troubled, and doesn’t rest. Days of affliction have come on me.
I go mourning without the sun. I stand up in the assembly, and cry for help.
I am a brother to jackals, and a companion to ostriches.
Therefore my harp has turned to mourning, and my pipe into the voice of those who weep.
My soul is also in great anguish. But you, Yahweh—how long?
I am weary with my groaning. Every night I flood my bed. I drench my couch with my tears.
My eye wastes away because of grief. It grows old because of all my adversaries.
How long, Yahweh? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?
How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart every day? How long shall my enemy triumph over me?
Behold, and answer me, Yahweh, my God. Give light to my eyes, lest I sleep in death;
The cords of death surrounded me. The floods of ungodliness made me afraid.
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me, and from the words of my groaning?
Don’t be far from me, for trouble is near. For there is no one to help.
Turn to me, and have mercy on me, for I am desolate and afflicted.
The troubles of my heart are enlarged. Oh bring me out of my distresses.
Consider my affliction and my travail. Forgive all my sins.
For his anger is but for a moment. His favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may stay for the night, but joy comes in the morning.
You, Yahweh, when you favored me, made my mountain stand strong; but when you hid your face, I was troubled.
Have mercy on me, Yahweh, for I am in distress. My eye, my soul, and my body waste away with grief.
For my life is spent with sorrow, my years with sighing. My strength fails because of my iniquity. My bones are wasted away.
Because of all my adversaries I have become utterly contemptible to my neighbors, A fear to my acquaintances. Those who saw me on the street fled from me.
I am forgotten from their hearts like a dead man. I am like broken pottery.
As for me, I said in my haste, “I am cut off from before your eyes.” Nevertheless you heard the voice of my petitions when I cried to you.
For day and night your hand was heavy on me. My strength was sapped in the heat of summer. Selah.
Yahweh is near to those who have a broken heart, and saves those who have a crushed spirit.
They reward me evil for good, to the bereaving of my soul.
I behaved myself as though it had been my friend or my brother. I bowed down mourning, as one who mourns his mother.
For my iniquities have gone over my head. As a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me.
My wounds are loathsome and corrupt, because of my foolishness.
I am pained and bowed down greatly. I go mourning all day long.
I am faint and severely bruised. I have groaned by reason of the anguish of my heart.
Lord, all my desire is before you. My groaning is not hidden from you.
My heart throbs. My strength fails me. As for the light of my eyes, it has also left me.
But I, as a deaf man, don’t hear. I am as a mute man who doesn’t open his mouth.
Yes, I am as a man who doesn’t hear, in whose mouth are no reproofs.
For I am ready to fall. My pain is continually before me.
For I will declare my iniquity. I will be sorry for my sin.
I was mute with silence. I held my peace, even from good. My sorrow was stirred.
“Yahweh, show me my end, what is the measure of my days. Let me know how frail I am.
“Hear my prayer, Yahweh, and give ear to my cry. Don’t be silent at my tears. For I am a stranger with you, a foreigner, as all my fathers were.
Oh spare me, that I may recover strength, before I go away, and exist no more.”
My tears have been my food day and night, while they continually ask me, “Where is your God?”
These things I remember, and pour out my soul within me, how I used to go with the crowd, and led them to God’s house, with the voice of joy and praise, a multitude keeping a holy day.
Why are you in despair, my soul? Why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God! For I shall still praise him for the saving help of his presence.
My God, my soul is in despair within me. Therefore I remember you from the land of the Jordan, the heights of Hermon, from the hill Mizar.
Deep calls to deep at the noise of your waterfalls. All your waves and your billows have swept over me.
I will ask God, my rock, “Why have you forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?”
As with a sword in my bones, my adversaries reproach me, while they continually ask me, “Where is your God?”
For you are the God of my strength. Why have you rejected me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?
But now you rejected us, and brought us to dishonor, and don’t go out with our armies.
You make us a byword among the nations, a shaking of the head among the peoples.
All day long my dishonor is before me, and shame covers my face,
Though you have crushed us in the haunt of jackals, and covered us with the shadow of death.
Wake up! Why do you sleep, Lord? Arise! Don’t reject us forever.
Why do you hide your face, and forget our affliction and our oppression?
For our soul is bowed down to the dust. Our body clings to the earth.
Attend to me, and answer me. I am restless in my complaint, and moan,
Fearfulness and trembling have come on me. Horror has overwhelmed me.
I said, “Oh that I had wings like a dove! Then I would fly away, and be at rest.
Behold, then I would wander far off. I would lodge in the wilderness.” Selah.
But it was you, a man like me, my companion, and my familiar friend.
Evening, morning, and at noon, I will cry out in distress. He will hear my voice.
You count my wanderings. You put my tears into your bottle. Aren’t they in your book?
God, you have rejected us. You have broken us down. You have been angry. Restore us, again.
You have shown your people hard things. You have made us drink the wine that makes us stagger.
Haven’t you, God, rejected us? You don’t go out with our armies, God.
From the end of the earth, I will call to you, when my heart is overwhelmed. Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.
Save me, God, for the waters have come up to my neck!
I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold. I have come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me.
I am weary with my crying. My throat is dry. My eyes fail, looking for my God.
When I wept and I fasted, that was to my reproach.
When I made sackcloth my clothing, I became a byword to them.
Those who sit in the gate talk about me. I am the song of the drunkards.
Reproach has broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness. I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; for comforters, but I found none.
For they persecute him whom you have wounded. They tell of the sorrow of those whom you have hurt.
For my soul was grieved. I was embittered in my heart.
God, why have you rejected us forever? Why does your anger smolder against the sheep of your pasture?
We see no miraculous signs. There is no longer any prophet, neither is there among us anyone who knows how long.
In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord. My hand was stretched out in the night, and didn’t get tired. My soul refused to be comforted.
I remember God, and I groan. I complain, and my spirit is overwhelmed. Selah.
You hold my eyelids open. I am so troubled that I can’t speak.
I remember my song in the night. I consider in my own heart; my spirit diligently inquires:
“Will the Lord reject us forever? Will he be favorable no more?
Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has he, in anger, withheld his compassion?” Selah.
Fire devoured their young men. Their virgins had no wedding song.












