test_ulb/25-LAM/03.usfm

\s5
\c 3
\p
\q
\v 1 I am a man who has seen misery under the rod of Yahweh's fury.
\q
\v 2 He drove me away and caused me to walk in darkness rather than light.
\q
\v 3 Surely he turned his hand against me again and again, the whole day long.  
\q
\v 4 He made my flesh and my skin waste away; he broke my bones.

\s5
\q
\v 5 He built up siege works against me, and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship.
\q
\v 6 He made me live in dark places, like those who died long ago.
\q
\v 7 He built a wall around me and I cannot escape. He made my chains heavy
\q
\v 8 and though I call out and cry for help, he shut out my prayer.

\s5
\q
\v 9 He blocked my path with a wall of hewn stone; he made my paths crooked.
\q
\v 10 He is like a bear waiting to ambush me, a lion in hiding;
\q
\v 11 he turned aside my paths, he has made be desolate.

\s5
\q
\v 12 He bent his bow and set me as a target for his arrow.
\q
\v 13 He pieced my kidneys with the arrows of his quiver.
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\v 14 I became a laughingstock to all my people, the object of their taunting all day long. 
\q
\v 15 He filled me with bitterness and forced me to drink wormwood.

\s5
\q
\v 16 He crushed my teeth with gravel; he has pushed me down into the dust. 
\q
\v 17 My soul is deprived of peace; I have forgotten what happiness is. 
\q
\v 18 So I say, "My endurance has perished and so has my hope in Yahweh."
\b

\s5
\q
\v 19 Remember my affliction and my wanderings, the wormwood and bitterness.
\q
\v 20 I continually remember it and I am bowed down within me.
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\v 21 But I call this to mind and therefore I have hope:

\s5
\q
\v 22 The steadfast love of Yahweh never ceases and his compassions never end,
\q
\v 23 they are new every morning; your faithfulness is great.
\q
\v 24 "Yahweh is my inheritance," I said, therefore I will hope in him.

\s5
\q
\v 25 Yahweh is good to those who waits for him, to the one who seeks him.
\q
\v 26 It is good to wait silently for the salvation of Yahweh.
\q
\v 27 It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.
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\v 28 Let him sit alone in silence, when it is laid upon him.
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\v 29 Let him put his mouth in the dust—there may yet be hope.

\s5
\q
\v 30 Let him give his cheek to the one who strikes him, and let him be filled full with disgrace.
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\v 31 For the Lord will not reject us forever,
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\v 32 but though he causes grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love.
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\v 33 For he does not afflict from his heart or torment the children of mankind.

\s5
\q
\v 34 To crush underfoot all the prisoners of the earth,
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\v 35 to deny a man justice in the presence of the Most High,
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\v 36 to deny justice to a person—the Lord would not approve such things!

\s5
\q
\v 37 Who has spoken and it came to pass, unless the Lord decreed it?
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\v 38 Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that both calamities and the good come? 
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\v 39 How can any person alive complain? How can a person complain about the punishment for his sins?
\b

\s5
\q
\v 40 Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to Yahweh.
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\v 41 Let us lift up our hearts and our hands to God in the heavens:
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\v 42 "We have transgressed and rebelled, and you have not forgiven.
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\v 43 You have covered yourself with anger and pursued us, you have killed and you have not spared.  

\s5
\q
\v 44 You have covered yourself with a cloud so that no prayer can pass through.
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\v 45 You have made us like filthy scum and refuse among the nations.
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\v 46 All our enemies curse us,
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\v 47 panic and pitfall have come upon us, ruin and destruction.

\s5
\q
\v 48 My eyes flow with streams of tears because of my people are destroyed.
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\v 49 My eyes will shed tears without ceasing; without relief, 
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\v 50 until he will look down and Yahweh will see from heaven. 

\s5
\q
\v 51 My eye brings severe pain to my life because of all the daughters of my city.

\q
\v 52 My enemies have relentlessly hunted me like a bird, without cause.
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\v 53 They have destroyed my life in a well and have placed a stone over me.
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\v 54 Waters flowed over my head; I said, "I have been cut off!"
\b

\s5
\q
\v 55 I called on your name, Yahweh, out of the lowest pit.
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\v 56 You heard my voice when I said, "Do not hide your ear from my call for relief, from my cry for help."
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\v 57 You approached me on the day that I called on you; you told me, "Do not fear!"

\s5
\q
\v 58 Lord, you defended me when I was on trial for my life; you have saved my life!
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\v 59 Yahweh, you have seen their oppression of me. Judge my case justly.
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\v 60 You have seen all their acts of vengeance, all their plans against me.
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\v 61 You have heard their scorn, Yahweh, and all their plans regarding me.

\s5
\q
\v 62 You have heard the lips of those who rose up against me; you have heard their deep thoughts that are against me all day long.
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\v 63 Whether in their sitting or their rising up, look, Yahweh! I am the object of their mocking song.

\s5
\q
\v 64 Pay back to them, Yahweh, as much harm as what their hands have done.
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\v 65 Set fear in their hearts; set your curse on them.
\q
\v 66 Pursue them in your anger and destroy them everywhere under the heavens, Yahweh!