The Meaning of Suffering

3 I am a man that has seen much trouble. The Lord beat us with a stick. And I saw it happen! ²The Lord led and brought me into darkness, not light. ³The Lord turned his hand against me. He did this again and again, all day. ⁴He wore out my flesh and skin. He broke my bones. ⁵The Lord built up bitterness and trouble against me. He made bitterness and trouble come all around me. ⁶He made me sit in the dark. He made me like some person that has been dead a long time. ⁷The Lord shut me in, so I could not get out. He put heavy chains on me. ⁸Even when I cry out and ask for help, the Lord does not listen to my prayer. ⁹He has blocked up my path with stones. He has made my path crooked. ¹⁰The Lord is like a bear about to attack me. He is like a lion that is in a hiding place. ¹¹The Lord led me off my path. He tore me to pieces. He ruined me. ¹²He made his bow ready. He made me the target for his arrows. ¹³He shot me in the stomach. He shot me with his arrows. ¹⁴I have become a joke to all of my people. All day long they sing songs about me and make fun of me. ¹⁵The Lord gave me this poison (punishment) to drink. He filled me with this bitter drink. ¹⁶The Lord pushed my teeth into rocky ground. He pushed me into the dirt. ¹⁷I thought I would never have peace again. I forgot about good things. ¹⁸I said to myself, “I no longer have any hope that the Lord will help me.” ¹⁹Lord, remember, I am very sad. And I have no home. Remember the bitter poison (punishment) that you gave me. ²⁰I remember well all my troubles. And I am very sad. ²¹But then I think of something else, then I have hope. What I think of is this: ²²The Lord’s love and kindness never ends.* His compassion never ends. ²³Every morning he shows it in new ways! Lord, you are so very true and loyal! ²⁴I say to myself, “The Lord is my God, and I trust him.”* ²⁵The Lord is good to people that wait for him. The Lord is good to people that look for him. ²⁶It is good for a person to wait quietly for the Lord to save him. ²⁷It is good for a person to wear the yoke* of the Lord. It is good for a person to wear that yoke from the time he is young. ²⁸That person should sit alone and be quiet when the Lord puts his yoke on him. ²⁹That person should bow to the Lord with his face to the ground. Maybe there is still hope. ³⁰That person should turn his cheek to the one that hits him. That person should let people insult him. ³¹That person should remember that the Lord does not reject people forever. ³²When the Lord punishes, he also has mercy. He has mercy because of his great love and kindness. ³³The Lord does not want to punish people. He does not like to make people unhappy. ³⁴The Lord does not like these things: He does not like for someone to crush all the prisoners of the earth under his feet. ³⁵He does not like for someone to be unfair to another person. But some people do those bad things right in front of God Most High. ³⁶The Lord does not like for a person to cheat another person. The Lord does not like any of these things. ³⁷Nobody can say something and have it happen, unless the Lord orders it to happen. ³⁸God Most High commands both good and bad things to happen. ³⁹No person alive can complain when the Lord punishes him for his sins. ⁴⁰Let us check and see what we have done. Then let us turn back to the Lord. ⁴¹Let us lift up our hearts and our hands to the God of heaven. ⁴²Let us say to him, “We have sinned and have been stubborn. Because of this, you haven’t forgiven us. ⁴³You wrapped yourself with anger. You chased us. You killed us without mercy! ⁴⁴You wrapped yourself in a cloud. You did that so that no prayer could get through. ⁴⁵You made us like garbage and dirt to the other nations. ⁴⁶All of our enemies speak angrily to us. ⁴⁷We have been frightened. We have fallen into a pit. We have been hurt bad! We have been broken!” ⁴⁸My eyes flow with streams of tears! I cry because of the destruction of my people! ⁴⁹My eyes will flow without stopping! I will keep on crying! ⁵⁰I will continue to cry until you look down and see us, Lord! I will continue to cry until you see us from heaven! ⁵¹My eyes make me sad, when I see what happened to the girls in my city. ⁵²Those people were my enemies for no good reason, but they hunted me like a bird. ⁵³They threw me into a pit while I was still alive. They threw stones at me. ⁵⁴Water came up over my head. I said to myself, “I am finished.” ⁵⁵Lord, I called your name. I called out your name from the bottom of the pit. ⁵⁶You heard my voice. You didn’t close your ears. You didn’t refuse to rescue me. ⁵⁷You came to me on the day that I called out to you. You said to me, “Don’t be afraid.” ⁵⁸Lord, you defended me. You bought back my life for me. ⁵⁹Lord, you have seen my trouble. Now judge my case for me. ⁶⁰You have seen how my enemies have hurt me. You have seen all the evil plans that they made against me. ⁶¹You heard them insult me, Lord. You have heard all the evil plans that they made against me. ⁶²The words and the thoughts of my enemies are against me all the time—⁶³when they sit down and when they stand up. Lord, look how they make fun of me! ⁶⁴Give them back what they deserve, Lord! Pay them back for what they have done! ⁶⁵Give them stubbornness of heart! Then put your curse on them! ⁶⁶Chase them in anger! Destroy them! Destroy them from under the sky, Lord!

never ends The Hebrew reads, “we don’t come to an end.” The Lord … him. Or, “The Lord is my portion and I trust him. yoke A pole that was put on the shoulders of men or animals to help them carry or pull things. This often showed that a person was a slave.

The Horrors of the Attack on Jerusalem

4 See how the gold has grown dark. See how the good gold is changed. There are jewels* scattered all around. They are scattered at every street corner. ²The people of Zion* were worth a lot. They were worth their weight in gold. But now the enemy treats those people like old clay jars. The enemy treats them like clay jars made by a potter. ³Even a wild dog feeds her babies. Even the jackal lets her pups suck at her breast. But the daughter of my people* is cruel. She is like the ostrich that lives in the desert. ⁴The little baby’s tongue sticks to the roof of its mouth from thirst. Young children ask for bread. But no one gives any bread to them. ⁵The people that at one time ate rich food now are dying in the streets. The people that grew up wearing nice red clothes now pick through garbage piles. ⁶The sin of the daughter of my people* was very great. Their sin was greater than the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah.* Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed suddenly. No human hand caused that destruction.* ⁷Some of the men of Judah were dedicated to God in a special way. Those men were very pure. They were whiter than snow. They were whiter than milk. Their bodies were red like coral. Their beards were sapphire stones. ⁸But now their faces are blacker than soot. No one even recognizes them in the streets. Their skin is wrinkled over their bones. Their skin is like wood. ⁹The people that were killed by the sword had it better than the people that were killed by famine. The starving people were very sad. They were hurt. They died because they got no food from the field. ¹⁰At that time, even very nice women cooked their own children. Those children became food for their mothers. This happened when my people were destroyed. ¹¹The Lord used all of his anger. He poured out all his anger. He made a fire in Zion.* That fire burned down Zion to its foundations. ¹²The kings of the earth could not believe what had happened. The people of the world could not believe what had happened. They could not believe that enemies would be able to come through the city gates of Jerusalem. ¹³This happened because the prophets of Jerusalem sinned. This happened because the priests of Jerusalem did evil things. Those people were shedding blood in the city of Jerusalem. They were shedding the blood of good people. ¹⁴The prophets and priests walked around like blind men in the streets. They had become dirty with blood. No one could even touch their clothes because they were dirty. ¹⁵People shouted, “Go away! Go away! Don’t touch us.” Those people wandered around and had no home. People in other nations said, “We don’t want them to live with us.” ¹⁶The Lord himself destroyed those people. He didn’t look after them anymore. He didn’t respect the priests. He was not friendly to the elders of Judah. ¹⁷We have worn out our eyes looking for help. But no help comes. We kept on looking for a nation to save us. We kept watch from our watchtower, but no nation came to us. ¹⁸Our enemies hunted us all the time. We could not even go out into the streets. Our end came near. Our time was up. Our end came! ¹⁹The men that chased us were faster than eagles in the sky. Those men chased us into the mountains. They hid in the desert to catch us. ²⁰The king was very important to us. He was like the breath we breathe. But the king was trapped by them. The king was chosen by the Lord himself. We had said about the king, “We will live in his shadow. He protects us from the nations.” ²¹Be happy, people of Edom. Be happy, you people that live in the land of Uz. But remember, the cup of the Lord’s anger will come around to you, too. When you drink from that cup (punishment), you will get drunk and will make yourselves naked. ²²Your punishment is complete, Zion.* You will not go into captivity again. But the Lord will punish your sins, people of Edom. He will uncover your sins.

jewels The meaning of the Hebrew word here is uncertain. Zion The southeast part of the mountain Jerusalem is built on. Sometimes it means the people of God living in Jerusalem. daughter of my people This is a figurative way of referring here to the women of Jerusalem. daughter of my people These words refer to all the people of Jerusalem. Sodom and Gomorrah Two cities that God destroyed because the people were so evil. No human hand caused that destruction The Hebrew of this line is unclear.

A Prayer to the Lord

5 Remember, Lord, what happened to us. Look and see our disgrace. ²Our land has been turned over to strangers. Our houses have been given to foreigners. ³We have become orphans. We have no father. Our mothers have become like widows. ⁴We have to buy the water that we drink. We have to pay for the wood that we use. ⁵We are forced to wear a yoke* on our necks. We get tired, and we have no rest. ⁶We made an agreement with Egypt. We also made an agreement with Assyria* to get enough bread. ⁷Our ancestors sinned against you. Now they are dead. Now we are suffering because of their sins. ⁸Slaves have become our rulers. No person can save us from them. ⁹We risk our lives to get food. There are men in the desert with swords. ¹⁰Our skin is hot like an oven. We have a high fever because of our hunger. ¹¹The enemy raped the women of Zion.* They raped the women in the cities of Judah. ¹²The enemy hanged our princes. They didn’t honor our elders. ¹³The enemy made our young men grind grain at the mill. Our young men stumbled under loads of wood. ¹⁴The elders no longer sit at the gates of the city. The young men no longer make music. ¹⁵We have no more joy in our hearts. Our dancing was changed into crying for the dead. ¹⁶The crown has fallen from our head. Things have gone bad for us because we sinned. ¹⁷Because of these things, our hearts have become sick, our eyes cannot see clearly. ¹⁸Mount Zion is a wasteland. Foxes run around on Mount Zion. ¹⁹But you rule forever, Lord. Your kingly chair lasts forever and ever. ²⁰You seem to have forgotten us forever, Lord. You seem to have left us alone for such a long time. ²¹Bring us back to you, Lord. We will gladly come back to you. Make our lives like they were before. 22 You were very angry at us. Have you completely rejected us?

yoke A pole that was put on the shoulders of men or animals to help them carry or pull things. This often showed that a person was a slave. Assyria This was a powerful nation northeast of Israel. Zion The southeast part of the mountain Jerusalem is built on. Sometimes it means the people of God living in Jerusalem.