⁴They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way; they found no city to dwell in.

⁵Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them.

¹⁰Such as sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, being bound in affliction and iron;

¹⁷Fools because of their transgression, and because of their iniquities, are afflicted.

¹⁸Their soul abhorreth all manner of meat; and they draw near unto the gates of death.

¹⁹Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble, and he saveth them out of their distresses.

²²For I am poor and needy, and my heart is wounded within me.

²³I am gone like the shadow when it declineth: I am tossed up and down as the locust.

²⁴My knees are weak through fasting; and my flesh faileth of fatness.

³The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me: I found trouble and sorrow.

⁷Our bones are scattered at the grave’s mouth, as when one cutteth and cleaveth wood upon the earth.

³For the enemy hath persecuted my soul; he hath smitten my life down to the ground; he hath made me to dwell in darkness, as those that have been long dead.

⁴Therefore is my spirit overwhelmed within me; my heart within me is desolate.

¹¹My son, despise not the chastening of the LORD; neither be weary of his correction:

²⁵Heaviness in the heart of man maketh it stoop: but a good word maketh it glad.

¹²Hope deferred maketh the heart sick: but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life.

¹⁰The heart knoweth his own bitterness; and a stranger doth not intermeddle with his joy.

¹³Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful; and the end of that mirth is heaviness.

¹³A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance: but by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken.

¹⁵All the days of the afflicted are evil: but he that is of a merry heart hath a continual feast.

³The fining pot is for silver, and the furnace for gold: but the LORD trieth the hearts.

²²A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones.

¹⁴The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity; but a wounded spirit who can bear?

²²For what hath man of all his labour, and of the vexation of his heart, wherein he hath laboured under the sun?

²It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to go to the house of feasting: for that is the end of all men; and the living will lay it to his heart.

³Sorrow is better than laughter: for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better.

⁴The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.

⁶From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.

¹Behold, the LORD maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof.

²And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest; as with the servant, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower; as with the taker of usury, so with the giver of usury to him.

³The land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled: for the LORD hath spoken this word.

¹⁶LORD, in trouble have they visited thee, they poured out a prayer when thy chastening was upon them.

¹⁷Like as a woman with child, that draweth near the time of her delivery, is in pain, and crieth out in her pangs; so have we been in thy sight, O LORD.

¹⁰Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.

⁷Jerusalem remembered in the days of her affliction and of her miseries all her pleasant things that she had in the days of old, when her people fell into the hand of the enemy, and none did help her: the adversaries saw her, and did mock at her sabbaths.

¹²Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the LORD hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger.

¹I AM the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.

²He hath led me, and brought me into darkness, but not into light.

³Surely against me is he turned; he turneth his hand against me all the day.

⁹And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The LORD is my God.