1  ^tAs a deer pants for flowing streams,

so pants my soul for you, O God.

2  ^uMy soul thirsts for God,

for ^vthe living God.

When shall I come and ^wappear before God?²

3  ^xMy tears have been my food

day and night,

^ywhile they say to me all the day long,

“Where is your God?”

4  These things I remember,

as I ^zpour out my soul:

^ahow I would go ^bwith the throng

and lead them in procession to the house of God

with glad shouts and songs of praise,

^ca multitude keeping festival.

5  ^dWhy are you cast down, O my soul,

and why are you ^ein turmoil within me?

^fHope in God; for I shall again praise him,

my salvation³ 6 and my God.

My soul is cast down within me;

therefore I ^gremember you

^hfrom the land of Jordan and of ⁱHermon,

from Mount Mizar.

7  Deep calls to deep

at the roar of your waterfalls;

^jall your breakers and your ^kwaves

have gone over me.

8  By day the Lord ^lcommands his steadfast love,

and at ^mnight his song is with me,

a prayer to the God of my life.

9  I say to God, ⁿmy rock:

“Why have you forgotten me?

^oWhy do I go mourning

because of the oppression of the enemy?”

10  As with a deadly wound in my bones,

my adversaries taunt me,

^pwhile they say to me all the day long,

“Where is your God?”

11  ^qWhy are you cast down, O my soul,

and why are you in turmoil within me?

Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,

my salvation and my God.

1  “But now they ⁱlaugh at me,

men who are ^jyounger than I,

whose fathers I would have disdained

to set with the dogs of my flock.

2  What could I gain from the strength of their hands,

^kmen whose ^lvigor is gone?

3  Through want and hard hunger

they ^mgnaw ⁿthe dry ground by night in ^owaste and desolation;

4  they pick saltwort and the leaves of bushes,

and the roots of the broom tree for their food.¹

5  ^pThey are driven out from human company;

they shout after them as after a thief.

6  In the gullies of the torrents they must dwell,

in holes of the earth and of ^qthe rocks.

7  Among the bushes they ^rbray;

under ^sthe nettles they huddle together.

8  A senseless, a nameless brood,

they have been whipped out of the land.

9  “And now I have become their ^tsong;

I am ^ua byword to them.

10  They ^vabhor me; they keep aloof from me;

they do not hesitate to ^wspit at the sight of me.

11  Because God has loosed my cord and humbled me,

they have cast off restraint² in my presence.

12  On my ^xright hand the rabble rise;

they push away my feet;

they ^ycast up against me their ways of destruction.

13  They break up my path;

they promote my ^zcalamity;

they need no one to help them.

14  As through a wide ^abreach they come;

amid the crash they roll on.

15  ^bTerrors are turned upon me;

my honor is pursued as by the wind,

and my prosperity has passed away like ^ca cloud.

16  “And now my soul is ^dpoured out within me;

days of affliction have taken hold of me.

17  ^eThe night ^fracks my bones,

and the pain that ^ggnaws me takes no rest.

18  With great force my garment is ^hdisfigured;

it binds me about like the collar of my tunic.

19  God³ has cast me into the mire,

and I have become like ⁱdust and ashes.

20  I cry to you for help and you do not answer me;

I stand, and you only look at me.

21  You have ^jturned cruel to me;

with the might of your hand you ^kpersecute me.

22  ^lYou lift me up on the wind; you make me ride on it,

and you toss me about in the roar of the storm.

23  ^mFor I know that you will bring me to death

and to the house appointed for ⁿall living.

24  “Yet does not one in a ^oheap of ruins stretch out his hand,

and in his disaster cry for help?⁴

25  Did not I ^pweep for him whose day was hard?

Was not my soul grieved for the needy?

26  But ^qwhen I hoped for good, evil came,

and when I waited for light, ^rdarkness came.

27  My inward parts are in turmoil and never still;

days of affliction ^scome to meet me.

28  I ^tgo about darkened, but not by the sun;

I stand up in ^uthe assembly and cry for help.

29  I am a brother of ^vjackals

and a companion of ^wostriches.

30  My ^xskin turns black and falls from me,

and my ^ybones burn with heat.

31  My ^zlyre is ^aturned to mourning,

and my ^zpipe to the voice of those who weep.