23 New are his compassions every morning; great is

thy faithfulness;

24 My portion is JEHOVAH, saith my soul, therefore will I hope in him.

25

JEHOVAH is gracious unto him that waiteth for him, to the soul that seeketh him;

26 He is gracious, therefore let him wait with silent hope for the salvation of JEHOVAH;

27 He is gracious unto a man, when he beareth the yoke in his youth.

28

Let him sit alone and be silent, when it is laidupon him;

29 Let him lay his mouth in the dust, if peradventure there be hope;

30 Let him present his cheek to the smiter, let him be filled full with reproach,

S1

32

For JEHOVAH will not cast off for ever; But though he afflict, he will also pity according to the multitude of his mercies;

33 For he taketh no satisfaction in afflicting or grieving the sons of men.

34

To crush under his feet all the prisoners of the land,

35 To turn aside the judgment of a man before the face of a superior,

36 To subvert a man in his cause, JEHOVAH seeth

37

not.

Who is he that hath spoken, and it hath come to pass, when JEHOVAH commanded not? 38 Doth not good and evil proceed at the command of the most High?

39 Wherefore should a living man complain, a man on account of his suffering for sin?

40 Let us search and examine our ways, and let us return unto JEHOVAH;

41 Let us lift up our hearts with [our] hands unto God in the heavens, [saying]

42 We have transgressed and rebelled; thou hast not pardoned;

43 Thou hast fenced in with anger, and chased us; thou hast killed, thou hast not spared;

44 Thou hast fenced with a cloud round about thee, that prayer may not pass through;

45 An offscouring and refuse hast thou made us in the midst of the peoples.

46 All our enemies have opened their mouths against

us;

47 The terror and the pit have been upon us, desolation and destruction.

48 Mine eye poureth down streams of water because of the destruction of the daughter of my people.

49 Mine eye trickleth down, and ceaseth not, so that it bath no intervals of rest,

50 Until JEHOVAH look down, and regard from hea

ven:

51 Mine eye worketh trouble to my soul because of all the daughters of my city.

52 They that are mine enemies without cause hunted me down like a bird;

53 They cut off my life in the pit, they lifted a stone upon me;

54 Waters flowed over my head; I said, I am cut

off:

55 I called upon thy name, O JEHOVAH, out of the dungeon beneath;

56 Thou heardest my voice, [which said,] Hide not thine ear from my relief at my cry;

57 Thou drewest near in the day I called upon thee, thou saidst, Fear not.

58 Thou didst plead, O JEHOVAH, the causes of my soul, thou redeemedst my life.

59 Thou hast seen, O JEHOVAH, the injustice done me; assert thou my right :

60 Thou hast seen all their revenge, all their devices against me.

61

Thou hast heard their reproach, O JEHOVAH, all their devices against me,

62 The lips of mine adversaries, and their muttering against me all the day long.

63 Behold their sitting down and their rising up, I am their music.

64 Thou wilt render unto them a recompence, O JEHOVAH, according to the work of their

hands;

65 Thou wilt give with a hearty accordance thy curse unto them;

66 Thou wilt pursue with anger, and destroy them from under the heavens of JEHOVAH.

CHAP. IV.

1..

HOW is the gold tarnished! the best massy gold changed!

The hallowed stones scattered about at the top of every street!

2 The precious sons of Sion, of worth equal to the purest gold,

How are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the manufacture of the potter!

3 The very dragons have drawn out the breast, they have suckled their young ones:

The daughter of my people in cruelty [is] like the ostriches in the desert.

4 The tongue of the sucking child clave to the roof of his mouth for thirst;

The young children asked bread, there was none that brake unto them.

5 Those that fed upon dainties are forlorn in the streets,

Those that were brought up upon scarlet, have embraced dunghills.

6 The punishment also of the daughter of my people hath been greater than the punishment of

Sodom;

Which was overthrown as it were in an instant,

nor were hands weakened in her,

7 Her nobles were purer than snow, they were whiter than milk,

E c

They were ruddier on the bone than rubies, their veining was the sapphires:

8 Their appearance is become duskier than the dawn, they are not distinguished in the

streets;

Their skin is strait bound upon their bones, it is become dry like a stick.

9 Happier are the slain by the sword than the slain by famine,

In that those, being thrust through, pass away before the fruits of the field.

10 The hands of tenderhearted women have boiled their own children;

11

They became food for them in the destruction of the daughter of my people.

JEHOVAH hath fully vented his fury, he hath poured out the fierceness of his anger,

And hath kindled a fire in Sion, so that it hath consumed the foundations thereof.

12 The kings of the earth believed not, nor all the inhabitants of the world,

That the adversary would enter, and the enemy, within the gates of Jerusalem,

Because of the sins of her prophets, the iniquities of her priests,

Who shed in the midst of her the blood of the righteous.

14 They ran frantic through the streets, they were stained with blood;

Such as they could not overpower, they touched

their clothes: