¹⁸ Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable, which refuses to be healed? will you indeed be to me as a deceitful [brook], as waters that fail?

¹⁵ Why cry you for your hurt? your pain is incurable: for the greatness of your iniquity, because your sins were increased, I have done these things to you.

⁹ For her wounds are incurable; For it has come even to Judah. It reaches to the gate of my people, Even to Jerusalem.

⁶ Notwithstanding my right I am considered a liar; My wound is incurable, though I am without disobedience.'

¹² For thus says Yahweh, Your hurt is incurable, and your wound grievous.

⁷ Yahweh, you have persuaded me, and I was persuaded; you are stronger than I, and have prevailed: I am become a laughing-stock all the day, every one mocks me.

³ Their nobles send their little ones to the waters: they come to the cisterns, and find no water; they return with their vessels empty; they are disappointed and confounded, and cover their heads.

¹ I am the man that has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.

² He has led me and caused me to walk in darkness, and not in light.

³ Surely against me he turns his hand again and again all the day.

⁴ My flesh and my skin has he made old; he has broken my bones.

⁵ He has built against me, and compassed me with gall and travail.

⁶ He has made me to dwell in dark places, as those that have been long dead.

⁷ He has walled me about, that I can't go forth; he has made my chain heavy.

⁸ Yes, when I cry, and call for help, he shuts out my prayer.

⁹ He has walled up my ways with hewn stone; he has made my paths crooked.

¹⁰ He is to me as a bear lying in wait, as a lion in secret places.

¹¹ He has turned aside my ways, and pulled me in pieces; he has made me desolate.

¹² He has bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow.

¹³ He has caused the shafts of his quiver to enter into my reins.

¹⁴ I am become a derision to all my people, and their song all the day.

¹⁵ He has filled me with bitterness, he has sated me with wormwood.

¹⁶ He has also broken my teeth with gravel stones; he has covered me with ashes.

¹⁷ You have removed my soul far off from peace; I forgot prosperity.

¹⁸ I said, My strength is perished, and my expectation from Yahweh.

¹⁹ Have you utterly rejected Judah? has your soul loathed Zion? why have you struck us, and there is no healing for us? We looked for peace, but no good came; and for a time of healing, and, behold, dismay!

¹⁸ For, behold, I have made you this day a fortified city, and an iron pillar, and brazen walls, against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, against the princes of it, against the priests of it, and against the people of the land.

¹⁹ They shall fight against you; but they shall not prevail against you: for I am with you, says Yahweh, to deliver you.

¹ > How long, Yahweh? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?

² How long shall I take counsel in my soul, Having sorrow in my heart every day? How long shall my enemy triumph over me?

³ Behold, and answer me, Yahweh, my God. Give light to my eyes, lest I sleep in death;

³ My soul is also in great anguish. But you, Yahweh--how long?

¹⁵ My brothers have dealt deceitfully as a brook, As the channel of brooks that pass away;

¹⁶ Which are black by reason of the ice, in which the snow hides itself:

¹⁷ In the dry season, they vanish. When it is hot, they are consumed out of their place.

¹⁸ The caravans that travel beside them turn aside; They go up into the waste, and perish.

¹⁹ The caravans of Tema looked, The companies of Sheba waited for them.

²⁰ They were distressed because they were confident; They came there, and were confounded.