Do you intend to criticize mere words, and treat ¹  the words of a despairing man as wind?

The human mind is more deceitful than anything else. It is incurably bad. ¹  Who can understand it?

The day you begin cultivating, you do what you can to make it grow; ¹  the morning you begin planting, you do what you can to make it sprout. Yet the harvest will disappear ²  in the day of disease and incurable pain.

I will reduce the people of this city to desperate straits during the siege imposed on it by their enemies who are seeking to kill them. I will make them so desperate that they will eat the flesh of their own sons and daughters and the flesh of one another.”’” ¹ 

Consequently ¹  the Lord provides safety for the oppressed; ²  he provides safety in times of trouble. ³ 

But I trust in you, O Lord! I declare, “You are my God!”

I will hurry off to a place that is safe from the strong wind ¹  and the gale.”

They cried out to the Lord in their distress; he delivered them from their troubles.

They cried out to the Lord in their distress; he delivered them from their troubles.

They cried out to the Lord in their distress; he delivered them from their troubles.

They cried out to the Lord in their distress; he delivered them from their troubles.

I desperately long to know ¹  your regulations at all times.

I will be secure, ¹  for I seek your precepts.

A song of ascents. ²  In my distress I cried out to the Lord and he answered me.

You will never come back to this land to which you will long to return!” ¹ 

Also, when I cry out desperately ¹  for help, ²  he has shut out my prayer. ³ 

and throw them into the fiery furnace, ¹  where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

And they began to beg ¹  him not to order ²  them to depart into the abyss. ³ 

taking advantage of every opportunity, because the days are evil.

I am oppressed and have been on the verge of death since my youth. ¹  I have been subjected to your horrors and am numb with pain. ²