A song of ascents. ²  “Since my youth they have often attacked me,” let Israel say.

“Since my youth they have often attacked me, but they have not defeated me.

He was treated harshly and afflicted, ¹  but he did not even open his mouth. Like a lamb led to the slaughtering block, like a sheep silent before her shearers, he did not even open his mouth. ² 

ג (Gimel) Judah ¹  has departed into exile under ²  affliction and harsh oppression. ³  She ⁴  lives among the nations; she has found no resting place. All who pursued her overtook her in ⁵  narrow straits. ⁶ 

ט (Tet) Her menstrual flow ¹  has soiled ²  her clothing; ³  she did not consider ⁴  the consequences of her sin. ⁵  Her demise ⁶  was astonishing, ⁷  and there was no one to comfort her. She cried, “Look, ⁸  O Lord, on my ⁹  affliction because my enemy boasts!”

The Lord said, “I have surely seen ¹  the affliction of my people who are in Egypt. I have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. ² 

So we cried out to the Lord, the God of our ancestors, and he ¹  heard us and saw our humiliation, toil, and oppression.

So the Lord rejected all of Israel’s descendants; he humiliated ¹  them and handed them over to robbers, until he had thrown them from his presence.

Because God has untied ¹  my tent cord and afflicted me, people throw off all restraint in my presence. ² 

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 

You must ¹  actively help the hungry and feed the oppressed. ²  Then your light will dispel the darkness, ³  and your darkness will be transformed into noonday. ⁴ 

“In that day,” says the Lord, “I will gather the lame, and assemble the outcasts whom I injured. ¹ 

For our momentary, light suffering ¹  is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison

so that no one would be shaken by these afflictions. For you yourselves know that we are destined for this.

who comforts us in all our troubles ¹  so that we may be able to comfort those experiencing any trouble ²  with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

But if we are afflicted, ¹  it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort that you experience in your patient endurance of the same sufferings that we also suffer.

Now I rejoice in my sufferings for you, and I fill up in my physical body – for the sake of his body, the church – what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ.

He named the second child Ephraim, ¹  saying, ²  “Certainly ³  God has made me fruitful in the land of my suffering.”

So they put foremen ¹  over the Israelites ²  to oppress ³  them with hard labor. As a result ⁴  they built Pithom and Rameses ⁵  as store cities for Pharaoh.

“Any vow or sworn obligation that would bring affliction to her, ¹  her husband can confirm or nullify. ²