Isaiah 38:14–16

¹¹We roar all like bears, and mourn sore like doves: we look for judgment, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far off from us.

³I am weary of my crying: my throat is dried: mine eyes fail while I wait for my God.

¹⁶¶ But they that escape of them shall escape, and shall be on the mountains like doves of the valleys, all of them mourning, every one for his iniquity.

²⁹I am a brother to dragons, and a companion to owls.

⁷And Huzzab shall be led away captive, she shall be brought up, and her maids shall lead her as with the voice of doves, tabering upon their breasts.

¹²²Be surety for thy servant for good: let not the proud oppress me.

¹²³Mine eyes fail for thy salvation, and for the word of thy righteousness.

¹UNTO thee lift I up mine eyes, O thou that dwellest in the heavens.

²Behold, as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters, and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress; so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God, until that he have mercy upon us.

³Have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy upon us: for we are exceedingly filled with contempt.

⁴Our soul is exceedingly filled with the scorning of those that are at ease, and with the contempt of the proud.

³Lay down now, put me in a surety with thee; who is he that will strike hands with me?

¹⁷As for us, our eyes as yet failed for our vain help: in our watching we have watched for a nation that could not save us.

⁴My heart is smitten, and withered like grass; so that I forget to eat my bread.

⁵By reason of the voice of my groaning my bones cleave to my skin.

⁶I am like a pelican of the wilderness: I am like an owl of the desert.

⁷I watch, and am as a sparrow alone upon the house top.

⁸²Mine eyes fail for thy word, saying, When wilt thou comfort me?

⁷Hear me speedily, O Lord: my spirit faileth: hide not thy face from me, lest I be like unto them that go down into the pit.

²⁷And it came to pass, when Ahab heard those words, that he rent his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his flesh, and fasted, and lay in sackcloth, and went softly.

¹¹Therefore I will not refrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.

¹MY soul is weary of my life; I will leave my complaint upon myself; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.

¹⁰And she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed unto the Lord, and wept sore.

²⁷And when she came to the man of God to the hill, she caught him by the feet: but Gehazi came near to thrust her away. And the man of God said, Let her alone; for her soul is vexed within her: and the Lord hath hid it from me, and hath not told me.

¹⁰And now, O our God, what shall we say after this? for we have forsaken thy commandments,

²⁵And another dieth in the bitterness of his soul, and never eateth with pleasure.

²⁷Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour.

⁸O Lord, what shall I say, when Israel turneth their backs before their enemies!

⁹I was dumb, I opened not my mouth; because thou didst it.

¹⁰Remove thy stroke away from me: I am consumed by the blow of thine hand.

³²But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.

¹⁰For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness.

¹¹Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.

⁴But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

²⁵My soul cleaveth unto the dust: quicken thou me according to thy word.

³And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live.

⁵Thou meetest him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness, those that remember thee in thy ways: behold, thou art wroth; for we have sinned: in those is continuance, and we shall be saved.

¹⁹He is chastened also with pain upon his bed, and the multitude of his bones with strong pain:

²⁰So that his life abhorreth bread, and his soul dainty meat.

²¹His flesh is consumed away, that it cannot be seen; and his bones that were not seen stick out.

²²Yea, his soul draweth near unto the grave, and his life to the destroyers.

²³If there be a messenger with him, an interpreter, one among a thousand, to shew unto man his uprightness:

²⁴Then he is gracious unto him, and saith, Deliver him from going down to the pit: I have found a ransom.

²⁵His flesh shall be fresher than a child’s: he shall return to the days of his youth:

²⁶He shall pray unto God, and he will be favourable unto him: and he shall see his face with joy: for he will render unto man his righteousness.

²⁷He looketh upon men, and if any say, I have sinned, and perverted that which was right, and it profited me not;

²⁸He will deliver his soul from going into the pit, and his life shall see the light.

¹⁷For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;

²⁰Thou, which hast shewed me great and sore troubles, shalt quicken me again, and shalt bring me up again from the depths of the earth.