I am crushed by their insults, as they keep on asking me, "Where is your God?"

We have been mocked too long by the rich and scorned by proud oppressors.

Some were mocked and whipped, and others were put in chains and taken off to prison.

Here in exile my heart is breaking, and so I turn my thoughts to him. He has sent waves of sorrow over my soul; chaos roars at me like a flood, like waterfalls thundering down to the Jordan from Mount Hermon and Mount Mizar.

He took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee. Grief and anguish came over him,

and he said to them, "The sorrow in my heart is so great that it almost crushes me. Stay here and keep watch with me."

"Now my heart is troubled---and what shall I say? Shall I say, 'Father, do not let this hour come upon me'? But that is why I came---so that I might go through this hour of suffering.

I was amazed when I looked and saw that there was no one to help me. But my anger made me strong, and I won the victory myself.

Then he returned and found the three disciples asleep. He said to Peter, "Simon, are you asleep? Weren't you able to stay awake for even one hour?"

Then all the disciples left him and ran away.

When I look beside me, I see that there is no one to help me, no one to protect me. No one cares for me.

The time is coming, and is already here, when all of you will be scattered, each of you to your own home, and I will be left all alone. But I am not really alone, because the Father is with me.

No one stood by me the first time I defended myself; all deserted me. May God not count it against them!

But the Lord stayed with me and gave me strength, so that I was able to proclaim the full message for all the Gentiles to hear; and I was rescued from being sentenced to death.

(SEE 16:1)

You are my friends! Take pity on me! The hand of God has struck me down.

Why must you persecute me the way God does? Haven't you tormented me enough?

But all this has happened in order to make come true what the prophets wrote in the Scriptures." Then all the disciples left him and ran away.