For why is light given to those who are in bitterness, and life to those souls which are in grief?

and would be very joyful if they should gain it?

Oh, that He would grant [my desire], and my petition might come, and the Lord would grant my hope!

Let the Lord begin to wound me, but let Him not utterly destroy me.

And let them perish in war, and let the weak escape from the hand of the mighty.

And let the weak have hope, but the mouth of the unjust be stopped.

In famine He shall deliver you from death, and in war He shall free you from the power of the sword.

For even if I have sinned, I know it not in my soul: but my life is taken away.

Oh that You had kept me in the grave, and had hidden me until Your wrath should cease, and You should set me a time in which You would remember me!

And if You do thus to me, slay me utterly, if I have found favor with You, that I may not see my affliction.

And he himself went a day's journey in the wilderness, and came and sat under a juniper tree; and asked concerning his life that he might die, and said, Let it be enough now, O Lord, take my life from me, I pray, for I am no better than my fathers.

And now, Lord God, take my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.

And it came to pass at the rising of the sun, that God commanded a burning east wind; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, and he fainted, and despaired of his life, and said, It is better for me to die than to live.

Then neither will I refrain my mouth; I will speak being in distress; being in anguish I will disclose the bitterness of my soul.

Surely I have erred in truth, (but the error abides with myself) [ 19:4A] in having spoken words which it was not right [to speak]; and my words err, and are unreasonable.

Listen, listen to my words, that I may not have this consolation from you.

What! Is my reproof from man? And why should I not be angry?

Or if I should be ungodly, woe is me: and if I should be righteous, I cannot lift myself up, for I am full of dishonor.

For I am hunted like a lion for slaughter; for again You have changed and are terribly destroying me;

Oh that one would indeed weigh the wrath that is upon me, and take up my grief in a balance together!

For the arrows of the Lord are in my body, whose violence drinks up my blood: whenever I am going to speak, they pierce me.

Then neither will I refrain my mouth; I will speak being in distress; being in anguish I will disclose the bitterness of my soul.

[ 16:7] For if I should speak, I shall not feel the pain of my wound, and if I should be silent, how shall I be wounded any less?

[ 16:9] My falsehood has become a testimony, and has risen up against me: it has confronted me to my face.

[ 16:11] He has attacked me with the keen glances of His eyes; with His sharp [spear] He has struck me [down] upon my knees, and they have run upon me with one accord.

[ 16:13] When I was at peace He distracted me: He took me by the hair of the head, and plucked it out: He set me up as a mark.

[ 16:15] They overthrew me with fall upon fall: they ran upon me in [their] might.

[ 16:17] My belly has been parched with wailing, and darkness is on my eyelids.

Because I kept silence, my bones waxed old, from my crying all the day.

I acknowledged my sin, and hid not my iniquity; I said, I will confess my iniquity to the Lord; and You forgave the ungodliness of my heart. Pause.

and removed the sorrow of my soul.

For You have chosen my soul, that it should not perish; and You have cast all [my] sins behind me.