Why do You hide Your face, And regard me as Your enemy?
If my head is exalted, You hunt me like a fierce lion, And again You show Yourself awesome against me.
You renew Your witnesses against me, And increase Your indignation toward me; Changes and war are ever with me.
I will say to God, ‘Do not condemn me; Show me why You contend with me.
He tears me in His wrath, and hates me; He gnashes at me with His teeth; My adversary sharpens His gaze on me.
He has also kindled His wrath against me, And He counts me as one of His enemies.
Why do you persecute me as God does, And are not satisfied with my flesh?
But You have become cruel to me; With the strength of Your hand You oppose me.
Oh, that I had one to hear me! Here is my mark. Oh, that the Almighty would answer me, That my Prosecutor had written a book!
Yet He finds occasions against me, He counts me as His enemy;
Why do You stand afar off, O Lord? Why do You hide in times of trouble?
How long, O Lord? Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me?
Why do You hide Your face, And forget our affliction and our oppression?
For our soul is bowed down to the dust; Our body clings to the ground.
Lord, why do You cast off my soul? Why do You hide Your face from me?
And I will wait on the Lord, Who hides His face from the house of Jacob; And I will hope in Him.
The Lord was like an enemy. He has swallowed up Israel, He has swallowed up all her palaces; He has destroyed her strongholds, And has increased mourning and lamentation In the daughter of Judah.
And He said: ‘I will hide My face from them, I will see what their end will be, For they are a perverse generation, Children in whom is no faith.
Yet do not count him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother.
Then Samuel said: “So why do you ask me, seeing the Lord has departed from you and has become your enemy?
