12. He has bent His bow and set me as a mark for the arrow.
13. He has caused the arrows of His quiver to enter into my heart [the seat of my affections and desires].
14. I have become a derision to all my people, and [the subject of] their singsong all the day.
15. He has filled me with bitterness; He has made me drink to excess and until drunken with wormwood [bitterness].
16. He has also broken my teeth with gravel (stones); He has covered me with ashes.
17. And You have bereaved my soul and cast it off far from peace; I have forgotten what good and happiness are.
18. And I say, Perished is my strength and my expectation from the Lord.
19. [O Lord] remember [earnestly] my affliction and my misery, my wandering and my outcast state, the wormwood and the gall.
20. My soul has them continually in remembrance and is bowed down within me.
21. But this I recall and therefore have I hope and expectation:
22. It is because of the Lord's mercy and loving-kindness that we are not consumed, because His [tender] compassions fail not. [Mal. 3:6.]
23. They are new every morning; great and abundant is Your stability and faithfulness. [Isa. 33:2.]
24. The Lord is my portion or share, says my living being (my inner self); therefore will I hope in Him and wait expectantly for Him. [Num. 18:20.]
25. The Lord is good to those who wait hopefully and expectantly for Him, to those who seek Him [inquire of and for Him and require Him by right of necessity and on the authority of God's word].