Lamentations 3

¹I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of his wrath ;

²he has driven and brought me into darkness without any light ;

³surely against me he turns his hand again and again the whole day long.

⁴He has made my flesh and my skin waste away ; he has broken my bones ;

⁵he has besieged and enveloped me with bitterness and tribulation ;

⁶he has made me dwell in darkness like the dead of long ago .

⁷He has walled me about so that I cannot escape ; he has made my chains heavy ;

⁸though I call and cry for help, he shuts out my prayer ;

⁹he has blocked my ways with blocks of stones ; he has made my paths crooked .

¹⁰He is a bear lying in wait for me, a lion in hiding ;

¹¹he turned aside my steps and tore me to pieces ; he has made me desolate ;

¹²he bent his bow and set me as a target for his arrow .

¹³He drove into my kidneys the arrows of his quiver ;

¹⁴I have become the laughingstock of all peoples , the object of their taunts all day long.

¹⁵He has filled me with bitterness ; he has sated me with wormwood .

¹⁶He has made my teeth grind on gravel , and made me cower in ashes ;

¹⁷my soul is bereft of peace ; I have forgotten what is ;

¹⁸so I say , My endurance has perished ; so has my hope from the Lord.

¹⁹Remember my affliction and my wanderings , the wormwood and the gall !

²⁰My soul continually remembers it and is bowed down within me.

²¹But this I call to mind , and therefore I have hope :

²²The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases ; his mercies never come to an end ;

²³they are new every morning ; great is your faithfulness .

²⁴The Lord is my portion , says my soul , therefore I will hope in him.

²⁵The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.

²⁶It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.

²⁷It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth .

²⁸Let him sit alone in silence when it is laid on him;

²⁹let him put his mouth in the dust — there may yet be hope ;

³⁰let him give his cheek to the one who strikes , and let him be filled with insults .

³¹For the Lord will not cast off forever ,

³²but , though he cause grief , he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love ;

³³for he does not afflict from his heart or grieve the children of men .

³⁴To crush underfoot all the prisoners of the earth ,

³⁵to deny a man justice in the presence of the Most High ,

³⁶to subvert a man in his lawsuit , the Lord does not approve .

³⁷Who has spoken and it came to pass, unless the Lord has commanded it?

³⁸Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and bad come ?

³⁹Why should a living man complain , a man , about the punishment of his sins ?

⁴⁰Let us test and examine our ways , and return to the Lord!

⁴¹Let us lift up our hearts and hands to God in heaven :

⁴²We have transgressed and rebelled , and you have not forgiven .

⁴³You have wrapped yourself with anger and pursued us, killing without pity ;

⁴⁴you have wrapped yourself with a cloud so that no prayer can pass through .

⁴⁵You have made us scum and garbage among the peoples .

⁴⁶All our enemies open their mouths against us;

⁴⁷panic and pitfall have come upon us, devastation and destruction ;

⁴⁸my eyes flow with rivers of tears because of the destruction of the daughter of my people .

⁴⁹My eyes will flow without ceasing , without respite ,

⁵⁰until the Lord from heaven looks down and sees ;

⁵¹my eyes cause me grief at the fate of all the daughters of my city .

⁵²I have been hunted like a bird by those who were my enemies without cause ;

⁵³they flung me alive into the pit and cast stones on me;

⁵⁴water closed over my head ; I said , I am lost .

⁵⁵I called on your name , O Lord, from the depths of the pit ;

⁵⁶you heard my plea , Do not close your ear to my cry for help !

⁵⁷You came near when I called on you; you said , Do not fear !

⁵⁸You have taken up my cause , O Lord ; you have redeemed my life .

⁵⁹You have seen the wrong done to me , O Lord; judge my cause .

⁶⁰You have seen all their vengeance , all their plots against me.

⁶¹You have heard their taunts , O Lord, all their plots against me.

⁶²The lips and thoughts of my assailants are against me all the day long.

⁶³Behold their sitting and their rising ; I am the object of their taunts .

⁶⁴You will repay them, O Lord, according to the work of their hands .

⁶⁵You will give them dullness of heart ; your curse will be on them.

⁶⁶You will pursue them in anger and destroy them from under your heavens , O Lord.