Lamentations 3

¹I am one who has seen affliction

under the rod of God’s wrath;

²he has driven and brought me

into darkness without any light;

³against me alone he turns his hand,

again and again, all day long.

⁴He has made my flesh and my skin waste away,

and broken my bones;

⁵he has besieged and enveloped me

with bitterness and tribulation;

⁶he has made me sit in darkness

like the dead of long ago.

⁷He has walled me about so that I cannot escape;

he has put heavy chains on me;

⁸though I call and cry for help,

he shuts out my prayer;

⁹he has blocked my ways with hewn stones,

he has made my paths crooked.

¹⁰He is a bear lying in wait for me,

a lion in hiding;

¹¹he led me off my way and tore me to pieces;

he has made me desolate;

¹²he bent his bow and set me

as a mark for his arrow.

¹³He shot into my vitals

the arrows of his quiver;

¹⁴I have become the laughingstock of all my people,

the object of their taunt-songs 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 happiness is;

¹⁸so I say, “Gone is my glory,

and all that I had hoped for from the Lord.”

¹⁹The thought of my affliction and my homelessness

is wormwood and gall!

²⁰My soul continually thinks of 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.

²⁴“The 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 that seeks him.

²⁶It is good that one should wait quietly

for the salvation of the Lord.

²⁷It is good for one to bear

the yoke in youth,

²⁸to sit alone in silence

when the Lord has imposed it,

²⁹to put one’s mouth to the dust

(there may yet be hope),

³⁰to give one’s cheek to the smiter,

and be filled with insults.

³¹For the Lord will not

reject forever.

³²Although he causes grief, he will have compassion

according to the abundance of his steadfast love;

³³for he does not willingly afflict

or grieve anyone.

³⁴When all the prisoners of the land

are crushed under foot,

³⁵when human rights are perverted

in the presence of the Most High,

³⁶when one’s case is subverted

—does the Lord not see it?

³⁷Who can command and have it done,

if the Lord has not ordained it?

³⁸Is it not from the mouth of the Most High

that good and bad come?

³⁹Why should any who draw breath complain

about the punishment of their sins?

⁴⁰Let us test and examine our ways,

and return to the Lord.

⁴¹Let us lift up our hearts as well as our 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 filth and rubbish

among the peoples.

⁴⁶All our enemies

have opened 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 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 young women in my city.

⁵²Those who were my enemies without cause

have hunted me like a bird;

⁵³they flung me alive into a pit

and hurled 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, but give me relief!”

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 malice,

all their plots against me.

⁶¹You have heard their taunts, O Lord,

all their plots against me.

⁶²The whispers and murmurs of my assailants

are against me all day long.

⁶³Whether they sit or rise—see,

I am the object of their taunt-songs.

⁶⁴Pay them back for their deeds, O Lord,

according to the work of their hands!

⁶⁵Give them anguish of heart;

your curse be on them!

⁶⁶Pursue them in anger and destroy them

from under the Lord’s heavens.