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,

and broken my bones;

⁵he has beseiged 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 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 to me like a bear lying in wait,

like 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 drove into my heart

the arrows of his quiver;

¹⁴I have become the laughingstock of all peoples,

the burden of their 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 my expectation from the Lord.”

¹⁹Remember my affliction and my bitterness,

the wormwood and the 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 thy 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 a man that he bear

the yoke in his youth.

²⁸Let him sit alone in silence

when he has laid it on him;

²⁹let him put his mouth in the dust—

there may yet be hope;

³⁰let him give his cheek to the smiter,

and be filled with insults.

³¹For the Lord will not

cast off for ever,

³²but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion

according to the abundance of his steadfast love;

³³for he does not willingly afflict

or grieve the sons of men.

³⁴To crush under foot

all the prisoners of the earth,

³⁵to turn aside the right of a man

in the presence of the Most High,

³⁶to subvert a man in his cause,

the Lord does not approve.

³⁷Who has commanded and it came to pass,

unless the Lord has ordained it?

³⁸Is it not from the mouth of the Most High

that good and evil 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:

⁴²“We have transgressed and rebelled,

and thou hast not forgiven.

⁴³“Thou hast wrapped thyself with anger and pursued us,

slaying without pity;

⁴⁴thou hast wrapped thyself with a cloud

so that no prayer can pass through.

⁴⁵Thou hast made us offscouring and refuse

among the peoples.

⁴⁶“All our enemies

rail 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.

⁴⁹“My 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 maidens of my city.

⁵²“I 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.’

⁵⁵“I called on thy name, O Lord,

from the depths of the pit;

⁵⁶thou didst hear my plea, ‘Do not close

thine ear to my cry for help!’

⁵⁷Thou didst come near when I called on thee;

thou didst say, ‘Do not fear!’

⁵⁸“Thou hast taken up my cause, O Lord,

thou hast redeemed my life.

⁵⁹Thou hast seen the wrong done to me, O Lord;

judge thou my cause.

⁶⁰Thou hast seen all their vengeance, all their devices against me.

⁶¹“Thou hast heard their taunts, O Lord,

all their devices 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 burden of their songs.

⁶⁴“Thou wilt requite them, O Lord,

according to the work of their hands.

⁶⁵Thou wilt give them dullness of heart;

thy curse will be on them.

⁶⁶Thou wilt pursue them in anger and destroy them

from under thy heavens, O Lord.”