Lamentations 3
1 I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of his fury.
2 He led me and made me walk in darkness, not in light.
3 Yes, against me he turns his hand all day long.
4 He has worn away my flesh and skin; he has broken my bones.
5 He has built against me and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship.
6 He made me dwell in darkness, like those who died long ago.
7 He walled me in, and I cannot get out; he has made my chains heavy.
8 Even when I cry out and plead for help, he blocks my prayer.
9 He has blocked my paths with hewn stones; he has twisted my ways.
10 He is a bear lying in wait for me, a lion hiding in ambush.
11 He turned me from my paths and tore me to pieces; he left me desolate.
12 He bent his bow and made me a target for his arrow.
13 He drove the arrows from his quiver into my kidneys.
14 I have become a laughingstock to all my people, their song all day long.
15 He filled me with bitterness; he made me drink my fill of wormwood.
16 He crushed my teeth with gravel; he pressed me into the ashes.
17 My soul has been kept far from peace; I have forgotten what good is.
18 Then I said, “My strength is gone, and so is my hope from the LORD.”
19 Remember my affliction and my homelessness—wormwood and bitterness.
20 My soul remembers it constantly and sinks within me.
21 This I bring back to my heart, and so I have hope.
22 It is because of the LORD’s faithful love that we have not been consumed, for his compassion has not run out.
23 They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
24 “The LORD is my portion,” says my soul; so I hope in him.
25 The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul that seeks him.
26 It is good to wait quietly for the LORD’s salvation.
27 It is good for a man to bear the yoke in his youth.
28 Let him sit alone in silence, because the yoke has been laid on him.
29 Let him put his mouth in the dust; perhaps there is still hope.
30 Let him offer his cheek to the one who strikes him; let him be filled with disgrace.
31 For the Lord does not reject forever.
32 Though he brings grief, he will also have compassion, in keeping with the greatness of his faithful love.
33 For he does not afflict or grieve human beings from his heart.
34 To crush beneath their feet all the prisoners of the earth,
35 to twist a man’s rights in the presence of the Most High,
36 to wrong someone in his case—does the Lord not see?
37 Who has spoken and made it happen without the Lord’s command?
38 Do not both disaster and good come from the mouth of the Most High?
39 Why should a living person complain, a man, because of his sins?
40 Let us examine and investigate our ways, and return to the LORD.
41 Let us lift our hearts, along with our hands, to God in heaven.
42 We have transgressed and rebelled; you have not forgiven.
43 You wrapped yourself in anger and pursued us; you killed without pity.
44 You wrapped yourself in a cloud so that prayer could not pass through.
45 You have made us scum and refuse among the peoples.
46 All our enemies have opened their mouths against us.
47 Terror and pitfall have come upon us, devastation and ruin.
48 My eyes pour down streams of water over the ruin of my people.
49 My eyes keep pouring and do not rest.
50 Until the LORD looks down from heaven and sees.
51 My eye grieves my soul because of all the women of my city.
52 My enemies hunted me like a bird, without cause.
53 They ended my life in the pit and threw stones at me.
54 The waters rose over my head; I said, “I am lost.”
55 I called on your name, LORD, from the depths of the pit.
56 You heard my voice. Do not shut your ear to my plea for relief, to my cry for help.
57 You came near on the day I called to you; you said, “Do not be afraid.”
58 You took up, Lord, the cause of my soul; you redeemed my life.
59 You have seen, LORD, the wrong done to me; judge my case.
60 You have seen all their vengeance, all their schemes against me.
61 You have heard their insults, LORD, all their schemes against me.
62 The lips of those who rise against me and their muttering are against me all day long.
63 Look at them, sitting or standing: I am their song.
64 You will repay them, LORD, according to the work of their hands.
65 You will give them hardness of heart; your curse will fall on them.
66 You will pursue them in anger and destroy them from beneath the LORD’s heavens.
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