Lamentations 3
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v1
I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.
v2
He has led me and caused me to walk in darkness, and not in light.
v3
Surely he turns his hand against me again and again all day long.
v4
He has made my flesh and my skin old. He has broken my bones.
v5
He has built against me, and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship.
v6
He has made me dwell in dark places, as those who have been long dead.
v7
He has walled me about, so that I can’t go out. He has made my chain heavy.
v8
Yes, when I cry, and call for help, he shuts out my prayer.
v9
He has walled up my ways with cut stone. He has made my paths crooked.
v10
He is to me as a bear lying in wait, as a lion in secret places.
v11
He has turned away my ways, and pulled me in pieces. He has made me desolate.
v12
He has bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow.
v13
He has caused the shafts of his quiver to enter into my kidneys.
v14
I have become a derision to all my people, and their song all day long.
v15
He has filled me with bitterness. He has stuffed me with wormwood.
v16
He has also broken my teeth with gravel. He has covered me with ashes.
v17
You have removed my soul far away from peace. I forgot prosperity.
v18
I said, “My strength has perished, along with my expectation from Yahweh.”
v19
Remember my affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the bitterness.
v20
My soul still remembers them, and is bowed down within me.
v21
This I recall to my mind; therefore I have hope.
v22
It is because of Yahweh’s loving kindnesses that we are not consumed, because his compassion doesn’t fail.
v23
They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness.
v24
“Yahweh is my portion,” says my soul. “Therefore I will hope in him.”
v25
Yahweh is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.
v26
It is good that a man should hope and quietly wait for the salvation of Yahweh.
v27
It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.
v28
Let him sit alone and keep silence, because he has laid it on him.
v29
Let him put his mouth in the dust, if it is so that there may be hope.
v30
Let him give his cheek to him who strikes him. Let him be filled full of reproach.
v31
For the Lord will not cast off forever.
v32
For though he causes grief, yet he will have compassion according to the multitude of his loving kindnesses.
v33
For he does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men.
v34
To crush under foot all the prisoners of the earth,
v35
to turn away the right of a man before the face of the Most High,
v36
to subvert a man in his cause, the Lord doesn’t approve.
v37
Who is he who says, and it comes to pass, when the Lord doesn’t command it?
v38
Doesn’t evil and good come out of the mouth of the Most High?
v39
Why does a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?
v40
Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to Yahweh.
v41
Let’s lift up our heart with our hands to God in the heavens.
v42
“We have transgressed and have rebelled. You have not pardoned.
v43
“You have covered us with anger and pursued us. You have killed. You have not pitied.
v44
You have covered yourself with a cloud, so that no prayer can pass through.
v45
You have made us an off-scouring and refuse in the middle of the peoples.
v46
“All our enemies have opened their mouth wide against us.
v47
Terror and the pit have come on us, devastation and destruction.”
v48
My eye runs down with streams of water, for the destruction of the daughter of my people.
v49
My eye pours down and doesn’t cease, without any intermission,
v50
until Yahweh looks down, and sees from heaven.
v51
My eye affects my soul, because of all the daughters of my city.
v52
They have chased me relentlessly like a bird, those who are my enemies without cause.
v53
They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and have cast a stone on me.
v54
Waters flowed over my head. I said, “I am cut off.”
v55
I called on your name, Yahweh, out of the lowest dungeon.
v56
You heard my voice: “Don’t hide your ear from my sighing, and my cry.”
v57
You came near in the day that I called on you. You said, “Don’t be afraid.”
v58
Lord, you have pleaded the causes of my soul. You have redeemed my life.
v59
Yahweh, you have seen my wrong. Judge my cause.
v60
You have seen all their vengeance and all their plans against me.
v61
You have heard their reproach, Yahweh, and all their plans against me,
v62
the lips of those that rose up against me, and their plots against me all day long.
v63
You see their sitting down and their rising up. I am their song.
v64
You will pay them back, Yahweh, according to the work of their hands.
v65
You will give them hardness of heart, your curse to them.
v66
You will pursue them in anger, and destroy them from under the heavens of Yahweh.