Lamentations - Chapter 3 | English Standard Version

  • 1. I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of his wrath;
  • 2. he has driven and brought me into darkness without any light;
  • 3. surely against me he turns his hand again and again the whole day long.
  • 4. He has made my flesh and my skin waste away; he has broken my bones;
  • 5. he has besieged and enveloped me with bitterness and tribulation;
  • 6. he has made me dwell in darkness like the dead of long ago.
  • 7. He has walled me about so that I cannot escape; he has made my chains heavy;
  • 8. though I call and cry for help, he shuts out my prayer;
  • 9. he has blocked my ways with blocks of stones; he has made my paths crooked.
  • 10. He is a bear lying in wait for me, a lion in hiding;
  • 11. he turned aside my steps and tore me to pieces; he has made me desolate;
  • 12. he bent his bow and set me as a target for his arrow.
  • 13. He drove into my kidneys the arrows of his quiver;
  • 14. I have become the laughingstock of all peoples, the object of their taunts all day long.
  • 15. He has filled me with bitterness; he has sated me with wormwood.
  • 16. He has made my teeth grind on gravel, and made me cower in ashes;
  • 17. my soul is bereft of peace; I have forgotten what happiness is;
  • 18. so I say, "My endurance has perished; so has my hope from the LORD."
  • 19. Remember my affliction and my wanderings, the wormwood and the gall!
  • 20. My soul continually remembers it and is bowed down within me.
  • 21. But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope:
  • 22. The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end;
  • 23. they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
  • 24. "The LORD is my portion," says my soul, "therefore I will hope in him."
  • 25. The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.
  • 26. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.
  • 27. It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.
  • 28. Let him sit alone in silence when it is laid on him;
  • 29. let him put his mouth in the dust-- there may yet be hope;
  • 30. let him give his cheek to the one who strikes, and let him be filled with insults.
  • 31. For the Lord will not cast off forever,
  • 32. but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love;
  • 33. for he does not willingly afflict or grieve the children of men.
  • 34. To crush underfoot all the prisoners of the earth,
  • 35. to deny a man justice in the presence of the Most High,
  • 36. to subvert a man in his lawsuit, the Lord does not approve.
  • 37. Who has spoken and it came to pass, unless the Lord has commanded it?
  • 38. Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and bad come?
  • 39. Why should a living man complain, a man, about the punishment of his sins?
  • 40. Let us test and examine our ways, and return to the LORD!
  • 41. Let us lift up our hearts and hands to God in heaven:
  • 42. "We have transgressed and rebelled, and you have not forgiven.
  • 43. "You have wrapped yourself with anger and pursued us, killing without pity;
  • 44. you have wrapped yourself with a cloud so that no prayer can pass through.
  • 45. You have made us scum and garbage among the peoples.
  • 46. "All our enemies open their mouths against us;
  • 47. panic and pitfall have come upon us, devastation and destruction;
  • 48. my 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,
  • 50. until the LORD from heaven looks down and sees;
  • 51. my eyes cause me grief at the fate of all the daughters of my city.
  • 52. "I have been hunted like a bird by those who were my enemies without cause;
  • 53. they flung me alive into the pit and cast stones on me;
  • 54. water closed over my head; I said, 'I am lost.'
  • 55. "I called on your name, O LORD, from the depths of the pit;
  • 56. you heard my plea, 'Do not close your ear to my cry for help!'
  • 57. You came near when I called on you; you said, 'Do not fear!'
  • 58. "You have taken up my cause, O Lord; you have redeemed my life.
  • 59. You have seen the wrong done to me, O LORD; judge my cause.
  • 60. You have seen all their vengeance, all their plots against me.
  • 61. "You have heard their taunts, O LORD, all their plots against me.
  • 62. The lips and thoughts of my assailants are against me all the day long.
  • 63. Behold their sitting and their rising; I am the object of their taunts.
  • 64. "You will repay them, O LORD, according to the work of their hands.
  • 65. You will give them dullness of heart; your curse will be on them.
  • 66. You will pursue them in anger and destroy them from under your heavens, O LORD."
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