Old Testament · Lamentations

Lamentations 3

The Man Who Has Seen Affliction

1I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.
2Me he has led and caused to walk in darkness and not in light.
3Surely against me he turns back, he turns his hand all the day.
4He has worn away my flesh^a and my skin; he has broken my bones.
5He has built against me, and surrounded me with gall and travail.
6In dark places he has made me dwell, like the dead of long ago^b.
7He has hedged me about so that I cannot go forth; he has made my chain heavy.
8Also when I cry out and call for help, he shuts out my prayer.
9He has hedged my ways with hewn stone; he has made my paths crooked.
10A bear lying in wait he is to me, a lion in hiding places.
11My ways he has turned aside, and torn me in pieces; he has made me desolate.
12He has bent his bow, and set me up as the target for the arrow.
13He has brought into my kidneys the sons of his quiver.
14I have become a laughingstock to all my people, their song all the day.
15He has filled me with bitterness, he has sated me with wormwood.
16And he has broken my teeth with gravel, he has made me cower in the ashes.
17And my soul^c is cast off far from peace; I have forgotten good.
18And I said, My strength has perished, and my hope from the LORD.

Hope in the Midst of Affliction

19Remember my affliction and my wandering, the wormwood and the gall.
20My soul surely remembers, and is bowed down within me.
21This I bring back to my heart, therefore I have hope.
22The lovingkindnesses of the LORD indeed never cease, for his compassions do not fail;
23they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
24The 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 (Yeshuah) of the LORD.
27It is good for the man that he bear the yoke in his youth.
28Let him sit alone and be silent, because he has laid it upon him.
29Let him put his mouth in the dust^d; perhaps there is hope.
30Let him give his cheek to the one who strikes him; let him be filled with reproach.
31For my Lord^e will not cast off forever.
32For though he causes grief, yet he has compassion according to the abundance of his lovingkindnesses.
33For he does not afflict from his heart, nor grieve the sons of man^f.
34To crush under his feet all the prisoners of the earth,
35to turn aside the judgment^g of a man before the face of the Most High^h,
36to subvert a manⁱ in his cause, my Lord does not see it.

God’s Justice

37Who is this that says, and it comes to pass, when my Lord has not commanded^j it?
38From the mouth of the Most High do not come forth the evils and the good?
39Why does a living^k man complain, a man over his sins?
40Let us search our ways and examine them, and let us return to the LORD.
41Let us lift up our heart to our hands, to God in the heavens.
42We have transgressed and rebelled; you have not pardoned.
43You have covered yourself with anger and pursued us; you have slain, you have not spared.
44You have covered yourself with a cloud, so that no prayer can pass through.
45Offscouring and refuse you have made us in the midst of the peoples.
46They have opened wide their mouth against us, all our enemies.
47Terror and the pit have come upon us, desolation and destruction.
48Streams of water run down my eye, for the destruction of the daughter of my people.
49My eye is poured out and does not cease, without intermission,
50until the LORD looks down and sees from heaven.
51My eye brings grief to my soul, because of all the daughters of my city.
52Hunting they have hunted me like a bird, my enemies without cause.
53They have cut off my life in the pit, and cast a stone upon me.
54Waters flowed over my head; I said, I am cut off.
55I called on your name, O LORD, from the lowest pit.
56You have heard my voice; do not hide your ear to my relief, to my cry.
57You drew near in the day that I called you; you said, Do not fear.
58You have pleaded, my Lord, the causes of my soul; you have redeemed my life.
59You have seen, O LORD, my wrong; judge my judgment.
60You have seen all their vengeance, all their devices against me.
61You have heard their reproach, O LORD, all their devices against me;
62the lips of those who rise against me, and their muttering against me all the day.
63Their sitting down and their rising up, behold; I am their mocking song.
64You will return to them a recompense, O LORD, according to the work of their hands.
65You will give them a covering of heart, your curse upon them.
66You will pursue them in anger and destroy them from under the heavens of the LORD.