Lamentations 3
1I am a man who has seen misery under the rod of Yahweh's fury. 1
2He drove me away and caused me to walk in darkness rather than light. 1
3Surely he turned his hand against me again and again, the whole day long. 1
4He made my flesh and my skin waste away; he broke my bones. 1
5He built up siege works against me, and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship. 1
6He made me live in dark places, like those who died long ago. 1
7He built a wall around me and I cannot escape. He made my chains heavy 1
8and though I call out and cry for help, he shut out my prayer. 1
9He blocked my path with a wall of hewn stone; he made my paths crooked. 1
10He is like a bear waiting to ambush me, a lion in hiding; 1
11he turned aside my paths, he has made me desolate. 1
12He bent his bow and set me as a target for his arrow. 1
13He pierced my kidneys with the arrows of his quiver. 1
14I became a laughingstock to all my people, the object of their taunting all day long. 1
15He filled me with bitterness and forced me to drink wormwood. 1
16He has made my teeth grind with gravel, and he made me cower in the ashes. 1
17My soul is deprived of peace; I have forgotten what happiness is. 1
18So I say, “My endurance has perished and so has my hope in Yahweh.” 1
19Remember my affliction and my wanderings, the wormwood and bitterness. 1
20I continually remember it and I am bowed down within me. 1
21But I call this to mind and therefore I have hope: 1
22The steadfast love of Yahweh never ceases and his compassions never end, 1
23they are new every morning; your faithfulness is great. 1
24“Yahweh is my inheritance,” I said, therefore I will hope in him. 1
25Yahweh is good to those who wait for him, to the one who seeks him. 1
26It is good to wait silently for the salvation of Yahweh. 1
27It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. 1
28Let him sit alone in silence, when it is laid upon him. 1
29Let him put his mouth in the dust—there may yet be hope. 1
30Let him offer his cheek to the one who strikes him, and let him be filled to the full with reproach. 1
31For the Lord will not reject us forever, 1
32but though he causes grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love. 1
33For he does not afflict from his heart or torment the children of mankind. 1
34To crush underfoot all the prisoners of the earth, 1
35to deny a man justice in the presence of the Most High, 1
36to deny justice to a person—the Lord would not approve such things! 1
37Who has spoken and it came to pass, unless the Lord decreed it? 1
38Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that both calamities and the good come? 1
39How can any person alive complain? How can a person complain about the punishment for his sins? 1
40Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to Yahweh. 1
41Let us lift up our hearts and our hands to God in the heavens: 1
42“We have transgressed and rebelled, and you have not forgiven. 1
43You have covered yourself with anger and pursued us, you have killed and you have not spared. 1
44You have covered yourself with a cloud so that no prayer can pass through. 1
45You have made us like filthy scum and refuse among the nations. 1
46All our enemies curse us, 1
47panic and pitfall have come upon us, ruin and destruction. 1
48My eyes flow with streams of tears because my people are destroyed. 1
49My eyes will shed tears without ceasing, without relief, 1
50until Yahweh from heaven looks down and sees. 1
51My eyes cause me grief because of all the daughters of my city. 1
52I have been hunted like a bird by those who were my enemies; they hunted me without a reason. 1
53They cast me into a pit and they threw a stone on me, 1
54and they caused waters to overflow, covering my head. I said, 'I have been cut off!' 1
55I called on your name, Yahweh, from the depths of the pit. 1
56You heard my voice when I said, 'Do not close your ear to my cry for help.' 1
57You came near on the day I called on you; you said, 'Do not fear.' 1
58Lord, you defended my case, you saved my life! 1
59Yahweh, you have seen the wrong they have done to me; judge my case. 1
60You have seen their insults, all their plots against me— 1
61You have heard their scorn, Yahweh, and all their plans regarding me. 1
62The lips and the accusations of my enemies come against me all the day. 1
63Look at how they sit and then rise up; they mock me with their songs. 1
64Pay back to them, Yahweh, according to what they have done. 1
65You will let their hearts be shameless! May your condemnation be upon them! 1
66You pursue them in anger and destroy them from under the heavens, Yahweh!”