Lamentations 3
Lamentations 3
I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath. Verse 2. He has led me and caused me to walk in darkness, and not in light. Verse 3. Surely he turns his hand against me again and again all day long. Verse 4. He has made my flesh and my skin old. He has broken my bones. Verse 5. He has built against me, and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship. Verse 6. He has made me dwell in dark places, as those who have been long dead. Verse 7. He has walled me about, so that I can’t go out. He has made my chain heavy. Verse 8. Yes, when I cry, and call for help, he shuts out my prayer. Verse 9. He has walled up my ways with cut stone. He has made my paths crooked. Verse 10. He is to me as a bear lying in wait, as a lion in hiding. Verse 11. He has turned away my path, and pulled me in pieces. He has made me desolate. Verse 12. He has bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow. Verse 13. He has caused the shafts of his quiver to enter into my kidneys. Verse 14. I have become a derision to all my people, and their song all day long. Verse 15. He has filled me with bitterness. He has stuffed me with wormwood. Verse 16. He has also broken my teeth with gravel. He has covered me with ashes. Verse 17. You have removed my soul far away from peace. I forgot prosperity. Verse 18. I said, “My strength has perished, along with my expectation from Yahweh.” Verse 19. Remember my affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the bitterness. Verse 20. My soul still remembers them, and is bowed down within me. Verse 21. This I recall to my mind; therefore I have hope. Verse 22. It is because of Yahweh’s loving kindnesses that we are not consumed, because his mercies don’t fail. Verse 23. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. Verse 24. “Yahweh is my portion,” says my soul. “Therefore I will hope in him.” Verse 25. Yahweh is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. Verse 26. It is good that a man should hope and quietly wait for the salvation of Yahweh. Verse 27. It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. Verse 28. Let him sit alone and keep silence, because he has laid it on him. Verse 29. Let him put his mouth in the dust, if it is so that there may be hope. Verse 30. Let him give his cheek to him who strikes him. Let him be filled full of reproach. Verse 31. For the Lord will not cast off forever. Verse 32. For though he causes grief, yet he will have compassion according to the multitude of his loving kindnesses. Verse 33. For he does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men. Verse 34. To crush under foot all the prisoners of the earth, Verse 35. to turn away the right of a man before the face of the Most High, Verse 36. to subvert a man in his cause, the Lord doesn’t approve. Verse 37. Who is he who says, and it comes to pass, when the Lord doesn’t command it? Verse 38. Doesn’t evil and good come out of the mouth of the Most High? Verse 39. Why should a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins? Verse 40. Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to Yahweh. Verse 41. Let’s lift up our heart with our hands to God in the heavens. Verse 42. “We have transgressed and have rebelled. You have not pardoned. Verse 43. “You have covered us with anger and pursued us. You have killed. You have not pitied. Verse 44. You have covered yourself with a cloud, so that no prayer can pass through. Verse 45. You have made us an off-scouring and refuse in the middle of the peoples. Verse 46. “All our enemies have opened their mouth wide against us. Verse 47. Terror and the pit have come on us, devastation and destruction.” Verse 48. My eye runs down with streams of water, for the destruction of the daughter of my people. Verse 49. My eye pours down and doesn’t cease, without any intermission, Verse 50. until Yahweh looks down, and sees from heaven. Verse 51. My eye affects my soul, because of all the daughters of my city. Verse 52. They have chased me relentlessly like a bird, those who are my enemies without cause. Verse 53. They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and have cast a stone on me. Verse 54. Waters flowed over my head. I said, “I am cut off.” Verse 55. I called on your name, Yahweh, out of the lowest dungeon. Verse 56. You heard my voice: “Don’t hide your ear from my sighing, and my cry.” Verse 57. You came near in the day that I called on you. You said, “Don’t be afraid.” Verse 58. Lord, you have pleaded the causes of my soul. You have redeemed my life. Verse 59. Yahweh, you have seen my wrong. Judge my cause. Verse 60. You have seen all their vengeance and all their plans against me. Verse 61. You have heard their reproach, Yahweh, and all their plans against me, Verse 62. the lips of those that rose up against me, and their plots against me all day long. Verse 63. You see their sitting down and their rising up. I am their song. Verse 64. You will pay them back, Yahweh, according to the work of their hands. Verse 65. You will give them hardness of heart, your curse to them. Verse 66. You will pursue them in anger, and destroy them from under the heavens of Yahweh.