Lamentations 3
1ALEPHI am the man that has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.
2He has led me and caused me to walk in darkness, and not in light.
3Surely against me he turns his hand again and again all the day.
4My flesh and my skin he has made old; he has broken my bones.
5He has built against me, and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship.
6He has made me to dwell in dark places, like those that have been long dead.
7He has walled me in, so I can't escape; he has made my chains heavy.
8Yes, when I cry, and call for help, he shuts out my prayer.
9He has walled up my ways with cut stone; he has made my paths crooked.
10He is to me as a bear lying in wait, as a lion in hiding.
11He has obstructed my path, and torn me in pieces; he has made me desolate.
12He has bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow.
13He has caused the arrows of his quiver to pierce my inward parts. ▼
▼Lit. kidneys
14I have become a laughingstock to all my people, and their song all the day.
15He has filled me with bitterness, he has given me in full measure wormwood.
16He has also broken my teeth with gravel; he has pressed me down in the dust.
17You have removed my soul far away from peace; I have forgotten what prosperity is.
18And I said, "My strength and my hope has perished from Jehovah."
19Remember my affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall.
20My soul considers them, and is depressed.
21But this I call to my mind; therefore I have hope:
22Jehovah's faithful love does not cease; ▼
▼LXX P Targum Hebrew mss. MT: "not cut off"
his compassion does not fail.23They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
24"Jehovah is my portion," says my soul, "therefore will I hope in him."
25Jehovah is good to those who wait for him, to the soul that seeks him.
26It is good that a man should hope and quietly wait for the salvation of Jehovah.
27It is good for a man that he bear the yoke while he is young.
28Let him sit alone and keep silence when he is disciplining him.
29Let him put his mouth to the dust, there may yet be hope.
30Let him give his cheek to him who strikes him; let him be filled with insults.
31For the Lord will not reject forever.
32For though he may cause grief, yet he will have compassion according to the abundance of his loving kindness.
33For he is not predisposed to bring affliction or suffering to the children of men.
34To crush under foot all the prisoners of the earth;
35to deprive a man of justice before the face of the Most High,
36to subvert a man in his cause, the Lord does not approve.
37Who can speak a thing and have it come to pass, unless the Lord has commanded it?
38Doesn't both calamity and good come out of the mouth of the Most High?
39Why does a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?
40Let us examine and search our ways, and return to Jehovah.
41Let us lift up our heart with our hands to God in the heavens.
42We have transgressed and have rebelled, and you have not forgiven.
43You have covered yourself with anger and pursued us; you killed without sparing.
44You have covered yourself with a cloud, so that no prayer can pass through.
45You have made us rubbish and refuse in the midst of the peoples.
46All our enemies have opened their mouth wide against us.
47Fear and the pit have come on us, devastation and destruction.
48Streams of tears run down from my eyes because of the destruction of the daughter of my people.
49My tears flow and do not cease, without respite,
50until Jehovah looks down and sees from heaven.
51My eyes bring my soul grief, because of all the daughters of my city.
52They have chased me relentlessly like a bird, those who are my enemies without cause.
53They have cut off my life in a pit, and have cast a stone on me.
54Waters flowed over my head; I said, 'I am finished.'
55I called on your name, Jehovah, out of the depths of the pit.
56You heard my voice; do not hide your ear at my sighs, to my cry.
57You drew near in the day that I called on you; you said, "Do not be afraid."
58Lord, you have taken up the case for my soul; you have redeemed my life.
59Jehovah, you have seen the wrong done to me; judge my case.
60You have seen all their vengeance and all their plots against me.
61You have heard their insults, Jehovah, and all their plots against me.
62The lips of those that rose up against me, and their plots against me all day long.
63Behold their sitting down, and their rising up; I am their mocking song.
64You will render to them what they deserve, Jehovah, according to the work of their hands.
65You will give them hardness of heart as your curse to them.
66You will pursue them in anger, and destroy them from under the heavens of Jehovah.
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