Lam 3 | EE | STEP | I am the man who has seen trouble. God punished me because he was angry with me.

Lamentations 3

From trouble to hope ^{▼▼3:0 In this chapter, Jeremiah is speaking.}

1 I am the man who has seen trouble.

God punished me because he was angry with me.

2 He has led me into the dark.

There is no light, so I cannot see the right way.

3 He is completely against me;

so again and again, he causes me trouble all day long.

4 God has caused my skin and my whole body to become old.

He has broken my bones. ^{▼▼3:4 God may be angry with his people and he may punish them. He punishes them so that they learn from him. But they must not think that he has also stopped loving them. God is not against them, but he is against their sin.}

5 He has fought against me from every side.

He caused much trouble for me,

so that I am very sad.

6 He has brought me to this dark place.

So I am like a person who has been dead for a long time.

7 I am like a person inside high walls that God has built.

And I cannot go out.

My troubles are very bad.

They are like heavy metal and they hold me down.

8 I shout and I pray for help,

But God does not listen.

9 I am like a person on a path with lots of curves,

because he put big rocks in my way.

10 God is like a strong wild animal.

He hides and he waits for me by the path.

11 He is like an animal that pulls a person away from the path.

Then it tears the person in pieces.

He has made me very lonely.

12 God is like a soldier with a bow.

He bent the bow and he shot at me.

13 It was as if he shot me in the heart.

14 All the people see me and laugh.

They even sing silly songs about me all day long.

15 God has caused my life to become a thing of pain.

It is as if he filled a cup with a very bitter drink for me.

16 It is as if he caused me to eat small stones.

And the stones broke my teeth.

Then he put me on the ground,

and he covered me with ashes.

17 He has taken peace away from my mind.

I have forgotten what good days are like.

There were good days when I had plenty.

And there were good days when I was happy.

But I have forgotten what that was like.

18 ‘Everything good has finished for me!

The things that I hoped for from the LORD have not come!’ I tell myself.

19 Remember (LORD) all my troubles because I am sad.

Remember that I am very lonely.

And my mouth tastes bad as I think about it.

20 I think about all those things,

and I feel small and alone.

21 But then I choose to remember God,

and then I hope again:

22 The LORD is good and he never stops being kind to us.

That is why we are alive at all.

23 Each new day we can remember

that God’s promises will certainly happen.

24 ‘He is my LORD’, I say to myself.

‘He is the reason why I can hope again.’

25 The LORD does good things for people who wait for him.

He is kind to everyone who looks for him.

26 It is good when people go on hoping.

It is good when they quietly wait for the LORD,

because he will save them. ^{▼▼3:26 Verse 21 Jeremiah begins to hope again. God’s people think that God has forgotten to be kind.} ^{▼▼3:26 Verse 22 Now Jeremiah is telling them true things about God. It is always good to believe God. We must remember what he has promised. And we should believe him even more when bad things happen to us.}

27 It is also good for people to obey God when they are young.

They should work well for him.

28 Also, they should sit alone quietly,

when God causes them to be in trouble.

29 They should lie down on the ground in front of God.

Then they can hope again.

30 Cruel people will want to hurt them.

And those people will want to say cruel things to them.

They should let them do it and they should not fight them. ^{▼▼3:30 Verse 28 God does not speak to us when we are talking all the time.} ^{▼▼3:30 Verse 29 When people felt small or ashamed in front of God, they often lay down on the ground.} ^{▼▼3:30 Verse 30 Jesus spoke about this too in Matthew 5:39.}

31 The Lord does not turn away from people for always.

32 God does cause people to feel sad sometimes,

but he is sorry for us.

He is also very kind to us,

because he loves us very much.

33 He does not enjoy seeing people who are in pain.

He does not enjoy causing trouble for them. ^{▼▼3:33 God only wants people to learn from him. Then they can be happy.}

34 Bad people may be cruel to those who are in a prison.

But God does not like to see that.

35 Bad people may take other people’s things.

But God does not like to see that.

And God is the greatest of all.

36 People with authority may not be fair to other people.

But the Lord is not happy when he sees that.

37 The Lord causes things to happen.

Nobody can cause things to happen without him.

38 God is the greatest of all and he causes things to happen.

He causes good things and bad things when he speaks.

39 He only punishes us when we do wrong things.

We are still alive, so we should not be angry with God.

40 Instead, we should think a lot about what we do.

And we should turn back to the LORD again.

41 God is in his home and we should pray to him.

We should offer ourselves completely to him. ^{▼▼3:41 Heaven is the name of God’s home.}

42 ‘We have done wrong things,

and we have gone against you.

And you have not forgiven us’, we say to God.

43 ‘You have hidden yourself from us because you are angry.

You have followed us so that you could kill us.

You were not sorry about it.

44 You have hidden from us in a cloud.

So you do not listen to us when we talk to you.

45 You let people from other countries think bad things about us.

They think that we have no value.

We are like things that nobody can use any longer.

46 All our enemies say bad things to us.

47 And we are very afraid of the people who have beaten us.

They have caught us like animals.

They have killed us.

And they have destroyed all the things that we had.’ ^{▼▼3:47 Jeremiah has suggested an honest way for the people to speak to God.}

48 I weep, and my eyes are red with all my tears.

It is because the enemy has killed my people.

49 Tears come like a river from my eyes.

And they will not stop,

50 until the LORD looks down on us from his home in heaven.

He will see us and he will help us.

51 I see our city.

I see what has happened to all the people here.

And so I am very sad.

52 My enemies had no reason to follow me.

But they caught me as they would catch a bird.

53 They put me alive into the well,

and they threw stones down on me.

54 The water covered my head.

Then I said, ‘I shall die.’

55 I shouted your name, LORD,

when I was in the well.

56 ‘Please listen to me, LORD’, I shouted.

‘Help me! Save me!’ I shouted,

and you heard me.

57 You came near to me when I prayed to you.

‘Do not be afraid’, you said.

58 Lord, you have given me help.

You have paid the price to keep me alive.

59 You saw the bad things that they did to me.

So please agree with me that they were not fair!

60 You know all the bad things that they did to me.

And you know about all the bad things that they want to do to me.

61 You have heard their cruel words against me, LORD.

Yes, you know about all the bad things that they want to do to me.

62 These people have been cruel to me.

They attack me with cruel words every hour of the day.

63 Look at them as they sing cruel things about me.

They sing when they are sitting.

And they sing when they are standing.

64 Punish them for what they have done, LORD.

65 Cause them to think that they cannot hope for anything good.

Cause bad things to happen to them.

66 Run after them angrily.

Kill them all because you are angry with them.

Let nobody on earth remember them any longer.

Lamentations 3

From trouble to hope ▼▼3:0 In this chapter, Jeremiah is speaking.

From trouble to hope ^{▼▼3:0 In this chapter, Jeremiah is speaking.}