Lam 3:1-20 | ESV | STEP | I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of his wrath ;

1 ^aI am the man who has seen affliction
under the ^brod of his wrath;
2 he has driven and brought me
^cinto darkness without any light;
3 surely against me he turns his hand
again and again the whole day long.
4 He has made my flesh and my skin waste away;
^dhe has broken my bones;
5 ^ehe has besieged and enveloped me
with ^fbitterness and tribulation;
6 ^ghe has made me dwell in darkness
like the dead of long ago.
7 ^hHe has walled me about so that ⁱI cannot escape;
he has made my chains heavy;
8 though ^jI call and cry for help,
he shuts out my prayer;
9 ^khe has blocked my ways with blocks of stones;
he has made my paths crooked.
10 ^lHe is a bear lying in wait for me,
a lion in hiding;
11 ^mhe turned aside my steps and ⁿtore me to pieces;
^ohe has made me desolate;
12 ^phe bent his bow ^qand set me
as a target for his arrow.
13 He drove into my kidneys
^rthe arrows of his quiver;
14 ^sI have become the laughingstock of all peoples,
^tthe object of their taunts all day long.
15 ^uHe has filled me with bitterness;
he has sated me with ^vwormwood.
16 ^wHe has made my teeth grind on gravel,
and ^xmade me cower in ashes;
17 my soul is bereft of peace;
I have forgotten what happiness ^{▼▼Hebrew good} is;
18 ^zso I say, “My endurance has perished;
so has my hope from the Lord.”
19 ^aaRemember my affliction and my wanderings,
^abthe wormwood and ^acthe gall!
20 My soul continually remembers it
^adand is bowed down within me.