Lamentations 3:1
I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of God’s wrath.
Lamentations 3:2
He has driven me away and made me walk in darkness instead of light.
Lamentations 3:3
Indeed, He keeps turning His hand against me all day long.
Lamentations 3:4
He has worn away my flesh and skin; He has shattered my bones.
Lamentations 3:5
He has besieged me and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship.
Lamentations 3:6
He has made me dwell in darkness like those dead for ages.
Lamentations 3:7
He has walled me in so I cannot escape; He has weighed me down with chains.
Lamentations 3:8
Even when I cry out and plead for help, He shuts out my prayer.
Lamentations 3:9
He has barred my ways with cut stones; He has made my paths crooked.
Lamentations 3:10
He is a bear lying in wait, a lion hiding in ambush.
Lamentations 3:11
He forced me off my path and tore me to pieces; He left me without help.
Lamentations 3:12
He bent His bow and set me as the target for His arrow.
Lamentations 3:13
He pierced my kidneys with His arrows.
Lamentations 3:14
I am a laughingstock to all my people; they mock me in song all day long.
Lamentations 3:15
He has filled me with bitterness; He has intoxicated me with wormwood.
Lamentations 3:16
He has ground my teeth with gravel and trampled me in the dust.
Lamentations 3:17
My soul has been deprived of peace; I have forgotten what prosperity is.
Lamentations 3:18
So I say, “My strength has perished, along with my hope from the LORD.”
Lamentations 3:19
Remember my affliction and wandering, the wormwood and the gall.
Lamentations 3:20
Surely my soul remembers and is humbled within me.
Lamentations 3:21
Yet I call this to mind, and therefore I have hope:
Lamentations 3:22
Because of the loving devotion of the LORD we are not consumed, for His mercies never fail.
Lamentations 3:23
They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness!
Lamentations 3:24
“The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in Him.”
Lamentations 3:25
The LORD is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him.
Lamentations 3:26
It is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.
Lamentations 3:27
It is good for a man to bear the yoke while he is still young.
Lamentations 3:28
Let him sit alone in silence, for the LORD has laid it upon him.
Lamentations 3:29
Let him bury his face in the dust—perhaps there is still hope.
Lamentations 3:30
Let him offer his cheek to the one who would strike him; let him be filled with reproach.
Lamentations 3:31
For the Lord will not cast us off forever.
Lamentations 3:32
Even if He causes grief, He will show compassion according to His abundant loving devotion.
Lamentations 3:33
For He does not willingly afflict or grieve the sons of men.
Lamentations 3:34
To crush underfoot all the prisoners of the land,
Lamentations 3:35
to deny a man justice before the Most High,
Lamentations 3:36
to subvert a man in his lawsuit—of these the Lord does not approve.
Lamentations 3:37
Who has spoken and it came to pass, unless the Lord has ordained it?
Lamentations 3:38
Do not both adversity and good come from the mouth of the Most High?
Lamentations 3:39
Why should any mortal man complain, in view of his sins?
Lamentations 3:40
Let us examine and test our ways, and turn back to the LORD.
Lamentations 3:41
Let us lift up our hearts and hands to God in heaven:
Lamentations 3:42
“We have sinned and rebelled; You have not forgiven.”
Lamentations 3:43
You have covered Yourself in anger and pursued us; You have killed without pity.
Lamentations 3:44
You have covered Yourself with a cloud that no prayer can pass through.
Lamentations 3:45
You have made us scum and refuse among the nations.
Lamentations 3:46
All our enemies open their mouths against us.
Lamentations 3:47
Panic and pitfall have come upon us—devastation and destruction.
Lamentations 3:48
Streams of tears flow from my eyes over the destruction of the daughter of my people.
Lamentations 3:49
My eyes overflow unceasingly, without relief,
Lamentations 3:50
until the LORD looks down from heaven and sees.
Lamentations 3:51
My eyes bring grief to my soul because of all the daughters of my city.
Lamentations 3:52
Without cause my enemies hunted me like a bird.
Lamentations 3:53
They dropped me alive into a pit and cast stones upon me.
Lamentations 3:54
The waters flowed over my head, and I thought I was going to die.
Lamentations 3:55
I called on Your name, O LORD, out of the depths of the Pit.
Lamentations 3:56
You heard my plea: “Do not ignore my cry for relief.”
Lamentations 3:57
You drew near when I called on You; You said, “Do not be afraid.”
Lamentations 3:58
You defend my cause, O Lord; You redeem my life.
Lamentations 3:59
You have seen, O LORD, the wrong done to me; vindicate my cause!
Lamentations 3:60
You have seen all their malice, all their plots against me.
Lamentations 3:61
O LORD, You have heard their insults, all their plots against me—
Lamentations 3:62
the slander and murmuring of my assailants against me all day long.
Lamentations 3:63
When they sit and when they rise, see how they mock me in song.
Lamentations 3:64
You will pay them back what they deserve, O LORD, according to the work of their hands.
Lamentations 3:65
Put a veil of anguish over their hearts; may Your curse be upon them!
Lamentations 3:66
You will pursue them in anger and exterminate them from under Your heavens, O LORD.