Lamentations 3

1 I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.

2 He has led me and caused me to walk in darkness, and not in light.

3 Surely he turns his hand against me, again and again all the day.

4 He has made my flesh and my skin old. He has broken my bones.

5 He has built against me, and encompassed me with gall and travail.

6 He has made me to dwell in dark places, as those who have long been dead.

7 He has walled me around, that I cannot go forth. He has made my chain heavy.

8 Yea, when I cry, and call for help, he shuts out my prayer.

9 He has walled up my ways with hewn stone. He has made my paths crooked.

10 He is to me as a bear lying in wait, as a lion in concealed places.

11 He has turned aside my ways, and pulled me in pieces. He has made me desolate.

12 He has bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow.

13 He has caused the shafts of his quiver to enter into my reins.

14 I have become a derision to all my people, and their song all the day.

15 He has filled me with bitterness. He has sated me with wormwood.

16 He has also broken my teeth with gravel stones. He has covered me with ashes.

17 And thou have removed my soul far off from peace. I forgot prosperity.

18 And I said, My strength is perished, and my expectation from Jehovah.

19 Remember my affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall.

20 My soul still has them in remembrance, and is bowed down within me.

21 This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope:

22 It is of Jehovah's loving kindnesses that we are not consumed, because his compassions do not fail.

23 They are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness.

24 Jehovah is my portion, says my soul, therefore I will hope in him.

25 Jehovah is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.

26 It is good that a man should hope and quietly wait for the salvation of Jehovah.

27 It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.

28 Let him sit alone and keep silence, because he has laid it upon him.

29 Let him put his mouth in the dust, if so be there may be hope.

30 Let him give his cheek to him who smites him. Let him be filled full with reproach.

31 For the Lord will not cast off forever.

32 For though he causes grief, yet he will have compassion according to the multitude of his loving kindnesses.

33 For he does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the sons of men.

34 To crush under foot all the prisoners of the earth,

35 to turn aside the right of a man before the face of the Most High,

36 to subvert a man in his cause, the Lord does not approve.

37 Who is he that says, and it comes to pass, when the Lord does not command it?

38 Out of the mouth of the Most High does there not come evil and good?

39 Why does a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?

40 Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to Jehovah.

41 Let us lift up our heart with our hands to God in the heavens.

42 We have transgressed and have rebelled. Thou have not pardoned.

43 Thou have covered with anger and pursued us. Thou have slain; thou have not pitied.

44 Thou have covered thyself with a cloud, so that no prayer can pass through.

45 Thou have made us an off-scouring and refuse in the midst of the peoples.

46 All our enemies have opened their mouth wide against us.

47 Fear and the pit have come upon us, devastation and destruction.

48 My eye runs down with streams of water, for the destruction of the daughter of my people.

49 My eye pours down, and does not cease, without any intermission,

50 till Jehovah looks down, and beholds from heaven.

51 My eye stirs my soul, because of all the daughters of my city.

52 They have chased me grievously like a bird, those who are my enemies without cause.

53 They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and have cast a stone upon me.

54 Waters flowed over my head. I said, I am cut off.

55 I called upon thy name, O Jehovah, out of the lowest dungeon.

56 Thou heard my voice. Hide not thine ear at my breathing, at my cry.

57 Thou drew near in the day that I called upon thee. Thou said, Fear not.

58 O Lord, thou have pleaded the causes of my soul. Thou have redeemed my life.

59 O Jehovah, thou have seen my wrong. Judge thou my cause.

60 Thou have seen all their vengeance and all their devices against me.

61 Thou have heard their reproach, O Jehovah, and all their devices against me,

62 the lips of those who rose up against me, and their device against me all the day.

63 Behold thou their sitting down, and their rising up. I am their song.

64 Thou will render to them a recompense, O Jehovah, according to the work of their hands.

65 Thou will give them hardness of heart, thy curse to them.

66 Thou will pursue them in anger, and destroy them from under the heavens of Jehovah.