Lamentations 3

1 I am the man that 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 against me he turns his hand again and again all the day.

4 My flesh and my skin he has made old; he has broken my bones.

5 He has built against me, and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship.

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

7 He has walled me in, so I can't escape; he has made my chains heavy.

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

9 He has walled up my ways with cut stone; he has made my paths crooked.

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

11 He has obstructed my path, and torn 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 arrows of his quiver to pierce my inward parts.

14 I have become a laughingstock to all peoples, and their song all the day.

15 He has filled me with bitterness, he has given me in full measure wormwood.

16 He has also broken my teeth with gravel; he has pressed me down in the dust.

17 You have removed my soul far away from peace; I have forgotten what prosperity is.

18 And I said, "My strength and my hope has perished from YHWH."

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

20 My soul considers them, and is depressed.

21 But this I call to my mind; therefore I have hope:

22 YHWH's faithful love does not cease; his compassion does not fail.

23 They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

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

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

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

27 It is good for a man that he bear the yoke while he is young.

28 Let him sit alone and keep silence when he is disciplining him.

29 Let him put his mouth to the dust, there may yet be hope.

30 Let him give his cheek to him who strikes him; let him be filled with insults.

31 For YHWH will not reject forever.

32 For though he may cause grief, yet he will have compassion according to the abundance of his loving kindness.

33 For he is not predisposed to bring affliction or suffering to human beings.

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

35 to deprive a man of justice before the face of the Most High,

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

37 Who can speak a thing and have it come to pass, unless YHWH has commanded it?

38 Doesn't both calamity and good come out of the mouth of the Most High?

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

40 Let us examine and search our ways, and return to YHWH.

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

42 We have transgressed and have rebelled, and you have not forgiven.

43 You have covered yourself with anger and pursued us; you killed without sparing.

44 You have covered yourself with a cloud, so that no prayer can pass through.

45 You have made us rubbish 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 on us, devastation and destruction.

48 Streams of tears run down from my eyes because of the destruction of the daughter of my people.

49 My tears flow and do not cease, without respite,

50 until YHWH looks down and sees from heaven.

51 My eyes bring my soul grief, because of all the daughters of my city.

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

53 They have cut off my life in a pit, and have cast a stone on me.

54 Waters flowed over my head; I said, 'I am finished.'

55 I called on your name, YHWH, out of the depths of the pit.

56 You heard my voice; do not hide your ear at my sighs, to my cry.

57 You drew near in the day that I called on you; you said, "Do not be afraid."

58 YHWH, you have taken up the case for my soul; you have redeemed my life.

59 You have seen, YHWH, the wrong done to me; judge my case.

60 You have seen all their vengeance and all their plots against me.

61 You have heard their insults, YHWH, and all their plots against me.

62 The lips of those that rose up against me, and their plots against me all day long.

63 Look their sitting down, and their rising up; I am their mocking song.

64 You will render to them what they deserve, YHWH, according to the work of their hands.

65 You will give them hardness of heart as your curse to them.

66 You will pursue them in anger, and destroy them from under the heavens of YHWH.