Lamentations Chapter 3 Back Next{3:1} I am the man that has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.
{3:2} He has led me and caused me to walk in
darkness, and not in light.
{3:3} Surely against me he turns his hand again and again all the day.
{3:4} My
flesh and my skin has he made old; he has broken my bones.
{3:5} He has built against me, and surrounded me with
gall and travail.
{3:6} He has made me to dwell in dark places, as those that have been long dead.
{3:7} He has walled me about, that I can't go forth; he has made my
chain heavy.
{3:8} Yes, when I cry, and call for help, he shuts out my prayer.
{3:9} He has walled up my ways with cut stone; he has made my paths crooked.
{3:10} He is to me as a bear lying in wait, as a
lion in secret places.
{3:11} He has turned aside my ways, and pulled me in pieces; he has made me desolate.
{3:12} He has bent his
bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow.
{3:13} He has caused the shafts of his quiver to enter into my kidneys.
{3:14} I am become a derision to all my people, and their song all the day.
{3:15} He has filled me with
bitterness, he has sated me with wormwood.
{3:16} He has also broken my teeth with gravel stones; he has covered me with ashes.
{3:17} You have removed my soul far off from peace; I forgot prosperity.
{3:18} I said, My strength is perished, and my expectation from Yahweh.
{3:19} Remember my affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall.
{3:20} My soul still remembers them, and is bowed down within me.
{3:21} This I recall to my mind; therefore have I
hope.
{3:22} It is because of Yahweh's loving kindnesses that we are not consumed, because his compassion doesn't fail.
{3:23} They are new every morning; great is your
faithfulness.
{3:24} Yahweh is my portion, says my soul; therefore will I hope in him.
{3:25} Yahweh is good to those who wait for him, to the soul that seeks him.
{3:26} It is good that a man should hope and quietly wait for the salvation of Yahweh.
{3:27} It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.
{3:28} Let him sit alone and keep silence, because he has laid it on him.
{3:29} Let him put his mouth in the
dust, if so be there may be hope.
{3:30} Let him give his
cheek to him who strikes him; let him be filled full with reproach.
{3:31} For the Lord will not cast off forever.
{3:32} For though he cause grief, yet he will have compassion according to the multitude of his loving kindnesses.
{3:33} For he does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men.
{3:34} To crush under foot all the prisoners of the
earth,
{3:35} To turn aside the right of a man before the face of the Most High,
{3:36} To subvert a man in his cause, the Lord doesn't approve.
{3:37} Who is he who says, and it comes to pass, when the Lord doesn't command it?
{3:38} Doesn't evil and good come out of the mouth of the Most High?
{3:39} Why does a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?
{3:40} Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to Yahweh.
{3:41} Let us lift up our
heart with our hands to
God in the
heavens.
{3:42} We have transgressed and have rebelled; you have not pardoned.
{3:43} You have covered with anger and pursued us; you have killed, you have not pitied.
{3:44} You have covered yourself with a
cloud, so that no prayer can pass through.
{3:45} You have made us an off-scouring and refuse in the midst of the peoples.
{3:46} All our enemies have opened their mouth wide against us.
{3:47} Fear and the pit have come on us, devastation and destruction.
{3:48} My eye runs down with streams of water, for the destruction of the daughter of my people.
{3:49} My eye pours down, and doesn't cease, without any intermission,
{3:50} Until Yahweh look down, and see from heaven.
{3:51} My eye affects my soul, because of all the daughters of my city.
{3:52} They have chased me relentlessly like a
bird, those who are my enemies without cause.
{3:53} They have cut off my life in the
dungeon, and have cast a stone on me.
{3:54} Waters flowed over my head; I said, I am cut off.
{3:55} I called on your name, Yahweh, out of the lowest dungeon.
{3:56} You heard my voice; don't hide your ear at my breathing, at my cry.
{3:57} You drew near in the day that I called on you; you said, Don't be afraid.
{3:58} Lord, you have pleaded the causes of my soul; you have redeemed my life.
{3:59} Yahweh, you have seen my wrong. Judge my cause.
{3:60} You have seen all their vengeance and all their devices against me.
{3:61} You have heard their reproach, Yahweh, and all their devices against me,
{3:62} The lips of those that rose up against me, and their device against me all the day.
{3:63} You see their sitting down, and their rising up; I am their song.
{3:64} You will render to them a recompense, Yahweh, according to the work of their hands.
{3:65} You will give them hardness of heart, your curse to them.
{3:66} You will pursue them in anger, and destroy them from under the heavens of Yahweh.
Lamentations Chapter 3 Back Next