Lamentations 3

¹ I am a man who knows affliction from the rod of his anger,

² One whom he has led and forced to walk in darkness, not in the light;

³ Against me alone he brings back his hand again and again all the day.

⁴ He has worn away my flesh and my skin, he has broken my bones;

⁵ He has beset me round about with poverty and weariness;

⁶ He has left me to dwell in the dark like those long dead.

⁷ He has hemmed me in with no escape and weighed me down with chains;

⁸ Even when I cry out for help, he stops my prayer;

⁹ He has blocked my ways with fitted stones, and turned my paths aside.

¹⁰ A lurking bear he has been to me, a lion in ambush!

¹¹ He deranged my ways, set me astray, left me desolate.

¹² He bent his bow, and set me up as the target for his arrow.

¹³ He pierces my sides with shafts from his quiver.

¹⁴ I have become a laughingstock for all nations, their taunt all the day long;

¹⁵ He has sated me with bitter food, made me drink my fill of wormwood.

¹⁶ He has broken my teeth with gravel, pressed my face in the dust;

¹⁷ My soul is deprived of peace, I have forgotten what happiness is;

¹⁸ I tell myself my future is lost, all that I hoped for from the LORD.

¹⁹ The thought of my homeless poverty is wormwood and gall;

²⁰ Remembering it over and over leaves my soul downcast within me.

²¹ But I will call this to mind, as my reason to have hope:

²² The favors of the LORD are not exhausted, his mercies are not spent;

²³ They are renewed each morning, so great is his faithfulness.

²⁴ My portion is the LORD, says my soul; therefore will I hope in him.

²⁵ Good is the LORD to one who waits for him, to the soul that seeks him;

²⁶ It is good to hope in silence for the saving help of the LORD.

²⁷ It is good for a man to bear the yoke from his youth.

²⁸ Let him sit alone and in silence, when it is laid upon him.

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

³⁰ Let him offer his cheek to be struck, let him be filled with disgrace.

³¹ For the Lord's rejection does not last forever;

³² Though he punishes, he takes pity, in the abundance of his mercies;

³³ He has no joy in afflicting or grieving the sons of men.

³⁴ When anyone tramples underfoot all the prisoners in the land,

³⁵ When he distorts men's rights in the very sight of the Most High,

³⁶ When he presses a crooked claim, the Lord does not look on unconcerned.

³⁷ Who commands so that it comes to pass, except the Lord ordains it;

³⁸ Except it proceeds from the mouth of the Most High, whether the thing be good or bad!

³⁹ Why should any living man complain, any mortal, in the face of his sins?

⁴⁰ Let us search and examine our ways that we may return to the LORD!

⁴¹ Let us reach out our hearts toward God in heaven!

⁴² We have sinned and rebelled; you have not forgiven us.

⁴³ You veiled yourself in wrath and pursued us, you slew us and took no pity;

⁴⁴ You wrapped yourself in a cloud which prayer could not pierce.

⁴⁵ You have made us offscourings and refuse among the nations.

⁴⁶ All our enemies have opened their mouths against us;

⁴⁷ Terror and the pit have been our lot, desolation and destruction;

⁴⁸ My eyes run with streams of water over the downfall of the daughter of my people.

⁴⁹ My eyes flow without ceasing, there is no respite,

⁵⁰ Till the LORD from heaven looks down and sees.

⁵¹ My eyes torment my soul at the sight of all the daughters of my city.

⁵² Those who were my enemies without cause hunted me down like a bird;

⁵³ They struck me down alive in the pit, and sealed me in with a stone.

⁵⁴ The waters flowed over my head, and I said, "I am lost!"

⁵⁵ I called upon your name, O LORD, from the bottom of the pit;

⁵⁶ You heard me call, "Let not your ear be deaf to my cry for help!"

⁵⁷ You came to my aid when I called to you; you said, "Have no fear!"

⁵⁸ You defended me in mortal danger, you redeemed my life.

⁵⁹ You see, O LORD, how I am wronged; do me justice!

⁶⁰ You see all their vindictiveness, all their plots against me.

⁶¹ You hear their insults, O LORD, (all their plots against me),

⁶² The whispered murmurings of my foes, against me all the day;

⁶³ Whether they sit or stand, see, I am their taunt song.

⁶⁴ Requite them as they deserve, O LORD, according to their deeds;

⁶⁵ Give them hardness of heart, as your curse upon them;

⁶⁶ Pursue them in wrath and destroy them from under your heavens!