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Lamentations 3

Jeremiah Shares Israel’s Misery

¹I am the man who has seen misery Because of the rod of His wrath.

²He has driven me and made me walk In darkness and not in light.

³Indeed, He has turned His hand against me Repeatedly all the day.

⁴He has consumed my flesh and my skin, He has broken my bones.

⁵He has besieged and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship.

⁶He has made me live in dark places, Like those who have long been dead.

⁷He has walled me in so that I cannot go out; He has made my chain heavy.

⁸Even when I cry out and call for help, He shuts out my prayer.

⁹He has blocked my ways with cut stone; He has twisted my paths.

¹⁰He is to me like a bear lying in wait, Like a lion in secret places.

¹¹He has made my ways deviate, and torn me to pieces; He has made me desolate.

¹²He bent His bow And took aim at me as a target for the arrow.

¹³He made the arrows of His quiver Enter my inward parts.

¹⁴I have become a laughingstock to all my people, Their song of ridicule all the day.

¹⁵He has filled me with bitterness, He has made me drink plenty of wormwood.

¹⁶He has also made my teeth grind with gravel; He has made me cower in the dust.

¹⁷My soul has been excluded from peace; I have forgotten happiness.

¹⁸So I say, “My strength has failed, And so has my hope from the Lord.”

Hope of Relief in God’s Mercy

¹⁹¶Remember my misery and my homelessness, the wormwood and bitterness.

²⁰My soul certainly remembers, And is bent over within me.

²¹I recall this to my mind, Therefore I wait.

²²The Lord’s acts of mercy indeed do not end, For His compassions do not fail.

²³They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.

²⁴“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “Therefore I wait for Him.”

²⁵The Lord is good to those who await Him, To the person who seeks Him.

²⁶It is good that he waits silently For the salvation of the Lord.

²⁷It is good for a man to bear The yoke in his youth.

²⁸Let him sit alone and keep quiet, Since He has laid it on him.

²⁹Let him put his mouth in the dust; Perhaps there is hope.

³⁰Let him give his cheek to the one who is going to strike him; Let him be filled with shame.

³¹For the Lord will not reject forever,

³²For if He causes grief, Then He will have compassion In proportion to His abundant mercy.

³³For He does not afflict willingly Or grieve the sons of mankind.

³⁴To crush under one’s feet All the prisoners of the land,

³⁵To deprive a man of justice In the presence of the Most High,

³⁶To defraud someone in his lawsuit— Of these things the Lord does not approve.

³⁷Who is there who speaks and it comes to pass, Unless the Lord has commanded it?

³⁸Is it not from the mouth of the Most High That both adversity and good proceed?

³⁹¶Of what can any living mortal, or any man, Complain in view of his sins?

⁴⁰Let’s examine and search out our ways, And let’s return to the Lord.

⁴¹We raise our heart and hands Toward God in heaven;

⁴²We have done wrong and rebelled; You have not pardoned.

⁴³You have covered Yourself with anger And pursued us; You have slain and have not spared.

⁴⁴You have veiled Yourself with a cloud So that no prayer can pass through.

⁴⁵You have made us mere refuse and rubbish In the midst of the peoples.

⁴⁶All our enemies have opened their mouths against us.

⁴⁷Panic and pitfall have come upon us, Devastation and destruction;

⁴⁸My eyes run down with streams of water Because of the destruction of the daughter of my people.

⁴⁹My eyes flow unceasingly, Without stopping,

⁵⁰Until the Lord looks down And sees from heaven.

⁵¹My eyes bring pain to my soul Because of all the daughters of my city.

⁵²My enemies without reason Hunted me down like a bird;

⁵³They have silenced me in the pit And have thrown stones on me.

⁵⁴Waters flowed over my head; I said, “I am cut off!”

⁵⁵I called on Your name, Lord, Out of the lowest pit.

⁵⁶You have heard my voice, “Do not cover Your ear from my plea for relief, From my cry for help.”

⁵⁷You came near on the day I called to You; You said, “Do not fear!”

⁵⁸Lord, You have pleaded my soul’s cause; You have redeemed my life.

⁵⁹Lord, You have seen my oppression; Judge my case.

⁶⁰You have seen all their vengeance, All their schemes against me.

⁶¹You have heard their reproach, Lord, All their schemes against me.

⁶²The lips of my assailants and their talk Are against me all day long.

⁶³Look at their sitting and their rising; I am their mocking song.

⁶⁴You will repay them, Lord, In accordance with the work of their hands.

⁶⁵You will give them shamelessness of heart, Your curse will be on them.

⁶⁶You will pursue them in anger and eliminate them From under the heavens of the Lord!

Lamentations 3 (NASB)

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Lamentations

Chapter 3

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