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Lamentations 3

The Prophet’s Anguish and Hope

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

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

³Surely He has turned His hand against me Time and time again throughout the day.

⁴He has aged my flesh and my skin, And broken my bones.

⁵He has besieged me And surrounded me with bitterness and woe.

⁶He has set me in dark places Like the dead of long ago.

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

⁸Even when I cry and shout, He shuts out my prayer.

⁹He has blocked my ways with hewn stone; He has made my paths crooked.

¹⁰He has been to me a bear lying in wait, Like a lion in ambush.

¹¹He has turned aside my ways and torn me in pieces; He has made me desolate.

¹²He has bent His bow And set me up as a target for the arrow.

¹³He has caused the arrows of His quiver To pierce my loins.

¹⁴I have become the ridicule of all my people— Their taunting song all the day.

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

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

¹⁷You have moved my soul far from peace; I have forgotten prosperity.

¹⁸And I said, “My strength and my hope Have perished from the Lord.”

¹⁹Remember my affliction and roaming, The wormwood and the gall.

²⁰My soul still remembers And sinks within me.

²¹This I recall to my mind, Therefore I have hope.

²²Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not.

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

²⁴“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “Therefore I hope in Him!”

²⁵The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, To the soul who seeks Him.

²⁶It is good that one should hope and wait quietly 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 silent, Because God has laid it on him;

²⁹Let him put his mouth in the dust— There may yet be hope.

³⁰Let him give his cheek to the one who strikes him, And be full of reproach.

³¹For the Lord will not cast off forever.

³²Though He causes grief, Yet He will show compassion According to the multitude of His mercies.

³³For He does not afflict willingly, Nor grieve the children of men.

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

³⁵To turn aside the justice due a man Before the face of the Most High,

³⁶Or subvert a man in his cause— The Lord does not approve.

³⁷Who is he who speaks and it comes to pass, When the Lord has not commanded it?

³⁸Is it not from the mouth of the Most High That woe and well-being proceed?

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

⁴⁰Let us search out and examine our ways, And turn back to the Lord;

⁴¹Let us lift our hearts and hands To God in heaven.

⁴²We have transgressed and rebelled; You have not pardoned.

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

⁴⁴You have covered Yourself with a cloud, That prayer should not pass through.

⁴⁵You have made us an offscouring and refuse In the midst of the peoples.

⁴⁶All our enemies Have opened their mouths against us.

⁴⁷Fear and a snare have come upon us, Desolation and destruction.

⁴⁸My eyes overflow with rivers of water For the destruction of the daughter of my people.

⁴⁹My eyes flow and do not cease, Without interruption,

⁵⁰Till the Lord from heaven Looks down and sees.

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

⁵²My enemies without cause Hunted me down like a bird.

⁵³They silenced my life in the pit And threw stones at me.

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

⁵⁵I called on Your name, O Lord, From the lowest pit.

⁵⁶You have heard my voice: “Do not hide Your ear From my sighing, from my cry for help.”

⁵⁷You drew near on the day I called on You, And said, “Do not fear!”

⁵⁸O Lord, You have pleaded the case for my soul; You have redeemed my life.

⁵⁹O Lord, You have seen how I am wronged; Judge my case.

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

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

⁶²The lips of my enemies And their whispering against me all the day.

⁶³Look at their sitting down and their rising up; I am their taunting song.

⁶⁴Repay them, O Lord, According to the work of their hands.

⁶⁵Give them a veiled heart; Your curse be upon them!

⁶⁶In Your anger, Pursue and destroy them From under the heavens of the Lord.

Lamentations 3 (NKJV)

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Lamentations

Chapter 3

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