Lamentations 3

1I am the man who has seen misery under the rod of his fury.

2He has herded me along and made me walk in darkness, not light.

3Yes, it is against me he turns his hand, time after time, the whole day.

4He has worn out my flesh and my skin; he has shattered my bones.

5He has built siege works against me and encircled me with bitter poison and toil.

6He has made me sit in dark places like the dead of ages past.

7He has fenced me in, and I cannot get out; he has made my bronze fetters heavy.

8Even when I cry out and shout for help, he stops up my prayer.

9He has fenced off my roads with hewn stone; he has twisted my paths.

10To me he is a bear waiting in ambush, a lion in its hiding places.

11He has pulled me off my roads and ripped me apart; he has left me devastated.

12He strung his bow and made me stand as the mark for his arrow.

13He has driven the shafts from his quiver into my vitals.

14I have become something for all my people to laugh at, the theme of their mocking songs all day long.

15He has fed me bitter plants until I am full; he has drenched me with wormwood.

16He has ground my teeth on gravel and pressed me down into the ashes.

17My soul is thrust away from peace; I no longer remember what good is.

18I said, “My strength to endure has perished, along with what I hoped for from Yahweh.”

19Remember my misery and my homelessness, the wormwood and the bitter poison!

20My soul keeps them in mind all the time, and it sinks low within me.

21Yet this I bring back to my heart, and so I have hope:

22Yahweh’s steadfast love is why we have not perished; his compassions have not run dry.

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

24“Yahweh is my portion,” my soul says; “that is why I will put my hope in him.”

25Yahweh is good to those who look to him in hope, to the person who seeks him out.

26It is good to hope in silence for Yahweh’s salvation.

27It is good for a man to carry the yoke in the days of his youth.

28Let him sit by himself and be still, since it has been placed on him.

29Let him press his mouth into the dust; perhaps there is still hope.

30Let him hold out his cheek to the one who hits him; let him have his fill of reproach.

31For the Lord will not reject forever.

32Though he has caused sorrow, he will also show compassion by the greatness of his steadfast love.

33For it is not from his heart that he afflicts or brings sorrow to human beings.

34To grind under one’s feet all the captives of the land,

35to deprive someone of justice before the very face of the Most High,

36to wrong a person in his case—the Lord does not look kindly on these things.

37Who is it that speaks and it comes about, if the Lord has not ordered it?

38Do disaster and good not both come out of the mouth of the Most High?

39Why should anyone alive complain, any man, over his own sins?

40Let us search out our ways and probe them, and turn back to Yahweh.

41Let us raise our hearts along with our palms to God in heaven:

42We are the ones who transgressed and were defiant, and you have not pardoned.

43You have shrouded yourself in anger and chased us; you have slain and shown no mercy.

44You have shrouded yourself in cloud to keep prayer from getting past.

45You make us filth and rubbish in the midst of the peoples.

46Our enemies, every one, have opened their mouths wide at us.

47Fear and the pit have been our share, ruin and shattering.

48My eyes run down with channels of water over the shattering of the daughter of my people.

49My eyes pour down and will not be still; there is no letup,

50until Yahweh peers down from heaven and sees.

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

52Without reason my enemies have hunted me hard, as one hunts a bird.

53They put an end to my life in the pit and threw a stone over me.

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

55I called out your name, Yahweh, from the lowest pit.

56You heard my voice: “Do not hide your ear from my plea for relief, from my cry!”

57On the day I called to you, you drew near; you said, “Do not be afraid!”

58Lord, you have argued my soul’s case; you have redeemed my life.

59Yahweh, you have seen how I have been wronged; decide my case!

60You have seen all their revenge, all their schemes against me.

61You have heard their scorn, Yahweh, all their schemes against me,

62the lips of those who rise against me and their muttering against me all day long.

63Look at them! Whether they sit or stand, I am the theme of their mocking songs.

64Repay them what they are due, Yahweh, for the deeds of their hands.

65Give them hearts shut tight; let your curse rest on them!

66Chase them in anger and wipe them out from under Yahweh’s heavens.