Lamentations 3

¹ I am the man who has seen affliction
under the rod of his wrath.

² He drove me and made me walk
in darkness and not light.

³ Surely against me he turns his hand
again and again, all day long.

⁴ He wore away my flesh and my skin;
he broke my bones.

⁵ He besieged and surrounded me
with bitterness and hardship.

⁶ He made me dwell in darkness
like those long dead.

⁷ He walled me in so I cannot escape;
he made my chains heavy.

⁸ Though I cry out and plead for help,
he shuts out my prayer.

⁹ He blocked my ways with cut stones;
he made my paths crooked.

¹⁰ He is to me a bear lying in wait,
a lion in hiding.

¹¹ He turned aside my paths and tore me to pieces;
he made me desolate.

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

¹³ He drove into my kidneys
the shafts of his quiver.

¹⁴ I have become a laughingstock to all my people,
their mocking song all day long.

¹⁵ He filled me with bitterness;
he sated me with wormwood.

¹⁶ He ground my teeth with gravel;
he pressed me down into ashes.

¹⁷ My soul is deprived of peace;
I have forgotten what goodness is.

¹⁸ So I said, "My endurance has perished,
and my hope from the LORD."

¹⁹ Remember my affliction and my wandering,
the wormwood and the poison.

²⁰ My soul continually remembers
and is bowed down within me.

²¹ But this I call to mind,
and therefore I have hope:

²² The steadfast loves of the LORD never cease;
his mercies never come to an end.

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

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

²⁵ The LORD is good to those who wait for him,
to the soul who seeks him.

²⁶ It is good to wait quietly
for the salvation of the LORD.

²⁷ It is good for a man
that he bear the yoke in his youth.

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

²⁹ Let him put his mouth in the dust—
perhaps there is hope.

³⁰ Let him offer his cheek to the one who strikes him;
let him be filled with insults.

³¹ For the Lord will not
reject forever.

³² Though he causes grief, he will have compassion
according to the abundance of his steadfast love.

³³ For he does not afflict from his heart
or grieve the children of men.

³⁴ To crush under foot
all the prisoners of the earth,

³⁵ to deny a man justice
before the face of the Most High,

³⁶ to subvert a person in his lawsuit—
does the Lord not see it?

³⁷ Who has spoken and it came to pass,
unless the Lord has commanded it?

³⁸ Is it not from the mouth of the Most High
that both bad and good come?

³⁹ Why should a living person complain,
a man about the punishment of his sins?

⁴⁰ Let us examine and test our ways,
and return to the LORD.

⁴¹ Let us lift up our hearts with our hands
to God in heaven.

⁴² We have transgressed and rebelled;
you have not forgiven.

⁴³ You wrapped yourself in anger and pursued us;
you killed without pity.

⁴⁴ You wrapped yourself in a cloud
so that no prayer could pass through.

⁴⁵ You made us filth and refuse
among the peoples.

⁴⁶ All our enemies
open their mouths against us.

⁴⁷ Panic and pitfall have come upon us,
devastation and destruction.

⁴⁸ Streams of water run down from my eyes
because of the destruction of my dear people.

⁴⁹ My eyes flow without ceasing,
without relief,

⁵⁰ until the LORD looks down
and sees from heaven.

⁵¹ My eyes bring me grief
because of all the daughters of my city.

⁵² My enemies hunted me relentlessly
like a bird, without cause.

⁵³ They cut off my life in a pit
and cast stones on me.

⁵⁴ Waters closed over my head;
I said, "I am cut off."

⁵⁵ I called on your name, O LORD,
from the depths of the pit.

⁵⁶ You heard my voice;
do not close your ear to my cry for relief.

⁵⁷ You drew near on the day I called you;
you said, "Do not fear."

⁵⁸ You pleaded the cause of my soul, O Lord;
you redeemed my life.

⁵⁹ You have seen, O LORD, the wrong done to me;
judge my case.

⁶⁰ You have seen all their vengeance,
all their plots against me.

⁶¹ You have heard their taunts, O LORD,
all their plots against me—

⁶² the lips of my assailants and their murmuring
against me all day long.

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

⁶⁴ Repay them, O LORD,
according to the work of their hands.

⁶⁵ Give them dullness of heart;
your curse be upon them.

⁶⁶ Pursue them in anger and destroy them
from under the heavens of the LORD.