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Lamentations

Suffering and Hope in God's Steadfast Love

3
Chapter 3
1 I have seen affliction by the rod of his indignation. 2 He drove me into darkness and not into light. 3 He turns his hand against me all day long. 4 He has worn out my flesh and my skin; he has broken my bones. 5 He has built up bitterness against me and surrounded me with gall and weariness. 6 He has made me dwell in dark places like the dead of eternity. 7 He has walled me in so that I cannot go out; he has made my chain heavy. 8 Even when I cry out and shout, he shuts up my prayer. 9 He walled in my ways with dressed stones; he made my paths crooked. 10 A bear lying in wait for me, a lion in secret places. 11 He turned aside my way and tore me in pieces; he made me desolate in a wasteland. 12 He has directed his bow and set me as a mark for the arrow. 13 He brought the son of his quiver into my kidneys. 14 I have been a laughingstock to all my people, their taunt-song all the day. 15 He has sated me with bitterness, my roaring with oppression. 16 He has made me grind my teeth on gravel; he has rolled me in ashes. 17 And he has rejected my soul from peace; I have forgotten good. 18 And I said, "My endurance has perished, and my hope from the LORD." 19 Remember my poverty and my rebellion, wormwood and gall. 20 Remember—you will remember, and you will sink down over me, my soul. 21 This I call to mind; therefore I have hope. 22 The steadfast love of the LORD never comes to an end, for his compassions never fail. 23 They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. 24 "The LORD is my portion," my soul said to herself; "therefore I will wait for him." 25 The LORD is good to the one who waits for him, to the soul that seeks him. 26 It is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD. 27 It is good for a man that he bears the yoke in his youth. 28 He sat alone and was silent because it had come upon him. 29 He puts his mouth in the dust—perhaps there is hope. 30 He gives his cheek to the one who strikes him; he is filled with reproach. 31 For the Lord will not cast off forever. 32 for 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 sons of men. 34 to crush under his feet all the prisoners of the earth 35 to pervert a man's justice in the face of the Most High. 36 The Lord has not seen injustice in humanity's lawsuit. 37 Who says this, and it happens, when the Lord has not commanded it? 38 Does not evil and good come from the mouth of the Most High? 39 Why should a living man complain, a man for his sins? 40 Let us search our ways and probe them, and return to the LORD. 41 Let us lift up our hearts with our outstretched hands to God in the heavens. 42 We have rebelled, and we have rebelled against you; you have not forgiven. 43 You covered us with anger and pursued us; you killed us and did not spare us. 44 You have covered yourself with a cloud so that no prayer can pass through. 45 You set us in the midst of the peoples as refuse and an abomination. 46 All our enemies opened their mouths against us. 47 Terror and the pit have come to us as desolation and shattering. 48 Streams of water run down from my eyes because of the destruction of the daughter of my people. 49 My eyes flow and will not stop, ceaselessly. 50 until the LORD looks down from the heavens and sees. 51 My eyes afflict me for my nephesh because of all the daughters of my city. 52 My enemies hunted me like a bird without cause. 53 They have sealed my life in the pit, and they have placed a stone upon me. 54 Waters covered my head; I said, "I have been cut off." 55 I called on your name, LORD, from the depths of the pit. 56 You heard my voice. Do not hide your ear from my spirit, from my salvation. 57 You approached on the day I called you; you said, "Do not fear." 58 You have pleaded my case, O LORD; you have redeemed my life. 59 You have seen, O LORD, my presumptuous acts. Judge my justice. 60 You have seen all their vengeance against me, all their thoughts against me. 61 You have heard their reproach, LORD, all their thoughts against me. 62 The lips of my adversaries and their mutterings against me all the day. 63 Their sitting down and their rising up—they gaze at it; I am their taunting song. 64 You will return reciprocity to them, LORD, according to the deed of their hands. 65 You will give them a shield for the heart, your curse to them. 66 You will pursue them in anger and destroy them from under the heavens of the LORD.