Lamentations 3
Jeremiah Shares Israel’s Affliction
1I am the man who has aseen afflictionBecause of the rod of His wrath.
2He has driven me and made me walk
In bdarkness and not in light.
3Surely against me He has cturned His hand
Repeatedly all the day.
4He has caused my dflesh and my skin to waste away,
He has ebroken my bones.
5He has fbesieged and encompassed me with gbitterness and hardship.
6In hdark places He has made me dwell,
Like those who have long been dead.
7He has iwalled me in so that I cannot go out;
He has made my ▼
▼ Lit bronze piece
,
kchain heavy.8Even when I cry out and call for help,
He lshuts out my prayer.
9He has mblocked my ways with hewn stone;
He has made my paths crooked.
10He is to me like a bear lying in wait,
Like a lion in secret places.
11He has turned aside my ways and ntorn me to pieces;
He has made me desolate.
12He obent His bow
And pset me as a target for the arrow.
13He made the ▼
▼ Lit sons
arrows of His rquiverTo enter into my ▼
▼ Lit kidneys
inward parts.14I have become a tlaughingstock to all my people,
Their mocking usong all the day.
15He has vfilled me with bitterness,
He has made me drunk with wormwood.
16He has wbroken my teeth with xgravel;
He has made me cower in the ydust.
17My soul has been rejected zfrom peace;
I have forgotten ▼
▼ Lit good
happiness.18So I say, “My strength has perished,
And so has my abhope from the Lord.”
Hope of Relief in God’s Mercy
19Remember my affliction and my ▼▼ Or bitterness
wandering, the adwormwood and bitterness.20Surely aemy soul remembers
And is afbowed down within me.
21This I recall to my mind,
Therefore I have aghope.
22The Lord’s ahlovingkindnesses ▼
▼ Or that we are not consumed
indeed never cease,ajFor His compassions never fail.
23 They are new akevery morning;
Great is alYour faithfulness.
24“The Lord is my amportion,” says my soul,
“Therefore I anhave hope in Him.”
25The Lord is good to those who aowait for Him,
To the ▼
▼ Lit soul
person who aqseeks Him.26 It is good that he arwaits silently
For the salvation of the Lord.
27 It is good for a man that he should bear
The yoke in his youth.
28Let him assit alone and be silent
Since He has laid it on him.
29Let him ▼
▼ Lit give
put his mouth in the audust,Perhaps there is avhope.
30Let him give his awcheek to ▼
▼ Lit his
the smiter,Let him be filled with reproach.
31For the Lord will aynot reject forever,
32For if He causes grief,
Then He will have azcompassion
According to His abundant lovingkindness.
33For He badoes not afflict ▼
▼ Lit from His heart
willinglyOr grieve the sons of men.
34To crush under His feet
All the prisoners of the ▼
▼ Or earth
land,35To ▼
▼ Or turn aside a man’s case
deprive a man of bejusticeIn the presence of the Most High,
36To ▼
▼ Lit make crooked
,
bgdefraud a man in his lawsuit—Of these things the Lord does not ▼
▼ Lit see
approve.37Who is ▼
▼ Lit this
there who speaks and it bjcomes to pass,Unless the Lord has commanded it?
38 Is it not from the mouth of the Most High
That ▼
▼ Lit the evil things and the good
,
blboth good and ill go forth?39Why should any living ▼
▼ Or human being
mortal, or any man,Offer bncomplaint ▼
▼ Or on the basis of
in view of his sins?40Let us bpexamine and probe our ways,
And let us return to the Lord.
41We bqlift up our heart ▼
▼ Lit toward our
and handsToward God in heaven;
42We have bstransgressed and rebelled,
You have btnot pardoned.
43You have covered Yourself with buanger
And bvpursued us;
You have slain and bwhave not spared.
44You have bxcovered Yourself with a cloud
So that byno prayer can pass through.
45 You have made us mere bzoffscouring and refuse
In the midst of the peoples.
46All our enemies have caopened their mouths against us.
47 cbPanic and pitfall have befallen us,
Devastation and destruction;
48My ▼
▼ Lit eye brings
,
cdeyes run down with streams of waterBecause of the destruction of the daughter of my people.
49My eyes pour down ceunceasingly,
Without stopping,
50Until the Lord cflooks down
And sees from heaven.
51My eyes bring pain to my soul
Because of all the daughters of my city.
52My enemies cgwithout cause
Hunted me down chlike a bird;
53They have silenced ▼
▼ Lit my life
me cjin the pitAnd have ▼
▼ Or cast stones
,
clplaced a stone on me.54Waters flowed cmover my head;
I said, “I am cut off!”
55I cncalled on Your name, O Lord,
Out of the lowest pit.
56You have coheard my voice,
cp“Do not hide Your ear from my prayer for relief,
From my cry for help.”
57You cqdrew near when I called on You;
You said, cr“Do not fear!”
58O Lord, You cshave pleaded my soul’s cause;
You have ctredeemed my life.
59O Lord, You have cuseen my oppression;
cvJudge my case.
60You have seen all their vengeance,
All their cwschemes against me.
61You have heard their cxreproach, O Lord,
All their schemes against me.
62The cylips of my assailants and their whispering
Are against me all day long.
63Look on their czsitting and their rising;
daI am their mocking song.
64You will dbrecompense them, O Lord,
According to the work of their hands.
65You will give them ▼
▼ Or insolence
,
ddhardness of heart,Your curse will be on them.
66You will depursue them in anger and destroy them
From under the dfheavens of the Lord!
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