Lamentations 3

1I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.

2Me hath he led, and brought into darkness, and not into light.

3Surely against me hath he turned again and again his hand all the day.

4My flesh and my skin hath he wasted away, he hath broken my bones.

5He hath built against me, and encompassed [me] with gall and toil.

6He hath made me to dwell in dark places as those that have been long dead.

7He hath hedged me about that I cannot get out: he hath made my chain heavy.

8Even when I cry and shout, he shutteth out my prayer.

9He hath inclosed my ways with hewn stone, he hath made my paths crooked.

10He is unto me [as] a bear lying in wait, a lion in secret places.

11He hath turned aside my ways, and pulled me in pieces; he hath made me desolate.

12He hath bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow.

13He hath caused the arrows of his quiver to enter into my reins.

14I am become a derision to all my people; their song all the day.

15He hath sated me with bitterness, he hath made me drunk with wormwood.

16He hath also broken my teeth with gravel stones, he hath covered me with ashes.

17And thou hast removed my soul far off from peace: I have forgotten prosperity.

18And I said, My strength is perished, and my hope in Jehovah.

19Remember thou mine affliction and my wandering, the wormwood and the gall.

20My soul hath [them] constantly in remembrance, and is humbled in me.

21— This I recall to heart, therefore have I hope.

22It is of Jehovah's loving-kindness we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not;

23they are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.

24Jehovah is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him.

25Jehovah is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul [that] seeketh him.

26It is good that one should both wait, and that in silence, for the salvation of Jehovah.

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

28He sitteth solitary and keepeth silence, because he hath laid it upon him;

29he putteth his mouth in the dust, if so be there may be hope;

30he giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him; he is filled full with reproach.

31For the Lord will not cast off for ever;

32but if he have caused grief, he will have compassion according to the multitude of his loving-kindnesses:

33for he doth not willingly afflict or grieve the children of men.

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

35to turn aside the right of a man before the face of the Most High,

36to wrong a man in his cause, — will not the Lord see it?

37Who is he that saith, and there cometh to pass, what the Lord hath not commanded?

38Out of the mouth of the Most High doth not there proceed evil and good?

39Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?

40Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to Jehovah.

41Let us lift up our heart with [our] hands unto ElGod in the heavens.

42We have transgressed and have rebelled: thou hast not pardoned.

43Thou hast covered thyself with anger, and pursued us; thou hast slain, thou hast not spared.

44Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud, that prayer should not pass through.

45Thou hast made us the offscouring and refuse in the midst of the peoples.

46All our enemies have opened their mouth against us.

47Fear and the pit are come upon us, devastation and ruin.

48Mine eye runneth down with streams of water for the ruin of the daughter of my people.

49Mine eye poureth down, and ceaseth not, without any intermission,

50till Jehovah look down and behold from the heavens.

51Mine eye affecteth my soul, because of all the daughters of my city.

52They that are mine enemies without cause have chased me sore like a bird.

53They have cut off my life in a pit, and cast a stone upon me.

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

55I called upon thy name, Jehovah, out of the lowest pit.

56Thou hast heard my voice: hide not thine ear at my sighing, at my cry.

57Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee; thou saidst, Fear not.

58Lord, thou hast pleaded the cause of my soul, thou hast redeemed my life.

59Jehovah, thou hast seen my wrong: judge thou my cause.

60Thou hast seen all their vengeance, all their imaginations against me.

61Thou hast heard their reproach, O Jehovah, all their imaginations against me;

62the lips of those that rise up against me and their meditation against me all the day.

63Behold thou their sitting down and their rising up: I am their song.

64Render unto them a recompence, O Jehovah, according to the work of their hands;

65give them obduracy of heart, thy curse unto them;

66pursue them in anger, and destroy them from under the heavens of Jehovah.