Lamentations 3:1-57

1This chapter is an acrostic poem; the verses of each stanza begin with the successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet, and the verses within each stanza begin with the same letter. I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of the LORD ’s wrath.

2He has driven me away and made me walk in darkness rather than light;

3indeed, he has turned his hand against me again and again, all day long.

4He has made my skin and my flesh grow old and has broken my bones.

5He has besieged me and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship.

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

7He has walled me in so I cannot escape; he has weighed me down with chains.

8Even when I call out or cry for help, he shuts out my prayer.

9He has barred my way with blocks of stone; he has made my paths crooked.

10Like a bear lying in wait, like a lion in hiding,

11he dragged me from the path and mangled me and left me without help.

12He drew his bow and made me the target for his arrows.

13He pierced my heart with arrows from his quiver.

14I became the laughingstock of all my people; they mock me in song all day long.

15He has filled me with bitter herbs and given me gall to drink.

16He has broken my teeth with gravel; he has trampled me in the dust.

17I have been deprived of peace; I have forgotten what prosperity is.

18So I say, “My splendor is gone and all that I had hoped from the LORD .”

19I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall.

20I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me.

21Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope:

22Because of the LORD ’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.

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

24I say to myself, “The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.”

25The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him;

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

27It is good for a man to bear the yoke while he is young.

28Let him sit alone in silence, for the LORD has laid it on him.

29Let him bury his face in the dust— there may yet be hope.

30Let him offer his cheek to one who would strike him, and let him be filled with disgrace.

31For no one is cast off by the Lord forever.

32Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love.

33For he does not willingly bring affliction or grief to anyone.

34To crush underfoot all prisoners in the land,

35to deny people their rights before the Most High,

36to deprive them of justice— would not the Lord see such things?

37Who can speak and have it happen if the Lord has not decreed it?

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

39Why should the living complain when punished for their sins?

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

41Let us lift up our hearts and our hands to God in heaven, and say:

42“We have sinned and rebelled and you have not forgiven.

43“You have covered yourself with anger and pursued us; you have slain without pity.

44You have covered yourself with a cloud so that no prayer can get through.

45You have made us scum and refuse among the nations.

46“All our enemies have opened their mouths wide against us.

47We have suffered terror and pitfalls, ruin and destruction.”

48Streams of tears flow from my eyes because my people are destroyed.

49My eyes will flow unceasingly, without relief,

50until the LORD looks down from heaven and sees.

51What I see brings grief to my soul because of all the women of my city.

52Those who were my enemies without cause hunted me like a bird.

53They tried to end my life in a pit and threw stones at me;

54the waters closed over my head, and I thought I was about to perish.

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

56You heard my plea: “Do not close your ears to my cry for relief.”

57You came near when I called you, and you said, “Do not fear.”