Lam-03
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v1
I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of his wrath;
v2
he has driven and brought me into darkness without any light;
v3
surely against me he turns his hand again and again the whole day long.
v4
He has made my flesh and my skin waste away; he has broken my bones;
v5
he has besieged and enveloped me with bitterness and tribulation;
v6
he has made me dwell in darkness like the dead of long ago.
v7
He has walled me about so that I cannot escape; he has made my chains heavy;
v8
though I call and cry for help, he shuts out my prayer;
v9
he has blocked my ways with blocks of stones; he has made my paths crooked.
v10
He is a bear lying in wait for me, a lion in hiding;
v11
he turned aside my steps and tore me to pieces; he has made me desolate;
v12
he bent his bow and set me as a target for his arrow.
v13
He drove into my kidneys the arrows of his quiver;
v14
I have become the laughingstock of all peoples, the object of their taunts all day long.
v15
He has filled me with bitterness; he has sated me with wormwood.
v16
He has made my teeth grind on gravel, and made me cower in ashes;
v17
my soul is bereft of peace; I have forgotten what happiness is;
v18
so I say, “My endurance has perished; so has my hope from the LORD.”
v19
Remember my affliction and my wanderings, the wormwood and the gall!
v20
My soul continually remembers it and is bowed down within me.
v21
But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope:
v22
The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end;
v23
they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
v24
“The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.”
v25
The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.
v26
It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.
v27
It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.
v28
Let him sit alone in silence when it is laid on him;
v29
let him put his mouth in the dust— there may yet be hope;
v30
let him give his cheek to the one who strikes, and let him be filled with insults.
v31
For the Lord will not cast off forever,
v32
but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love;
v33
for he does not afflict from his heart or grieve the children of men.
v34
To crush underfoot all the prisoners of the earth,
v35
to deny a man justice in the presence of the Most High,
v36
to subvert a man in his lawsuit, the Lord does not approve.
v37
Who has spoken and it came to pass, unless the Lord has commanded it?
v38
Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and bad come?
v39
Why should a living man complain, a man, about the punishment of his sins?
v40
Let us test and examine our ways, and return to the LORD!
v41
Let us lift up our hearts and hands to God in heaven:
v42
“We have transgressed and rebelled, and you have not forgiven.
v43
“You have wrapped yourself with anger and pursued us, killing without pity;
v44
you have wrapped yourself with a cloud so that no prayer can pass through.
v45
You have made us scum and garbage among the peoples.
v46
“All our enemies open their mouths against us;
v47
panic and pitfall have come upon us, devastation and destruction;
v48
my eyes flow with rivers of tears because of the destruction of the daughter of my people.
v49
“My eyes will flow without ceasing, without respite,
v50
until the LORD from heaven looks down and sees;
v51
my eyes cause me grief at the fate of all the daughters of my city.
v52
“I have been hunted like a bird by those who were my enemies without cause;
v53
they flung me alive into the pit and cast stones on me;
v54
water closed over my head; I said, ‘I am lost.‘
v55
“I called on your name, O LORD, from the depths of the pit;
v56
you heard my plea, ‘Do not close your ear to my cry for help!‘
v57
You came near when I called on you; you said, ‘Do not fear!‘
v58
“You have taken up my cause, O Lord; you have redeemed my life.
v59
You have seen the wrong done to me, O LORD; judge my cause.
v60
You have seen all their vengeance, all their plots against me.
v61
“You have heard their taunts, O LORD, all their plots against me.
v62
The lips and thoughts of my assailants are against me all the day long.
v63
Behold their sitting and their rising; I am the object of their taunts.
v64
“You will repay them, O LORD, according to the work of their hands.
v65
You will give them dullness of heart; your curse will be on them.
v66
You will pursue them in anger and destroy them from under your heavens, O LORD.”