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Lamentations 3

1I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of God’s wrath.
1I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.
2He has driven me away and made me walk in darkness instead of light.
2He has led me and caused me to walk in darkness, and not in light.
3Indeed, He keeps turning His hand against me all day long.
3Surely he turns his hand against me again and again all day long.
4He has worn away my flesh and skin; He has shattered my bones.
4He has made my flesh and my skin old. He has broken my bones.
5He has besieged me and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship.
5He has built against me, and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship.
6He has made me dwell in darkness like those dead for ages.
6He has made me dwell in dark places, as those who have been long dead.
7He has walled me in so I cannot escape; He has weighed me down with chains.
7He has walled me about, so that I can’t go out. He has made my chain heavy.
8Even when I cry out and plead for help, He shuts out my prayer.
8Yes, when I cry, and call for help, he shuts out my prayer.
9He has barred my ways with cut stones; He has made my paths crooked.
9He has walled up my ways with cut stone. He has made my paths crooked.
10He is a bear lying in wait, a lion hiding in ambush.
10He is to me as a bear lying in wait, as a lion in hiding.
11He forced me off my path and tore me to pieces; He left me without help.
11He has turned away my path, and pulled me in pieces. He has made me desolate.
12He bent His bow and set me as the target for His arrow.
12He has bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow.
13He pierced my kidneys with His arrows.
13He has caused the shafts of his quiver to enter into my kidneys.
14I am a laughingstock to all my people; they mock me in song all day long.
14I have become a derision to all my people, and their song all day long.
15He has filled me with bitterness; He has intoxicated me with wormwood.
15He has filled me with bitterness. He has stuffed me with wormwood.
16He has ground my teeth with gravel and trampled me in the dust.
16He has also broken my teeth with gravel. He has covered me with ashes.
17My soul has been deprived of peace; I have forgotten what prosperity is.
17You have removed my soul far away from peace. I forgot prosperity.
18So I say, “My strength has perished, along with my hope from the LORD.”
18I said, “My strength has perished, along with my expectation from the LORD.”
19Remember my affliction and wandering, the wormwood and the gall.
19Remember my affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the bitterness.
20Surely my soul remembers and is humbled within me.
20My soul still remembers them, and is bowed down within me.
21Yet I call this to mind, and therefore I have hope:
21This I recall to my mind; therefore I have hope.
22Because of the loving devotion of the LORD we are not consumed, for His mercies never fail.
22It is because of the LORD’s loving kindnesses that we are not consumed, because his mercies don’t fail.
23They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness!
23They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness.
24“The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in Him.”
24“The LORD is my portion,” says my soul. “Therefore I will hope in him.”
25The LORD is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him.
25The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.
26It is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.
26It is good that a man should hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD.
27It is good for a man to bear the yoke while he is still young.
27It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.
28Let him sit alone in silence, for the LORD has laid it upon him.
28Let him sit alone and keep silence, because he has laid it on him.
29Let him bury his face in the dust—perhaps there is still hope.
29Let him put his mouth in the dust, if it is so that there may be hope.
30Let him offer his cheek to the one who would strike him; let him be filled with reproach.
30Let him give his cheek to him who strikes him. Let him be filled full of reproach.
31For the Lord will not cast us off forever.
31For the Lord will not cast off forever.
32Even if He causes grief, He will show compassion according to His abundant loving devotion.
32For though he causes grief, yet he will have compassion according to the multitude of his loving kindnesses.
33For He does not willingly afflict or grieve the sons of men.
33For he does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men.
34To crush underfoot all the prisoners of the land,
34To crush under foot all the prisoners of the earth,
35to deny a man justice before the Most High,
35to turn away the right of a man before the face of the Most High,
36to subvert a man in his lawsuit—of these the Lord does not approve.
36to subvert a man in his cause, the Lord doesn’t approve.
37Who has spoken and it came to pass, unless the Lord has ordained it?
37Who is he who says, and it comes to pass, when the Lord doesn’t command it?
38Do not both adversity and good come from the mouth of the Most High?
38Doesn’t evil and good come out of the mouth of the Most High?
39Why should any mortal man complain, in view of his sins?
39Why should a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?
40Let us examine and test our ways, and turn back to the LORD.
40Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the LORD.
41Let us lift up our hearts and hands to God in heaven:
41Let’s lift up our heart with our hands to God in the heavens.
42“We have sinned and rebelled; You have not forgiven.”
42“We have transgressed and have rebelled. You have not pardoned.
43You have covered Yourself in anger and pursued us; You have killed without pity.
43“You have covered us with anger and pursued us. You have killed. You have not pitied.
44You have covered Yourself with a cloud that no prayer can pass through.
44You have covered yourself with a cloud, so that no prayer can pass through.
45You have made us scum and refuse among the nations.
45You have made us an off-scouring and refuse in the middle of the peoples.
46All our enemies open their mouths against us.
46“All our enemies have opened their mouth wide against us.
47Panic and pitfall have come upon us—devastation and destruction.
47Terror and the pit have come on us, devastation and destruction.”
48Streams of tears flow from my eyes over the destruction of the daughter of my people.
48My eye runs down with streams of water, for the destruction of the daughter of my people.
49My eyes overflow unceasingly, without relief,
49My eye pours down and doesn’t cease, without any intermission,
50until the LORD looks down from heaven and sees.
50until the LORD looks down, and sees from heaven.
51My eyes bring grief to my soul because of all the daughters of my city.
51My eye affects my soul, because of all the daughters of my city.
52Without cause my enemies hunted me like a bird.
52They have chased me relentlessly like a bird, those who are my enemies without cause.
53They dropped me alive into a pit and cast stones upon me.
53They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and have cast a stone on me.
54The waters flowed over my head, and I thought I was going to die.
54Waters flowed over my head. I said, “I am cut off.”
55I called on Your name, O LORD, out of the depths of the Pit.
55I called on your name, LORD, out of the lowest dungeon.
56You heard my plea: “Do not ignore my cry for relief.”
56You heard my voice: “Don’t hide your ear from my sighing, and my cry.”
57You drew near when I called on You; You said, “Do not be afraid.”
57You came near in the day that I called on you. You said, “Don’t be afraid.”
58You defend my cause, O Lord; You redeem my life.
58Lord, you have pleaded the causes of my soul. You have redeemed my life.
59You have seen, O LORD, the wrong done to me; vindicate my cause!
59LORD, you have seen my wrong. Judge my cause.
60You have seen all their malice, all their plots against me.
60You have seen all their vengeance and all their plans against me.
61O LORD, You have heard their insults, all their plots against me—
61You have heard their reproach, LORD, and all their plans against me,
62the slander and murmuring of my assailants against me all day long.
62the lips of those that rose up against me, and their plots against me all day long.
63When they sit and when they rise, see how they mock me in song.
63You see their sitting down and their rising up. I am their song.
64You will pay them back what they deserve, O LORD, according to the work of their hands.
64You will pay them back, LORD, according to the work of their hands.
65Put a veil of anguish over their hearts; may Your curse be upon them!
65You will give them hardness of heart, your curse to them.
66You will pursue them in anger and exterminate them from under Your heavens, O LORD.
66You will pursue them in anger, and destroy them from under the heavens of the LORD.