The Lamentations 3:1-66 WEB

[1] I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath. [2] He has led me and caused me to walk in darkness, and not in light. [3] Surely he turns his hand against me again and again all day long. [4] He has made my flesh and my skin old. He has broken my bones. [5] He has built against me, and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship. [6] He has made me dwell in dark places, as those who have been long dead. [7] He has walled me about, so that I can’t go out. He has made my chain heavy. [8] Yes, when I cry, and call for help, he shuts out my prayer. [9] He has walled up my ways with cut stone. He has made my paths crooked. [10] He is to me as a bear lying in wait, as a lion in hiding. [11] He has turned away my path, and pulled me in pieces. He has made me desolate. [12] He has bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow. [13] He has caused the shafts of his quiver to enter into my kidneys. [14] I have become a derision to all my people, and their song all day long. [15] He has filled me with bitterness. He has stuffed me with wormwood. [16] He has also broken my teeth with gravel. He has covered me with ashes. [17] You have removed my soul far away from peace. I forgot prosperity. [18] I said, “My strength has perished, along with my expectation from Yahweh.” [19] Remember my affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the bitterness. [20] My soul still remembers them, and is bowed down within me. [21] This I recall to my mind; therefore I have hope. [22] It is because of Yahweh’s loving kindnesses that we are not consumed, because his mercies don’t fail. [23] They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. [24] “Yahweh is my portion,” says my soul. “Therefore I will hope in him.” [25] Yahweh is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. [26] It is good that a man should hope and quietly wait for the salvation of Yahweh. [27] It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. [28] Let him sit alone and keep silence, because he has laid it on him. [29] Let him put his mouth in the dust, if it is so that there may be hope. [30] Let him give his cheek to him who strikes him. Let him be filled full of reproach. [31] For the Lord will not cast off forever. [32] For though he causes grief, yet he will have compassion according to the multitude of his loving kindnesses. [33] For he does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men. [34] To crush under foot all the prisoners of the earth, [35] to turn away the right of a man before the face of the Most High, [36] to subvert a man in his cause, the Lord doesn’t approve. [37] Who is he who says, and it comes to pass, when the Lord doesn’t command it? [38] Doesn’t evil and good come out of the mouth of the Most High? [39] Why should a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins? [40] Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to Yahweh. [41] Let’s lift up our heart with our hands to God in the heavens. [42] “We have transgressed and have rebelled. You have not pardoned. [43] “You have covered us with anger and pursued us. You have killed. You have not pitied. [44] You have covered yourself with a cloud, so that no prayer can pass through. [45] You have made us an off-scouring and refuse in the middle of the peoples. [46] “All our enemies have opened their mouth wide against us. [47] Terror and the pit have come on us, devastation and destruction.” [48] My eye runs down with streams of water, for the destruction of the daughter of my people. [49] My eye pours down and doesn’t cease, without any intermission, [50] until Yahweh looks down, and sees from heaven. [51] My eye affects my soul, because of all the daughters of my city. [52] They have chased me relentlessly like a bird, those who are my enemies without cause. [53] They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and have cast a stone on me. [54] Waters flowed over my head. I said, “I am cut off.” [55] I called on your name, Yahweh, out of the lowest dungeon. [56] You heard my voice: “Don’t hide your ear from my sighing, and my cry.” [57] You came near in the day that I called on you. You said, “Don’t be afraid.” [58] Lord, you have pleaded the causes of my soul. You have redeemed my life. [59] Yahweh, you have seen my wrong. Judge my cause. [60] You have seen all their vengeance and all their plans against me. [61] You have heard their reproach, Yahweh, and all their plans against me, [62] the lips of those that rose up against me, and their plots against me all day long. [63] You see their sitting down and their rising up. I am their song. [64] You will pay them back, Yahweh, according to the work of their hands. [65] You will give them hardness of heart, your curse to them. [66] You will pursue them in anger, and destroy them from under the heavens of Yahweh.