Lamentations 3:1-66 TLB

[1] I am the man who has seen the afflictions that come from the rod of God's wrath. [2] He has brought me into deepest darkness, shutting out all light. [3] He has turned against me. Day and night his hand is heavy on me. [4] He has made me old and has broken my bones. [5] He has built forts against me and surrounded me with anguish and distress. [6] He buried me in dark places, like those long dead. [7] He has walled me in; I cannot escape; he has fastened me with heavy chains. [8] And though I cry and shout, he will not hear my prayers! [9] He has shut me into a place of high, smooth walls; he has filled my path with detours. [10] He lurks like a bear, like a lion, waiting to attack me. [11] He has dragged me into the underbrush and torn me with his claws, leaving me bleeding and desolate. [12] He has bent his bow and aimed it squarely at me, [13] and sent his arrows deep within my heart. [14] My own people laugh at me; all day long they sing their ribald songs. [15] He has filled me with bitterness and given me a cup of deepest sorrows to drink. [16] He has made me eat gravel and broken my teeth; he has rolled me in ashes and dirt. [17] O Lord, all peace and all prosperity have long since gone, for you have taken them away. I have forgotten what enjoyment is. [18] All hope is gone; my strength has turned to water, for the Lord has left me. [19] Oh, remember the bitterness and suffering you have dealt to me! [20] For I can never forget these awful years; always my soul will live in utter shame. [21] Yet there is one ray of hope: [22] his compassion never ends. It is only the Lord's mercies that have kept us from complete destruction. [23] Great is his faithfulness; his loving-kindness begins afresh each day. [24] My soul claims the Lord as my inheritance; therefore I will hope in him. [25] The Lord is wonderfully good to those who wait for him, to those who seek for him. [26] It is good both to hope and wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. [27] It is good for a young man to be under discipline, [28] for it causes him to sit apart in silence beneath the Lord's demands, [29] to lie face downward in the dust; then at last there is hope for him. [30] Let him turn the other cheek to those who strike him and accept their awful insults, [31] for the Lord will not abandon him forever. [32] Although God gives him grief, yet he will show compassion too, according to the greatness of his loving-kindness. [33] For he does not enjoy afflicting men and causing sorrow. [34] But you have trampled and crushed beneath your feet the lowly of the world, and deprived men of their God-given rights, and refused them justice. No wonder the Lord has had to deal with you! [37] For who can act against you without the Lord's permission? [38] It is the Lord who helps one and harms another. [39] Why then should we, mere humans as we are, murmur and complain when punished for our sins? [40] Let us examine ourselves instead, and let us repent and turn again to the Lord. [41] Let us lift our hearts and hands to him in heaven, [42] for we have sinned; we have rebelled against the Lord, and he has not forgotten it. [43] You have engulfed us by your anger, Lord, and slain us without mercy. [44] You have veiled yourself as with a cloud so that our prayers do not reach through. [45] You have made us as refuse and garbage among the nations. [46] All our enemies have spoken out against us. [47] We are filled with fear, for we are trapped and desolate, destroyed. [48] My eyes flow day and night with never-ending streams of tears because of the destruction of my people. [50] Oh, that the Lord might look down from heaven and respond to my cry! [51] My heart is breaking over what is happening to the young girls of Jerusalem. [52] My enemies, whom I have never harmed, chased me as though I were a bird. [53] They threw me in a well and capped it with a rock. [54] The water flowed above my head. I thought, This is the end! [55] But I called upon your name, O Lord, from deep within the well, [56] and you heard me! You listened to my pleading; you heard my weeping! [57] Yes, you came at my despairing cry and told me not to fear. [58] O Lord, you are my lawyer! Plead my case! For you have redeemed my life. [59] You have seen the wrong they did to me; be my Judge, to prove me right. [60] You have seen the plots my foes have laid against me. [61] You have heard the vile names they have called me, [62] and all they say about me and their whispered plans. [63] See how they laugh and sing with glee, preparing my doom. [64] O Lord, repay them well for all the evil they have done. [65] Harden their hearts and curse them, Lord. [66] Go after them in fierce pursuit and wipe them off the earth, beneath the heavens of the Lord.