Lamentations 3:1-66 AMPC

[1] I am [Jeremiah] the man who has seen affliction under the rod of His wrath. [2] He has led me and brought me into darkness and not light. [3] Surely He has turned away from me; His hand is against me all the day. [4] My flesh and my skin has He worn out and made old; He has shattered my bones. [5] He has built up [siege mounds] against me and surrounded me with bitterness, tribulation, and anguish. [6] He has caused me to dwell in dark places like those long dead. [7] He walled me in so that I cannot get out; He has weighted down my chain. [8] Even when I cry and shout for help, He shuts out my prayer. [9] He has enclosed my ways with hewn stone; He has made my paths crooked. [10] He is to me like a bear lying in wait, and like a lion [hiding] in secret places. [11] He has turned me off my ways 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 arrows of His quiver to enter into my heart [the seat of my affections and desires]. [14] I have become a derision to all my people, and [the subject of] their singsong all the day. [15] He has filled me with bitterness; He has made me drink to excess and until drunken with wormwood [bitterness]. [16] He has also broken my teeth with gravel (stones); He has covered me with ashes. [17] And You have bereaved my soul and cast it off far from peace; I have forgotten what good and happiness are. [18] And I say, Perished is my strength and my expectation from the Lord. [19] [O Lord] remember [earnestly] my affliction and my misery, my wandering and my outcast state, the wormwood and the gall. [20] My soul has them continually in remembrance and is bowed down within me. [21] But this I recall and therefore have I hope and expectation: [22] It is because of the Lord's mercy and loving-kindness that we are not consumed, because His [tender] compassions fail not. [23] They are new every morning; great and abundant is Your stability and faithfulness. [24] The Lord is my portion or share, says my living being (my inner self); therefore will I hope in Him and wait expectantly for Him. [25] The Lord is good to those who wait hopefully and expectantly for Him, to those who seek Him [inquire of and for Him and require Him by right of necessity and on the authority of God's word]. [26] It is good that one should hope in and wait quietly for the salvation (the safety and ease) of the Lord. [27] It is good for a man that he should bear the yoke [of divine disciplinary dealings] in his youth. [28] Let him sit alone uncomplaining and keeping silent [in hope], because [God] has laid [the yoke] upon him [for his benefit]. [29] Let him put his mouth in the dust [in abject recognition of his unworthiness]-there may yet be hope. [30] Let him give his cheek to the One Who smites him [even through His human agents]; let him be filled [full] with [men's] reproach [in meekness]. [31] For the Lord will not cast off forever! [32] But though He causes grief, yet will He be moved to compassion according to the multitude of His loving-kindness and tender mercy. [33] For He does not willingly and from His heart afflict or grieve the children of men. [34] To trample and crush underfoot all the prisoners of the earth, [35] To turn aside and deprive a man of his rights before the face of the Most High or a superior [acting as God's representative], [36] To subvert a man in his cause-[of these things] the Lord does not approve. [37] Who is he who speaks and it comes to pass, if the Lord has not authorized and commanded it? [38] Is it not out of the mouth of the Most High that evil and good both proceed [adversity and prosperity, physical evil or misfortune and physical good or happiness]? [39] Why does a living man sigh [one who is still in this life's school of discipline]? [And why does] a man complain for the punishment of his sins? [40] Let us test and examine our ways, and let us return to the Lord! [41] Let us lift up our hearts and our hands [and then with them mount up in prayer] to God in heaven: [42] We have transgressed and rebelled and You have not pardoned. [43] You have covered Yourself with wrath and pursued and afflicted us; You have slain without pity. [44] You have covered Yourself with a cloud so that no prayer can pass through. [45] You have made us offscouring and refuse among the nations. [46] All our enemies have gaped at us and railed against us. [47] Fear and pitfall have come upon us, devastation and destruction. [48] My eyes overflow with streams of tears because of the destruction of the daughter of my people. [49] My eyes overflow continually and will not cease [50] Until the Lord looks down and sees from heaven. [51] My eyes cause me grief at the fate of all the maidens [and the daughter-towns] of my city [Jerusalem]. [52] I have been hunted down like a bird by those who were my enemies without cause. [53] They [thought they had] destroyed my life in the dungeon (pit) and cast a stone [over it] above me. [54] The waters ran down on my head; I said, I am gone. [55] I called upon Your name, O Lord, out of the depths [of the mire] of the dungeon. [56] You heard my voice [then]: [Oh] hide not Your ear [now] at my prayer for relief. [57] You drew near on the day I called to You; You said, Fear not. [58] O Lord, You have pleaded the causes of my soul [You have managed my affairs and You have protected my person and my rights]; You have rescued and redeemed my life! [59] O Lord, You have seen my wrong [done to me]; judge and maintain my cause. [60] You have seen all their vengeance, all their devices against me. [61] You have heard their reproach and revilings, O Lord, and all their devices against me- [62] The lips and thoughts of my assailants are against me all day long. [63] Look at their sitting down and their rising up [their movements, doings, and secret counsels]; I am their singsong [the subject of their derision and merriment]. [64] Render to them a recompense, O Lord, according to the work of their hands. [65] You will give them hardness and blindness of heart; Your curse will be upon them. [66] You will pursue and afflict them in anger and destroy them from under Your heavens, O Lord.