Lamentations 3:1-66 ESV

[1] I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of his wrath; [2] he has driven and brought me into darkness without any light; [3] surely against me he turns his hand again and again the whole day long. [4] He has made my flesh and my skin waste away; he has broken my bones; [5] he has besieged and enveloped me with bitterness and tribulation; [6] he has made me dwell in darkness like the dead of long ago. [7] He has walled me about so that I cannot escape; he has made my chains heavy; [8] though I call and cry for help, he shuts out my prayer; [9] he has blocked my ways with blocks of stones; he has made my paths crooked. [10] He is a bear lying in wait for me, a lion in hiding; [11] he turned aside my steps and tore me to pieces; he has made me desolate; [12] he bent his bow and set me as a target for his arrow. [13] He drove into my kidneys the arrows of his quiver; [14] I have become the laughingstock of all my people, the object of their taunts all day long. [15] He has filled me with bitterness; he has sated me with wormwood. [16] He has made my teeth grind on gravel, and made me cower in ashes; [17] my soul is bereft of peace; I have forgotten what happiness is; [18] so I say, "My endurance has perished; so has my hope from the LORD." [19] Remember my affliction and my wanderings, the wormwood and the gall! [20] My soul continually remembers it and is bowed down within me. [21] But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: [22] The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; [23] they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. [24] "The LORD is my portion," says my soul, "therefore I will hope in him." [25] The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. [26] It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD. [27] It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. [28] Let him sit alone in silence when it is laid on him; [29] let him put his mouth in the dust-there may yet be hope; [30] let him give his cheek to the one who strikes, and let him be filled with insults. [31] For the Lord will not cast off forever, [32] for, though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love; [33] for he does not afflict from his heart or grieve the children of men. [34] To crush underfoot all the prisoners of the earth, [35] to deny a man justice in the presence of the Most High, [36] to subvert a man in his lawsuit, the Lord does not approve. [37] Who has spoken and it came to pass, unless the Lord has commanded it? [38] Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and bad come? [39] Why should a living man complain, a man, about the punishment of his sins? [40] Let us test and examine our ways, and return to the LORD! [41] Let us lift up our hearts and hands to God in heaven: [42] "We have transgressed and rebelled, and you have not forgiven. [43] "You have wrapped yourself with anger and pursued us, killing without pity; [44] you have wrapped yourself with a cloud so that no prayer can pass through. [45] You have made us scum and garbage among the peoples. [46] "All our enemies open their mouths against us; [47] panic and pitfall have come upon us, devastation and destruction; [48] my eyes flow with rivers of tears because of the destruction of the daughter of my people. [49] "My eyes will flow without ceasing, without respite, [50] until the LORD from heaven looks down and sees; [51] my eyes cause me grief at the fate of all the daughters of my city. [52] "I have been hunted like a bird by those who were my enemies without cause; [53] they flung me alive into the pit and cast stones on me; [54] water closed over my head; I said, 'I am lost.' [55] "I called on your name, O LORD, from the depths of the pit; [56] you heard my plea, 'Do not close your ear to my cry for help!' [57] You came near when I called on you; you said, 'Do not fear!' [58] "You have taken up my cause, O Lord; you have redeemed my life. [59] You have seen the wrong done to me, O LORD; judge my cause. [60] You have seen all their vengeance, all their plots against me. [61] "You have heard their taunts, O LORD, all their plots against me. [62] The lips and thoughts of my assailants are against me all the day long. [63] Behold their sitting and their rising; I am the object of their taunts. [64] "You will repay them, O LORD, according to the work of their hands. [65] You will give them dullness of heart; your curse will be on them. [66] You will pursue them in anger and destroy them from under your heavens, O LORD."