Lamentations 3:1-66 MEV

[1] I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of His wrath. [2] He has driven and brought me into darkness without any light. [3] Surely against me has He turned His hand continually, the whole day long. [4] My flesh and my skin He has made waste away; He has broken my bones; [5] He has besieged and enveloped me with gall and travail. [6] He has set me in dark places, like the dead of long ago. [7] He has hedged me in so that I cannot get out; He has made my chain heavy. [8] Even when I cry for help, He shuts out my prayer. [9] He has blocked my ways with hewn stone; He has made my paths crooked. [10] He is to me a bear lying in wait, a lion in hiding. [11] He has turned aside my ways and torn me in pieces; He has made me desolate. [12] He has bent His bow and set me as a target for the arrow. [13] He has caused the arrows of His quiver to pierce my inward parts. [14] I have become the derision of all my people, their mocking song all the day. [15] He has filled me with bitterness, He has sated me with wormwood. [16] He has made my teeth grind on gravel, and covered me with ashes. [17] My soul is bereft of peace; I have forgotten prosperity. [18] So I say, "My strength and my hope from the LORD have perished." [19] Remember my affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall. [20] Surely my soul remembers and is humbled within me. [21] But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: [22] It is of the LORD's mercies that we are not consumed; His compassions do not fail. [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 a man should wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD. [27] It is good for a man to 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] But though He causes grief, yet He will have compassion according to the abundance of His mercies. [33] For He does not afflict from His heart, nor grieve the sons of men. [34] To crush underfoot all the prisoners of the earth, [35] to turn aside the justice due a man in the presence of the Most High, [36] to subvert a man in his cause, the Lord does not approve. [37] Who is he who speaks and it comes to pass, unless the Lord has commanded it? [38] Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and bad proceed? [39] Why should a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins? [40] Let us search and try 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; You have not pardoned. [43] You have covered Yourself with anger and pursued us; You have killed and not pitied. [44] You have covered Yourself with a cloud, so that no prayer should pass through. [45] You have made us filthy refuse in the midst of the peoples. [46] All our enemies have opened their mouths against us. [47] Panic and snare have come upon us, desolation and destruction. [48] My eyes flow with rivers of tears for the destruction of the daughter of my people. [49] My eyes flow and do not cease, without respite, [50] until the LORD from heaven looks down and sees. [51] My eyes bring suffering to my soul at the fate of all the daughters of my city. [52] My enemies chased me like a bird, without cause. [53] They cut off my life in the pit and cast stones on me. [54] Waters flowed over my head; I said, "I am cut off!" [55] I called on Your name, O LORD, from the lowest pit. [56] You have heard my plea: "Do not close Your ear to my cry for help!" [57] You drew near on the day I called on You, and You said, "Do not fear!" [58] O Lord, You have pleaded the case for my soul; You have redeemed my life. [59] O LORD, You have seen the wrong done to me; judge my case. [60] You have seen all their vengeance, all their schemes against me. [61] You have heard their reproach, O LORD, all their schemes against me, [62] the lips of my enemies and their devices against me all the day. [63] Look at their sitting down and their rising up; I am their mocking song. [64] Render to them a recompense, O LORD, according to the work of their hands. [65] Give them hardness of heart; may Your curse be upon them! [66] In Your anger pursue and destroy them from under Your heavens, O LORD!