Lamentations 3

1I am the man who has lived through affliction beneath the rod of his anger. 2He has led me away and made me walk in darkness, not in light. 3Yes, it is me he strikes with his hand, time after time, all day long.

4He has worn out my flesh and skin and shattered my bones. 5He has built siege walls against me and closed me in with bitter poison and hardship. 6He has made me live in dark places like those who died long ago.

7He has hemmed me in, and I cannot get out; he has weighed me down with chains. 8Even when I shout and plead for help, he keeps my prayer out. 9He has walled off my road with cut stone; he has made my paths twist.

10To me he is like a bear waiting in ambush, like a lion crouching in hiding. 11He dragged me off the road and tore me to pieces; he has left me devastated. 12He has drawn his bow and set me up as a target for arrows.

13He has driven deep into my inner being the arrows from his quiver. 14I have become a joke to all my people, the song they mock me with all day long. 15He has fed me full of bitter things and made me drink wormwood until I could take no more.

16He has made me break my teeth on gravel; he has trampled me down in the ashes. 17My soul has been cut off from peace; I have forgotten what good is. 18So I said, “My strength is gone, and so is all I hoped for from the LORD.”

19Remember how I am afflicted and homeless, the wormwood and the bitter poison. 20My soul keeps remembering it and is bowed low within me. 21Yet I bring this back to mind, and because of it I will wait in hope:

22It is by the LORD’s loyal love that we have not been wiped out, for his mercies have not failed. 23They are new each morning; how great is your faithfulness! 24“The LORD is my portion,” I tell myself, “and so I will wait for him in hope.”

25The LORD is good to all who wait in hope for him, to anyone who seeks him. 26It is good to wait in silence for the LORD’s salvation. 27A man does well to take up a yoke while he is still young.

28Let him sit by himself and keep silent when he has laid it on him. 29Let him lie with his face in the dust; there may still be hope for him. 30Let him offer his cheek to the one who strikes him and take his fill of insults.

31For the Lord does not cast people off for all time. 32Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his loyal love. 33For he does not bring affliction willingly or grief to human beings. 34When all the prisoners in the land are crushed underfoot, 35when anyone is denied justice in the presence of the Most High, 36when someone is cheated in a lawsuit— the Lord does not approve.

37Who can speak and make it happen if the Lord has not ordered it? 38Do not disaster and good alike come out of the mouth of the Most High? 39Why should any living person complain, anyone punished for their sins?

40Let us look hard at the way we live and test it, and turn back to the LORD. 41Let us lift up our hearts as well as our hands to God in heaven. 42We have sinned and rebelled, and you have not forgiven.

43You have clothed yourself in anger and chased us down; you have killed and not spared. 44You have hidden yourself behind a cloud that no prayer can pass through. 45You have turned us into filth and rubbish among the peoples.

46Our enemies, every one of them, have opened their mouths wide against us. 47Panic and the pit have overtaken us, ruin and collapse. 48Streams of tears flow down from my eyes over the destruction of my dear people.

49My eyes pour out tears and do not stop; they get no rest, 50until the LORD looks down and sees from heaven. 51What my eyes see brings grief to my soul because of all the women of my city.

52People who had no reason to be my enemies hunted me down like a bird. 53They thrust me into the pit to end my life and cast a stone over me. 54The waters rose over my head, and I said, “I am cut off!”

55I called on your name, LORD, from the bottom of the pit. 56You heard my voice: “Do not shut your ears to my plea for relief, to my cry for help!” 57On the day I called to you, you came close and said, “Do not be afraid!”

58Lord, you have argued my case for me and redeemed my life. 59LORD, you have seen how I have been wronged; give judgment in my case! 60You have seen all their spite, all their schemes against me.

61You have heard their insults, LORD, all their schemes against me, 62what my attackers say, and how they whisper against me all day long. 63Look at them, whether they sit or rise: I am the song they mock me with.

64Pay them back, LORD, as they deserve, for what their hands have done. 65Give them a veiled and hardened heart; let your curse be on them! 66Chase them down in anger and destroy them from beneath the heavens of the LORD.