Lamentations 3:1-18 ▼

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 peoples, 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.”