Lamentations 3:1-21 ▼

1 I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of God’s wrath.

2 He has driven me away and made me walk in darkness instead of light.

3 Indeed, He keeps turning His hand against me all day long.

4 He has worn away my flesh and skin; He has shattered my bones.

5 He has besieged me and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship.

6 He has made me dwell in darkness like those dead for ages.

7 He has walled me in so I cannot escape; He has weighed me down with chains.

8 Even when I cry out and plead for help, He shuts out my prayer.

9 He has barred my ways with cut stones; He has made my paths crooked.

10 He is a bear lying in wait, a lion hiding in ambush.

11 He forced me off my path and tore me to pieces; He left me without help.

12 He bent His bow and set me as the target for His arrow.

13 He pierced my kidneys with His arrows.

14 I am a laughingstock to all my people; they mock me in song all day long.

15 He has filled me with bitterness; He has intoxicated me with wormwood.

16 He has ground my teeth with gravel and trampled me in the dust.

17 My soul has been deprived of peace; I have forgotten what prosperity is.

18 So I say, “My strength has perished, along with my hope from the LORD.”

19 Remember my affliction and wandering, the wormwood and the gall.

20 Surely my soul remembers and is humbled within me.

21 Yet I call this to mind, and therefore I have hope: