Lamentations 3:1-21 ▼

1 I am the man who has seen misery Because of the rod of His wrath.

2 He has driven me and made me walk In darkness and not in light.

3 Indeed, He has turned His hand against me Repeatedly all the day.

4 He has consumed my flesh and my skin, He has broken my bones.

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

6 He has made me live in dark places, Like those who have long been dead.

7 He has walled me in so that I cannot go out; He has made my chain heavy.

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

9 He has blocked my ways with cut stone; He has twisted my paths.

10 He is to me like a bear lying in wait, Like a lion in secret places.

11 He has made my ways deviate, and torn me to pieces; He has made me desolate.

12 He bent His bow And took aim at me as a target for the arrow.

13 He made the arrows of His quiver Enter my inward parts.

14 I have become a laughingstock to all my people, Their song of ridicule all the day.

15 He has filled me with bitterness, He has made me drink plenty of wormwood.

16 He has also made my teeth grind with gravel; He has made me cower in the dust.

17 My soul has been excluded from peace; I have forgotten happiness.

18 So I say, “My strength has failed, And so has my hope from the LORD.”

19 Remember my misery and my homelessness, the wormwood and bitterness.

20 My soul certainly remembers, And is bent over within me.

21 I recall this to my mind, Therefore I wait.