Lamentations 3:1-50 ▼

1 I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of His wrath;

2 He has led me and has made me walk in darkness, and not light;

3 surely He turns back against me; He turns over His hand all the day.

4 He has worn out my flesh and my skin; he has broken my bones.

5 He has built up against me and surrounded me with bitterness and weariness;

6 in dark places He has settled me, like the dead of old.

7 He has put a hedge around me, so that I cannot get out; He has made heavy my chain of bronze;

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

9 He has blocked off my ways with cut stone, my paths He has made crooked.

10 A bear lying in ambush He is to me, a lion in hiding places;

11 my ways He has turned aside, and has torn me apart; He has set me as a desolation.

12 He has bent His bow and stood me up as the target for an arrow.

13 He has brought into my kidneys the sons of His quiver;

14 I have become a laughingstock to all my people, their taunt all the day.

15 He has filled me with bitterness; He has made me drink wormwood.

16 And He has broken my teeth with gravel; He has covered me with ashes.

17 My soul has been rejected from peace; I have forgotten good,

18 and I say, “My strength has perished, and also my hope from YHWH!”

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

20 It remembers well and sinks—My soul within me.

21 This I turn to my mind; upon thus I have hope.

22 Because of the loving devotion of YHWH we are not consumed, for His mercies are not finished.

23 They are new in the mornings—great is Your faithfulness!

24 “My portion is YHWH,” says my soul, “Upon thus do I hope in Him.”

25 Good is YHWH to those waiting for Him, to the soul who seeks Him.

26 And it is good to wait and be silent for the salvation of YHWH;

27 it is good for a man that he should bear the yoke in his youth.

28 Let him sit alone and be silent when it is laid upon him.

29 Let him put in the dust his mouth; perhaps there is hope!

30 Let him give his cheek to the one striking him; let him be filled with reproach!

31 For the Lord will not reject us forever;

32 for though He may bring grief, He will show compassion according to the abundance of His loving devotion;

33 for he has not afflicted with His heart or grieved the sons of man.

34 To crush under one’s feet all the prisoners of the earth,

35 to stretch aside justice for a man before the face of the Most High,

36 to subvert a man in his cause, the Lord does not approve.

37 Who is this having spoken, and it came to pass, if the Lord did not command it?

38 From the mouth of the Most High does not come forth the bad and the good?

39 Why should complain a living man, a man for his sins?

40 Let us search out our ways, and let us seek, and turn back to YHWH!

41 Let us lift our heart with our hands to God in the heavens:

42 “We have transgressed and we have rebelled; You have not forgiven.”

43 You have covered in anger and pursued us; You have killed; You have not pitied.

44 You have covered Yourself with a cloud, from passing through a prayer.

45 You have made us offscouring and refuse in the midst of the nations.

46 They have opened their mouths against us—all our enemies;

47 terror and pitfall have come upon us, desolation and destruction!

48 Streams of water run down my eyes over the destruction of the daughter of my people!

49 My eye pours forth, and it does not cease—without numbing—

50 until YHWH looks down and sees from the heavens!