Lamentations 3–5

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

13He pierced my kidneys with His arrows.

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

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

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

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

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

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

20Surely my soul remembers and is humbled within me.

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

22Because of the loving devotion of the LORD we are not consumed, for His mercies never fail.

23They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness!

24“The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in Him.”

25The LORD is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him.

26It is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.

27It is good for a man to bear the yoke while he is still young.

28Let him sit alone in silence, for the LORD has laid it upon him.

29Let him bury his face in the dust— perhaps there is still hope.

30Let him offer his cheek to the one who would strike him; let him be filled with reproach.

31For the Lord will not cast us off forever.

32Even if He causes grief, He will show compassion according to His abundant loving devotion.

33For He does not willingly afflict or grieve the sons of men.

34To crush underfoot all the prisoners of the land,

35to deny a man justice before the Most High,

36to subvert a man in his lawsuit— of these the Lord does not approve.

37Who has spoken and it came to pass, unless the Lord has ordained it?

38Do not both adversity and good come from the mouth of the Most High?

39Why should any mortal man complain, in view of his sins?

40Let us examine and test our ways, and turn back to the LORD.

41Let us lift up our hearts and hands to God in heaven:

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

43You have covered Yourself in anger and pursued us; You have killed without pity.

44You have covered Yourself with a cloud that no prayer can pass through.

45You have made us scum and refuse among the nations.

46All our enemies open their mouths against us.

47Panic and pitfall have come upon us— devastation and destruction.

48Streams of tears flow from my eyes over the destruction of the daughter of my people.

49My eyes overflow unceasingly, without relief,

50until the LORD looks down from heaven and sees.

51My eyes bring grief to my soul because of all the daughters of my city.

52Without cause my enemies hunted me like a bird.

53They dropped me alive into a pit and cast stones upon me.

54The waters flowed over my head, and I thought I was going to die.

55I called on Your name, O LORD, out of the depths of the Pit.

56You heard my plea: “Do not ignore my cry for relief.”

57You drew near when I called on You; You said, “Do not be afraid.”

58You defend my cause, O Lord; You redeem my life.

59You have seen, O LORD, the wrong done to me; vindicate my cause!

60You have seen all their malice, all their plots against me.

61O LORD, You have heard their insults, all their plots against me—

62the slander and murmuring of my assailants against me all day long.

63When they sit and when they rise, see how they mock me in song.

64You will pay them back what they deserve, O LORD, according to the work of their hands.

65Put a veil of anguish over their hearts; may Your curse be upon them!

66You will pursue them in anger and exterminate them from under Your heavens, O LORD.

1How the gold has become tarnished, the pure gold has become dull! The gems of the temple lie scattered on every street corner.

2How the precious sons of Zion, once worth their weight in pure gold, are now esteemed as jars of clay, the work of a potter’s hands!

3Even jackals offer their breasts to nurse their young, but the daughter of my people has become cruel, like an ostrich in the wilderness.

4The nursing infant’s tongue clings in thirst to the roof of his mouth. Little children beg for bread, but no one gives them any.

5Those who once ate delicacies are destitute in the streets; those brought up in crimson huddle in ash heaps.

6The punishment of the daughter of my people is greater than that of Sodom, which was overthrown in an instant without a hand turned to help her.

7Her dignitaries were brighter than snow, whiter than milk; their bodies were more ruddy than rubies, their appearance like sapphires.

8But now their appearance is blacker than soot; they are not recognized in the streets. Their skin has shriveled on their bones; it has become as dry as a stick.

9Those slain by the sword are better off than those who die of hunger, who waste away, pierced with pain because the fields lack produce.

10The hands of compassionate women have cooked their own children, who became their food in the destruction of the daughter of my people.

11The LORD has exhausted His wrath; He has poured out His fierce anger; He has kindled a fire in Zion, and it has consumed her foundations.

12The kings of the earth did not believe, nor any people of the world, that an enemy or a foe could enter the gates of Jerusalem.

13But this was for the sins of her prophets and the guilt of her priests, who shed the blood of the righteous in her midst.

14They wandered blind in the streets, defiled by this blood, so that no one dared to touch their garments.

15“Go away! Unclean!” men shouted at them. “Away, away! Do not touch us!” So they fled and wandered. Among the nations it was said, “They can stay here no longer.”

16The presence of the LORD has scattered them; He regards them no more. The priests are shown no honor; the elders find no favor.

17All the while our eyes were failing as we looked in vain for help. We watched from our towers for a nation that could not save us.

18They stalked our every step, so that we could not walk in our streets. Our end drew near, our time ran out, for our end had come!

19Those who chased us were swifter than the eagles in the sky; they pursued us over the mountains and ambushed us in the wilderness.

20The LORD’s anointed, the breath of our life, was captured in their pits. We had said of him, “Under his shadow we will live among the nations.”

21So rejoice and be glad, O Daughter of Edom, you who dwell in the land of Uz. Yet the cup will pass to you as well; you will get drunk and expose yourself.

22O Daughter of Zion, your punishment is complete; He will not prolong your exile. But He will punish your iniquity, O Daughter of Edom; He will expose your sins.

1Remember, O LORD, what has happened to us. Look and see our disgrace!

2Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers, our houses to foreigners.

3We have become fatherless orphans; our mothers are widows.

4We must buy the water we drink; our wood comes at a price.

5We are closely pursued; we are weary and find no rest.

6We submitted to Egypt and Assyria to get enough bread.

7Our fathers sinned and are no more, but we bear their punishment.

8Slaves rule over us; there is no one to deliver us from their hands.

9We get our bread at the risk of our lives because of the sword in the wilderness.

10Our skin is as hot as an oven with fever from our hunger.

11Women have been ravished in Zion, virgins in the cities of Judah.

12Princes have been hung up by their hands; elders receive no respect.

13Young men toil at millstones; boys stagger under loads of wood.

14The elders have left the city gate; the young men have stopped their music.

15Joy has left our hearts; our dancing has turned to mourning.

16The crown has fallen from our head. Woe to us, for we have sinned!

17Because of this, our hearts are faint; because of these, our eyes grow dim—

18because of Mount Zion, which lies desolate, patrolled by foxes.

19You, O LORD, reign forever; Your throne endures from generation to generation.

20Why have You forgotten us forever? Why have You forsaken us for so long?

21Restore us to Yourself, O LORD, so we may return; renew our days as of old,

22unless You have utterly rejected us and remain angry with us beyond measure.