Lamentations Chapter 3
Context:
Verses:
Lamentations 3:1 I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of the LORD's wrath.
Lamentations 3:2 He has driven me away and made me walk in darkness rather than light;
Lamentations 3:3 indeed, he has turned his hand against me again and again, all day long.
Lamentations 3:4 He has made my skin and my flesh grow old and has broken my bones.
Lamentations 3:5 He has besieged me and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship.
Lamentations 3:6 He has made me dwell in darkness like those long dead.
Lamentations 3:7 He has walled me in so I cannot escape; he has weighed me down with chains.
Lamentations 3:8 Even when I call out or cry for help, he shuts out my prayer.
Lamentations 3:9 He has barred my way with blocks of stone; he has made my paths crooked.
Lamentations 3:10 Like a bear lying in wait, like a lion in hiding,
Lamentations 3:11 he dragged me from the path and mangled me and left me without help.
Lamentations 3:12 He drew his bow and made me the target for his arrows.
Lamentations 3:13 He pierced my heart with arrows from his quiver.
Lamentations 3:14 I became the laughingstock of all my people; they mock me in song all day long.
Lamentations 3:15 He has filled me with bitter herbs and given me gall to drink.
Lamentations 3:16 He has broken my teeth with gravel; he has trampled me in the dust.
Lamentations 3:17 I have been deprived of peace; I have forgotten what prosperity is.
Lamentations 3:18 So I say, 'My splendor is gone and all that I had hoped from the LORD.'
Lamentations 3:19 I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall.
Lamentations 3:20 I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me.
Lamentations 3:21 Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope:
Lamentations 3:22 Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.
Lamentations 3:23 They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
Lamentations 3:24 I say to myself, 'The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.'
Lamentations 3:25 The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him;
Lamentations 3:26 it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.
Lamentations 3:27 It is good for a man to bear the yoke while he is young.
Lamentations 3:28 Let him sit alone in silence, for the LORD has laid it on him.
Lamentations 3:29 Let him bury his face in the dust-- there may yet be hope.
Lamentations 3:30 Let him offer his cheek to one who would strike him, and let him be filled with disgrace.
Lamentations 3:31 For no one is cast off by the Lord forever.
Lamentations 3:32 Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love.
Lamentations 3:33 For he does not willingly bring affliction or grief to anyone.
Lamentations 3:34 To crush underfoot all prisoners in the land,
Lamentations 3:35 to deny people their rights before the Most High,
Lamentations 3:36 to deprive them of justice-- would not the Lord see such things?
Lamentations 3:37 Who can speak and have it happen if the Lord has not decreed it?
Lamentations 3:38 Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that both calamities and good things come?
Lamentations 3:39 Why should the living complain when punished for their sins?
Lamentations 3:40 Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the LORD.
Lamentations 3:41 Let us lift up our hearts and our hands to God in heaven, and say:
Lamentations 3:42 We have sinned and rebelled and you have not forgiven.
Lamentations 3:43 You have covered yourself with anger and pursued us; you have slain without pity.
Lamentations 3:44 You have covered yourself with a cloud so that no prayer can get through.
Lamentations 3:45 You have made us scum and refuse among the nations.
Lamentations 3:46 All our enemies have opened their mouths wide against us.
Lamentations 3:47 We have suffered terror and pitfalls, ruin and destruction.'
Lamentations 3:48 Streams of tears flow from my eyes because my people are destroyed.
Lamentations 3:49 My eyes will flow unceasingly, without relief,
Lamentations 3:50 until the LORD looks down from heaven and sees.
Lamentations 3:51 What I see brings grief to my soul because of all the women of my city.
Lamentations 3:52 Those who were my enemies without cause hunted me like a bird.
Lamentations 3:53 They tried to end my life in a pit and threw stones at me;
Lamentations 3:54 the waters closed over my head, and I thought I was about to perish.
Lamentations 3:55 I called on your name, LORD, from the depths of the pit.
Lamentations 3:56 You heard my plea: 'Do not close your ears to my cry for relief.'
Lamentations 3:57 You came near when I called you, and you said, 'Do not fear.'
Lamentations 3:58 You, Lord, took up my case; you redeemed my life.
Lamentations 3:59 LORD, you have seen the wrong done to me. Uphold my cause!
Lamentations 3:60 You have seen the depth of their vengeance, all their plots against me.
Lamentations 3:61 LORD, you have heard their insults, all their plots against me--
Lamentations 3:62 what my enemies whisper and mutter against me all day long.
Lamentations 3:63 Look at them! Sitting or standing, they mock me in their songs.
Lamentations 3:64 Pay them back what they deserve, LORD, for what their hands have done.
Lamentations 3:65 Put a veil over their hearts, and may your curse be on them!
Lamentations 3:66 Pursue them in anger and destroy them from under the heavens of the LORD.