Lamentations Chapter 3
1 | I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath. | 2 | He hath led me, and brought me into darkness, but not into light. | 3 | Surely against me is he turned; he turneth his hand against me all the day. | 4 | My flesh and my skin hath he made old; he hath broken my bones. | 5 | He hath builded against me, and compassed me with gall and travail. | 6 | He hath set me in dark places, as they that be dead of old. | 7 | He hath hedged me about, that I cannot get out: he hath made my chain heavy. | 8 | Also when I cry and shout, he shutteth out my prayer. | 9 | He hath inclosed my ways with hewn stone, he hath made my paths crooked. | 10 | He was unto me as a bear lying in wait, and as a lion in secret places. | 11 | He hath turned aside my ways, and pulled me in pieces: he hath made me desolate. | 12 | He hath bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow. | 13 | He hath caused the arrows of his quiver to enter into my reins. | 14 | I was a derision to all my people; and their song all the day. | 15 | He hath filled me with bitterness, he hath made me drunken with wormwood. | 16 | He hath also broken my teeth with gravel stones, he hath covered me with ashes. | 17 | And thou hast removed my soul far off from peace: I forgat prosperity. | 18 | And I said, My strength and my hope is perished from the LORD: | 19 | Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall. | 20 | My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me. | 21 | This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. | 22 | It is of the LORD's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. | 23 | They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. | 24 | The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him. | 25 | The LORD is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. | 26 | It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD. | 27 | It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. | 28 | He sitteth alone and keepeth silence, because he hath borne it upon him. | 29 | He putteth his mouth in the dust; if so be there may be hope. | 30 | He giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him: he is filled full with reproach. | 31 | For the Lord will not cast off for ever: | 32 | But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies. | 33 | For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men. | 34 | To crush under his feet all the prisoners of the earth, | 35 | To turn aside the right of a man before the face of the most High, | 36 | To subvert a man in his cause, the Lord approveth not. | 37 | Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth it not? | 38 | Out of the mouth of the most High proceedeth not evil and good? | 39 | Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins? | 40 | Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the LORD. | 41 | Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens. | 42 | We have transgressed and have rebelled: thou hast not pardoned. | 43 | Thou hast covered with anger, and persecuted us: thou hast slain, thou hast not pitied. | 44 | Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud, that our prayer should not pass through. | 45 | Thou hast made us as the offscouring and refuse in the midst of the people. | 46 | All our enemies have opened their mouths against us. | 47 | Fear and a snare is come upon us, desolation and destruction. | 48 | Mine eye runneth down with rivers of water for the destruction of the daughter of my people. | 49 | Mine eye trickleth down, and ceaseth not, without any intermission, | 50 | Till the LORD look down, and behold from heaven. | 51 | Mine eye affecteth mine heart because of all the daughters of my city. | 52 | Mine enemies chased me sore, like a bird, without cause. | 53 | They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and cast a stone upon me. | 54 | Waters flowed over mine head; then I said, I am cut off. | 55 | I called upon thy name, O LORD, out of the low dungeon. | 56 | Thou hast heard my voice: hide not thine ear at my breathing, at my cry. | 57 | Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee: thou saidst, Fear not. | 58 | O Lord, thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul; thou hast redeemed my life. | 59 | O LORD, thou hast seen my wrong: judge thou my cause. | 60 | Thou hast seen all their vengeance and all their imaginations against me. | 61 | Thou hast heard their reproach, O LORD, and all their imaginations against me; | 62 | The lips of those that rose up against me, and their device against me all the day. | 63 | Behold their sitting down, and their rising up; I am their musick. | 64 | Render unto them a recompence, O LORD, according to the work of their hands. | 65 | Give them sorrow of heart, thy curse unto them. | 66 | Persecute and destroy them in anger from under the heavens of the LORD. |