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Lamentations 3
World English Bible British Edition · Berean Standard Bible
I am the man who has seen affliction
I (note: This chapter is an acrostic poem, each 3–verse stanza beginning with the successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet.) am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of God’s wrath.
He has led me and caused me to walk in darkness,
He has driven me away and made me walk in darkness instead of light.
He has made my flesh and my skin old.
He has worn away my flesh and skin; He has shattered my bones.
He has walled me about, so that I can’t go out.
He has walled me in so I cannot escape; He has weighed me down with chains.
Yes, when I cry, and call for help,
Even when I cry out and plead for help, He shuts out my prayer.
He has walled up my ways with cut stone.
He has barred my ways with cut stones; He has made my paths crooked.
He has turned away my path,
He forced me off my path and tore me to pieces; He left me without help.
He has caused the shafts of his quiver to enter into my kidneys.
He pierced my kidneys with His arrows.
I have become a derision to all my people,
I am a laughingstock to all my people; they mock me in song all day long.
He has filled me with bitterness.
He has filled me with bitterness; He has intoxicated me with wormwood.
He has also broken my teeth with gravel.
He has ground my teeth with gravel and trampled me in the dust.
You have removed my soul far away from peace.
My soul has been deprived of peace; I have forgotten what prosperity is.
I said, “My strength has perished,
So I say, “My strength has perished, along with my hope from the LORD.”
Remember my affliction and my misery,
Remember my affliction and wandering, the wormwood and the gall.
It is because of the LORD’s loving kindnesses that we are not consumed,
Because of the loving devotion (note: Forms of the Hebrew chesed are translated here and in most cases throughout the Scriptures as loving devotion; the range of meaning includes love, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, and mercy, as well as loyalty to a covenant.) of the LORD we are not consumed, for His mercies never fail.
“The LORD is my portion,” says my soul.
“The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in Him.”
The LORD is good to those who wait for him,
The LORD is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him.
It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.
It is good for a man to bear the yoke while he is still young.
Let him sit alone and keep silence,
Let him sit alone in silence, for the LORD has laid it upon him.
Let him put his mouth in the dust,
Let him bury his face in the dust—perhaps there is still hope.
Let him give his cheek to him who strikes him.
Let him offer his cheek to the one who would strike him; let him be filled with reproach.
For though he causes grief,
Even if He causes grief, He will show compassion according to His abundant loving devotion.
For he does not afflict willingly,
For He does not willingly afflict or grieve the sons of men.
To crush under foot all the prisoners of the earth,
To crush underfoot all the prisoners of the land,
to turn away the right of a man before the face of the Most High,
to deny a man justice before the Most High,
to subvert a man in his cause, the Lord doesn’t approve.
to subvert a man in his lawsuit—of these the Lord does not approve.
Who is he who says, and it comes to pass,
Who has spoken and it came to pass, unless the Lord has ordained it?
Doesn’t evil and good come out of the mouth of the Most High?
Do not both adversity and good come from the mouth of the Most High?
Let’s lift up our heart with our hands to God in the heavens.
Let us lift up our hearts and hands to God in heaven:
“You have covered us with anger and pursued us.
You have covered Yourself in anger and pursued us; You have killed without pity.
You have covered yourself with a cloud,
You have covered Yourself with a cloud that no prayer can pass through.
You have made us an off-scouring and refuse
You have made us scum and refuse among the nations.
“All our enemies have opened their mouth wide against us.
All our enemies open their mouths against us.
Terror and the pit have come on us,
Panic and pitfall have come upon us—devastation and destruction.
My eye runs down with streams of water,
Streams of tears flow from my eyes over the destruction of the daughter of my people.
My eye affects my soul,
My eyes bring grief to my soul because of all the daughters of my city.
They have cut off my life in the dungeon,
They dropped me alive into a pit and cast stones upon me.
You came near in the day that I called on you.
You drew near when I called on You; You said, “Do not be afraid.”
You have heard their reproach, LORD,
O LORD, You have heard their insults, all their plots against me—
the lips of those that rose up against me,
the slander and murmuring of my assailants against me all day long.
You see their sitting down and their rising up.
When they sit and when they rise, see how they mock me in song.
You will pay them back, LORD,
You will pay them back what they deserve, O LORD, according to the work of their hands.
You will give them hardness of heart,
Put a veil of anguish over their hearts; may Your curse be upon them!
You will pursue them in anger,
You will pursue them in anger and exterminate them from under Your heavens, O LORD.