Lamentations 3

¹ALEPH I am the man that has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.
²He has led me and caused me to walk in darkness, and not in light.
³Surely against me he turns his hand again and again all the day.
⁴My flesh and my skin he has made old; he has broken my bones.
⁵He has built against me, and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship.
⁶He has made me to dwell in dark places, like those that have been long dead.
⁷He has walled me in, so I can't escape; he has made my chains heavy.
⁸Yes, when I cry, and call for help, he shuts out my prayer.
⁹He has walled up my ways with cut stone; he has made my paths crooked.
¹⁰He is to me as a bear lying in wait, as a lion in hiding.
¹¹He has obstructed my path, and torn me in pieces; he has made me desolate.
¹²He has bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow.
¹³He has caused the arrows of his quiver to pierce my inward parts.
¹⁴I have become a laughingstock to all my people, and their song all the day.
¹⁵He has filled me with bitterness, he has given me in full measure wormwood.
¹⁶He has also broken my teeth with gravel; he has pressed me down in the dust.
¹⁷You have removed my soul far away from peace; I have forgotten what prosperity is.
¹⁸And I said, "My strength and my hope has perished from the Lord."
¹⁹Remember my affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall.
²⁰My soul considers them, and is depressed.
²¹But this I call to my mind; therefore I have hope:
²²The Lord's faithful love does not cease; his compassion does not fail.
²³They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
²⁴"The Lord is my portion," says my soul, "therefore will I hope in him."
²⁵The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul that seeks him.
²⁶It is good that a man should hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord.
²⁷It is good for a man that he bear the yoke while he is young.
²⁸Let him sit alone and keep silence when he is disciplining him.
²⁹Let him put his mouth to the dust, there may yet be hope.
³⁰Let him give his cheek to him who strikes him; let him be filled with insults.
³¹For the Lord will not reject forever.
³²For though he may cause grief, yet he will have compassion according to the abundance of his loving kindness.
³³For he is not predisposed to bring affliction or suffering to the children of men.
³⁴To crush under foot all the prisoners of the earth;
³⁵to deprive a man of justice before the face of the Most High,
³⁶to subvert a man in his cause, the Lord does not approve.
³⁷Who can speak a thing and have it come to pass, unless the Lord has commanded it?
³⁸Doesn't both calamity and good come out of the mouth of the Most High?
³⁹Why does a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?
⁴⁰Let us examine and search our ways, and return to the Lord.
⁴¹Let us lift up our heart with our hands to God in the heavens.
⁴²We have transgressed and have rebelled, and you have not forgiven.
⁴³You have covered yourself with anger and pursued us; you killed without sparing.
⁴⁴You have covered yourself with a cloud, so that no prayer can pass through.
⁴⁵You have made us rubbish and refuse in the midst of the peoples.
⁴⁶All our enemies have opened their mouth wide against us.
⁴⁷Fear and the pit have come on us, devastation and destruction.
⁴⁸Streams of tears run down from my eyes because of the destruction of the daughter of my people.
⁴⁹My tears flow and do not cease, without respite,
⁵⁰until the Lord looks down and sees from heaven.
⁵¹My eyes bring my soul grief, because of all the daughters of my city.
⁵²They have chased me relentlessly like a bird, those who are my enemies without cause.
⁵³They have cut off my life in a pit, and have cast a stone on me.
⁵⁴Waters flowed over my head; I said, 'I am finished.'
⁵⁵I called on your name, Lord, out of the depths of the pit.
⁵⁶You heard my voice; do not hide your ear at my sighs, to my cry.
⁵⁷You drew near in the day that I called on you; you said, "Do not be afraid."
⁵⁸Lord, you have taken up the case for my soul; you have redeemed my life.
⁵⁹Lord, you have seen the wrong done to me; judge my case.
⁶⁰You have seen all their vengeance and all their plots against me.
⁶¹You have heard their insults, Lord, and all their plots against me.
⁶²The lips of those that rose up against me, and their plots against me all day long.
⁶³Behold their sitting down, and their rising up; I am their mocking song.
⁶⁴You will render to them what they deserve, Lord, according to the work of their hands.
⁶⁵You will give them hardness of heart as your curse to them.
⁶⁶You will pursue them in anger, and destroy them from under the heavens of the Lord.