Lamentations 3:1-36

1I am [Jeremiah] the man who has seen affliction Because of the rod of His wrath.

2He has led me and made me walk In darkness and not in light.

3Surely He has turned His hand against me Repeatedly all the day.

4He has caused my flesh and my skin to waste away; He has shattered my bones.

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

6He has made me live in dark places Like those who have long been dead.

7He walled me in so that I cannot get out; He has weighted down my chain.

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

9He has blocked my ways with cut stone; He has made my paths crooked.

10He is to me like a bear lying in wait, And like a lion [hiding] in secret places.

11He has turned aside my ways and torn me in pieces; He has made me desolate.

12He has bent His bow And set me as a target for the arrow.

13He has caused the arrows of His quiver To enter my inner parts.

14I have become the [object of] ridicule to all my people, And [the subject of] their mocking song all the day.

15He has filled me with bitterness; He has made me drunk with wormwood (bitterness).

16He has broken my teeth with gravel; He has [covered me with ashes and] made me cower in the dust.

17My soul has been cast far away from peace; I have forgotten happiness.

18So I say, “My strength has perished And so has my hope and expectation from the Lord.”

19Remember [O Lord] my affliction and my wandering, the wormwood and the gall (bitterness).

20My soul continually remembers them And is bowed down within me.

21But this I call to mind, Therefore I have hope.

22It is because of the Lord’s lovingkindnesses that we are not consumed, Because His [tender] compassions never fail.

23They are new every morning; Great and beyond measure is Your faithfulness.

24“The Lord is my portion and my inheritance,” says my soul; “Therefore I have hope in Him and wait expectantly for Him.”

25The Lord is good to those who wait [confidently] for Him, To those who seek Him [on the authority of God’s word].

26It is good that one waits quietly For the salvation of the Lord.

27It is good for a man that he should bear The yoke [of godly discipline] in his youth.

28Let him sit alone [in hope] and keep quiet, Because God has laid it on him [for his benefit].

29Let him put his mouth in the dust [in recognition of his unworthiness]; There may yet be hope.

30Let him give his cheek to the one who strikes him; Let him be filled with reproach.

31For the Lord will not reject forever,

32For if He causes grief, Then He will have compassion According to His abundant lovingkindness and tender mercy.

33For He does not afflict willingly and from His heart Or grieve the children of men.

34To trample and crush under His feet All the prisoners of the land,

35To deprive a man of justice In the presence of the Most High,

36To defraud a man in his lawsuit— The Lord does not approve of these things.