Berean Standard Bible

Lamentations 3:1-36

1I1 am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of God’s wrath.2He has driven me away and made me walk in darkness instead of light.3Indeed, He keeps turning His hand against me all day long.

4He has worn away my flesh and skin;He has shattered my bones.5He has besieged me and surrounded mewith bitterness and hardship.6He has made me dwell in darknesslike those dead for ages.

7He has walled me in so I cannot escape;He has weighed me down with chains.8Even when I cry out and plead for help,He shuts out my prayer.9He has barred my ways with cut stones;He has made my paths crooked.

10He is a bear lying in wait,a lion hiding in ambush.11He forced me off my path and tore me to pieces;He left me without help.12He bent His bowand set me as the target for His arrow.

13He pierced my kidneyswith His arrows.14I am a laughingstock to all my people;they mock me in song all day long.15He has filled me with bitterness;He has intoxicated me with wormwood.

16He has ground my teeth with graveland trampled me in the dust.17My soul has been deprived of peace;I have forgotten what prosperity is.18So I say, “My strength has perished,along with my hope from the LORD.”

19Remember my affliction and wandering,the wormwood and the gall.20Surely my soul remembersand is humbled within me.21Yet I call this to mind,and therefore I have hope:

22Because of the loving devotion2 of the LORD we are not consumed,for His mercies never fail.23They are new every morning;great is Your faithfulness!24“The LORD is my portion,” says my soul,“therefore I will hope in Him.”

25The LORD is good to those who wait for Him,to the soul who seeks Him.26It is good to wait quietlyfor the salvation of the LORD.27It is good for a man to bear the yokewhile he is still young.

28Let him sit alone in silence,for the LORD has laid it upon him.29Let him bury his face in the dust—perhaps there is still hope.30Let him offer his cheek to the one who would strike him;let him be filled with reproach.

31For the Lord will notcast us off forever.32Even if He causes grief, He will show compassionaccording to His abundant loving devotion.33For He does not willingly afflictor grieve the sons of men.

34To crush underfootall the prisoners of the land,35to deny a man justicebefore the Most High,36to subvert a man in his lawsuit—of these the Lord does not approve.

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Notes

1. Lamentations 3:1 This chapter is an acrostic poem, each 3–verse stanza beginning with the successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet. ↩
2. Lamentations 3:22 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. ↩

Notes

Commentaries on Lamentations 3