Lamentations 3

The prophet remembers that God is always faithful

1I am the man who has seen trouble. God punished me because he was angry with me.

2He has led me into the dark. There is no light, so I cannot see the right way.

3He is completely against me. He causes me trouble all the time.

4God has caused my skin and my whole body to become old. He has broken my bones.

5He has fought against me from every side. He caused much trouble for me, so that I am very sad.

6He has brought me to this dark place. So I am like a person who has been dead for a long time.

7It is as if God has built high walls round me, and I cannot go out. My troubles are very bad. They hold me down like heavy chains.

8I shout and I pray for help, but God does not listen.

9On every road that I go along, he has put big rocks in my way. I cannot go past them.

10God is like a strong wild animal. He hides and he waits for me by the path.

11He is like an animal that catches me and pulls me off the path. He tears me in pieces and then he leaves me without any help.

12God is like a soldier with a bow and arrows. He used his bow to shoot at me.

13It was as if he shot me in the heart with his arrows.

14All the people see me and laugh. They even sing silly songs about me all the time.

15God has caused my life to become a thing of pain. It is as if he filled a cup with a very bitter drink for me.

16It is as if he caused me to eat small stones, so that the stones broke my teeth. Then he put me on the ground, and he pushed me down in the dirt.

17He has taken peace away from my mind. I cannot remember the happy days that I had before.

18I tell myself, ‘Everything good has finished for me! The things that I hoped for from the Lord have not come!’

19Lord, please remember all my troubles, because I am sad. Remember that I am very lonely. My troubles are like poison for me.

20I think about all those things, and I feel small and alone.

21But then I choose to remember God, and this is my hope:

22The Lord's faithful love never comes to an end. He never stops being kind to us.

23Every day, we can trust him to be kind again. We know that he will do what he has promised to do.

24‘He is my Lord,’ I say to myself. ‘He is the reason why I can hope for good things.’

25The Lord does good things for people who wait for him. He is kind to everyone who looks for him.

26It is good when people continue to hope. It is good when they quietly wait for the Lord, because he will save them.

27It is also good for people to obey God when they are young. They should work well for him.

28Also, when the Lord causes them to be in trouble, they should sit alone quietly.

29They should be humble in front of God. Then hope may come again.

30If somebody hits them or insults them, they should accept it.

31The Lord does not turn against people for ever.

32He does cause people to feel sad sometimes, but he is sorry for us. He is also very kind to us, because he loves us very much.

33He does not enjoy seeing people who are in pain. He does not enjoy causing trouble for them.

34Bad people may be cruel to those who are in prison.

35They may turn against the Most High God and cheat people.

36They may tell lies in court. The Lord is not happy when he sees any of those bad things.

37The Lord causes things to happen. Nobody can cause things to happen without him.

38The Most High God causes all things to happen. He causes good things and bad things to happen when he speaks.

39He only punishes us when we do wrong things. We are still alive, so we should not be angry with God.

40Instead, we should think a lot about what we do, and we should turn back to the Lord again.

41We should lift up our hands and pray to God in heaven. We should be honest with God and say to him,

42‘We have done wrong things, and we have turned against you. You have not forgiven us.

43You have hidden yourself from us because you are angry. You have followed us so that you could kill us. You were not sorry about it.

44You have hidden from us in a cloud. So you do not listen to us when we talk to you.

45You let people from other countries think bad things about us. They think that we have no value. We are like things that nobody can use any longer.

46All our enemies have insulted us.

47We have become afraid of them. They have caught us and they have destroyed us and our things.’

48I weep, and my eyes are red with all my tears. It is because the enemy has killed my people.

49Tears come like a river from my eyes and they will not stop,

50until the Lord looks down on us from heaven. He will see us and he will help us.

51I see what has happened to all the people in my city. And so I am very sad.

52My enemies had no reason to follow me. But they caught me as they would catch a bird.

53They put me alive into the well, and they threw stones down on me.

54The water covered my head. Then I said, ‘I will soon die.’

55I shouted your name, Lord, when I was in the well.

56‘Please listen to me, Lord,’ I shouted. ‘Help me! Save me!’ I shouted, and you heard me.

57You came near to me when I prayed to you. ‘Do not be afraid,’ you said.

58Lord, you have given me help. You have paid the price to keep me alive.

59You saw the bad things that they did to me. So please agree with me that they were not fair!

60You know all the bad things that they did to me. And you know about all the bad things that they want to do to me.

61You have heard their cruel words against me, Lord. Yes, you know about all the bad things that they want to do to me.

62These people have been cruel to me. They attack me with cruel words every hour of the day.

63Look at them as they sing cruel things about me. They sing when they are sitting, and they sing when they are standing.

64Punish them for what they have done, Lord.

65Cause them to think that they cannot hope for anything good. Cause bad things to happen to them.

66Run after them angrily. Kill them all because you are angry with them. Let nobody on earth remember them any longer.