Lamentations 3:26-47

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.’