Lamentations 3:1-36

1I am the man who has seen affliction by 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 Time and time again throughout the day.

4He has aged my flesh and my skin, And broken my bones.

5He has besieged me And surrounded me with bitterness and woe.

6He has set me in dark places Like the dead of long ago.

7He has hedged me in so that I cannot get out; He has made my chain heavy.

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

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

10He has been to me a bear lying in wait, Like a lion in ambush.

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

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

13He has caused the arrows of His quiver To pierce my loins.

14I have become the ridicule of all my people— Their taunting song all the day.

15He has filled me with bitterness, He has made me drink wormwood.

16He has also broken my teeth with gravel, And covered me with ashes.

17You have moved my soul far from peace; I have forgotten prosperity.

18And I said, “My strength and my hope Have perished from the Lord.”

19Remember my affliction and roaming, The wormwood and the gall.

20My soul still remembers And sinks within me.

21This I recall to my mind, Therefore I have hope.

22Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not.

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

24“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “Therefore I hope in Him!”

25The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, To the soul who seeks Him.

26It is good that one should hope and wait quietly For the salvation of the Lord.

27It is good for a man to bear The yoke in his youth.

28Let him sit alone and keep silent, Because God has laid it on him;

29Let him put his mouth in the dust— There may yet be hope.

30Let him give his cheek to the one who strikes him, And be full of reproach.

31For the Lord will not cast off forever.

32Though He causes grief, Yet He will show compassion According to the multitude of His mercies.

33For He does not afflict willingly, Nor grieve the children of men.

34To crush under one’s feet All the prisoners of the earth,

35To turn aside the justice due a man Before the face of the Most High,

36Or subvert a man in his cause— The Lord does not approve.