Lamentations 3:4-18

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.”