Lamentations 3:1-36

1I am the strong man who has seen affliction by the rod of His wrath.

2He has driven me and made me walk in darkness and not light.

3Surely, He has turned His hand against me again and again all day long.

4He made my flesh and my skin waste away, broken my bones.

5He has besieged me and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship.

6He made me dwell in dark places like those long dead.

7He has walled me in so I cannot get out. He made my chain heavy.

8Even when I cry out and call for help, He shuts out my prayer.

9He walled in my ways with hewn stone. He twisted my paths.

10He is a lurking bear to me, a lion in hiding.

11He turned aside my paths and tore me to pieces. He has made me desolate.

12He bent His bow and made me the target for His arrow.

13He shot into my kidneys arrows from His quiver.

14I have become a laughing stock to all my people, their song all day long.

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

16He broke my teeth with gravel. He made me wallow in ashes.

17My soul has been deprived of shalom, I have forgotten goodness.

18So I said, “My endurance has perished, and my hope from Adonai.”

19Remember my affliction my homelessness, bitterness and gall.

20Whenever I remember, my soul is downcast within me.

21This I recall to my heart— therefore I have hope:

22Because of the mercies of Adonai we will not be consumed, for His compassions never fail.

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

24“Adonai is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in Him.”

25Adonai is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul that seeks Him.

26It is good to wait quietly for the salvation of Adonai.

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

28Let him sit alone and be silent, since He has laid it upon him.

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

30Let him offer his cheek to the one who strikes him. Let him have his fill of disgrace.

31For the Lord will not reject forever.

32For though He has caused grief, yet He will have compassion according to His abundant mercies.

33For He does not afflict from His heart or grieve the sons of men.

34To crush under His foot all the prisoners of the land,

35to deprive a person of justice before the face of Elyon,

36to defraud a person in his lawsuit— would the Lord not see?