Lamentations 3

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Jeremiah Shares Israel’s Affliction

1 Lamentations 3:1 I am the man who has seen affliction Because of the rod of His wrath.

2 Lamentations 3:2 He has driven me and made me walk In darkness and not in light.

3 Lamentations 3:3 Surely against me He has turned His hand Repeatedly all the day.

4 Lamentations 3:4 He has caused my flesh and my skin to waste away, He has broken my bones.

5 Lamentations 3:5 He has besieged and encompassed me with bitterness and hardship.

6 Lamentations 3:6 In dark places He has made me dwell, Like those who have long been dead.

7 Lamentations 3:7 He has walled me in so that I cannot go out; He has made my chain heavy.

8 Lamentations 3:8 Even when I cry out and call for help, He shuts out my prayer.

9 Lamentations 3:9 He has blocked my ways with hewn stone; He has made my paths crooked.

10 Lamentations 3:10 He is to me like a bear lying in wait, Like a lion in secret places.

11 Lamentations 3:11 He has turned aside my ways and torn me to pieces; He has made me desolate.

12 Lamentations 3:12 He bent His bow And set me as a target for the arrow.

13 Lamentations 3:13 He made the arrows of His quiver To enter into my inward parts.

14 Lamentations 3:14 I have become a laughingstock to all my people, Their mocking song all the day.

15 Lamentations 3:15 He has filled me with bitterness, He has made me drunk with wormwood.

16 Lamentations 3:16 He has broken my teeth with gravel; He has made me cower in the dust.

17 Lamentations 3:17 My soul has been rejected from peace; I have forgotten happiness.

18 Lamentations 3:18 So I say, “My strength has perished, And so has my hope from the LORD.”

Hope of Relief in God’s Mercy

19 Lamentations 3:19 Remember my affliction and my wandering, the wormwood and bitterness.

20 Lamentations 3:20 Surely my soul remembers And is bowed down within me.

21 Lamentations 3:21 This I recall to my mind, Therefore I have hope.

22 Lamentations 3:22 The LORD’S lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, For His compassions never fail.

23 Lamentations 3:23 They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.

24 Lamentations 3:24 “The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “Therefore I have hope in Him.”

25 Lamentations 3:25 The LORD is good to those who wait for Him, To the person who seeks Him.

26 Lamentations 3:26 It is good that he waits silently For the salvation of the LORD.

27 Lamentations 3:27 It is good for a man that he should bear The yoke in his youth.

28 Lamentations 3:28 Let him sit alone and be silent Since He has laid it on him.

29 Lamentations 3:29 Let him put his mouth in the dust, Perhaps there is hope.

30 Lamentations 3:30 Let him give his cheek to the smiter, Let him be filled with reproach.

31 Lamentations 3:31 For the Lord will not reject forever,

32 Lamentations 3:32 For if He causes grief, Then He will have compassion According to His abundant lovingkindness.

33 Lamentations 3:33 For He does not afflict willingly Or grieve the sons of men.

34 Lamentations 3:34 To crush under His feet All the prisoners of the land,

35 Lamentations 3:35 To deprive a man of justice In the presence of the Most High,

36 Lamentations 3:36 To defraud a man in his lawsuit— Of these things the Lord does not approve.

37 Lamentations 3:37 Who is there who speaks and it comes to pass, Unless the Lord has commanded it?

38 Lamentations 3:38 Is it not from the mouth of the Most High That both good and ill go forth?

39 Lamentations 3:39 Why should any living mortal, or any man, Offer complaint in view of his sins?

40 Lamentations 3:40 Let us examine and probe our ways, And let us return to the LORD.

41 Lamentations 3:41 We lift up our heart and hands Toward God in heaven;

42 Lamentations 3:42 We have transgressed and rebelled, You have not pardoned.

43 Lamentations 3:43 You have covered Yourself with anger And pursued us; You have slain and have not spared.

44 Lamentations 3:44 You have covered Yourself with a cloud So that no prayer can pass through.

45 Lamentations 3:45 You have made us mere offscouring and refuse In the midst of the peoples.

46 Lamentations 3:46 All our enemies have opened their mouths against us.

47 Lamentations 3:47 Panic and pitfall have befallen us, Devastation and destruction;

48 Lamentations 3:48 My eyes run down with streams of water Because of the destruction of the daughter of my people.

49 Lamentations 3:49 My eyes pour down unceasingly, Without stopping,

50 Lamentations 3:50 Until the LORD looks down And sees from heaven.

51 Lamentations 3:51 My eyes bring pain to my soul Because of all the daughters of my city.

52 Lamentations 3:52 My enemies without cause Hunted me down like a bird;

53 Lamentations 3:53 They have silenced me in the pit And have placed a stone on me.

54 Lamentations 3:54 Waters flowed over my head; I said, “I am cut off!”

55 Lamentations 3:55 I called on Your name, O LORD, Out of the lowest pit.

56 Lamentations 3:56 You have heard my voice, “Do not hide Your ear from my prayer for relief, From my cry for help.”

57 Lamentations 3:57 You drew near when I called on You; You said, “Do not fear!”

58 Lamentations 3:58 O Lord, You have pleaded my soul’s cause; You have redeemed my life.

59 Lamentations 3:59 O LORD, You have seen my oppression; Judge my case.

60 Lamentations 3:60 You have seen all their vengeance, All their schemes against me.

61 Lamentations 3:61 You have heard their reproach, O LORD, All their schemes against me.

62 Lamentations 3:62 The lips of my assailants and their whispering Are against me all day long.

63 Lamentations 3:63 Look on their sitting and their rising; I am their mocking song.

64 Lamentations 3:64 You will recompense them, O LORD, According to the work of their hands.

65 Lamentations 3:65 You will give them hardness of heart, Your curse will be on them.

66 Lamentations 3:66 You will pursue them in anger and destroy them From under the heavens of the LORD!