AFV2020 - Lamentations - 3

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

3:2  He has led me and made me go in darkness and not into light.

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

3:4  He has wasted my flesh and my skin; He has broken my bones.

3:5  He has besieged me and has encircled me with bitterness and tribulation.

3:6  He has made me live in dark places, like those who have long been dead.

3:7  He has set a fence around me so that I cannot go out; He has made my chain heavy.

3:8  Also when I cry and shout, He shuts out my prayer.

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

3:10  He was as a bear lying in wait for me, as a lion in secret places.

3:11  He has turned my ways aside andhas torn me to pieces. He hasmade me desolate.

3:12  He has bent His bow and hasset me as a mark for the arrow.

3:13  He has caused the arrows of His quiver to enter into my inward parts.

3:14  I was a mockery to all my people, their song all the day.

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

3:16  He has also broken my teeth with gravel stones; He has made me to wallow in ashes.

3:17  And my soul is removed far off from peace; I have forgotten happiness.

3:18  And I said, "My strength and my hope from the LORD are perished."

3:19  Remember my affliction and my anguish, the wormwood and bitterness of gall.

3:20  My soul vividly remembers and is bowed down within me.

3:21  I recall this to my mind; therefore I have hope.

3:22  It is by the LORD'S mercies that we are not destroyed, because His compassions never fail.

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

3:24  "The LORD is my portion," says my soul; "therefore I will hope in Him."

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

3:26  It is good that one should hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD.

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

3:28  Let him sit alone and in silence because He laid it upon him.

3:29  He puts his mouth in the dust, if perhaps there may yet be hope.

3:30  Let him give his cheek to him who strikes him; let him be filled with reproach.

3:31  For the LORD will not cast off forever;

3:32  For though He causes grief, yet He will have compassion according to the multitude of His mercies.

3:33  For He does not afflict willingly, nor does He grieve the children of men;

3:34  To crush all the prisoners of the earth under his feet;

3:35  To turn aside the right of a man before the face of the Most High;

3:36  To subvert a man in his cause—of this the LORD does not approve.

3:37  Who is this who speaks, and it comes to pass, when the LORD does not ordain it?

3:38  From the mouth of the Most High does not the bad and the good proceed?

3:39  Wherefore does a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?

3:40  Let us test and examine our ways, and return again to the LORD.

3:41  Let us lift up our heart and hands to God in heaven.

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

3:43  You have covered Yourself with anger and pursued us; You have slain unsparingly;

3:44  You have covered Yourself with a cloud that our prayer should not pass through.

3:45  You have made us as the offscouring and refuse among the people.

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

3:47  Fear and a snare have come upon us, desolation and destruction.

3:48  Streams of water run down my eye for the destruction of the daughter of my people.

3:49  My eye flows down and does not cease, without any intermission,

3:50  Until the LORD shall look down and behold from heaven.

3:51  My eye afflicted my soul because of all the daughters of my city.

3:52  My enemies have hunted me, like a bird, without cause.

3:53  They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and cast a stone upon me.

3:54  Waters flowed over my head; then I said, "I am cut off."

3:55  I called upon Your name, O LORD, out of the lowest dungeon.

3:56  You have heard my voice: "Do not hide Your ear at my sighing, at my cry for help."

3:57  You drew near in the day that I called upon You; You said, "Fear not."

3:58  O LORD, You have pleaded for the causes of my soul; You have redeemed my life.

3:59  O LORD, You have seen the wrong done to me; You judge my cause.

3:60  You have seen all their vengeance, all their devises against me.

3:61  You have heard their taunt, O LORD, all their imaginations against me;

3:62  The lips of those who rose up against me, and their scheming against me all the day.

3:63  Behold at their sitting down and their rising up; I am their mocking song.

3:64  You will render to them a recompense, O LORD, according to the work of their hands.

3:65  You will give them dullness of heart—Your curse be on them!

3:66  You will pursue them in anger and destroy them from under the heavens of the LORD.