NETfree - Lamentations - 3

3:1  I am the man who has experienced affliction from the rod of his wrath.

3:2  He drove me into captivity and made me walk in darkness and not light.

3:3  He repeatedly attacks me, he turns his hand against me all day long.

3:4  He has made my mortal skin waste away; he has broken my bones.

3:5  He has besieged and surrounded me with bitter hardship.

3:6  He has made me reside in deepest darkness like those who died long ago.

3:7  He has walled me in so that I cannot get out; he has weighted me down with heavy prison chains.

3:8  Also, when I cry out desperately for help, he has shut out my prayer.

3:9  He has blocked every road I take with a wall of hewn stones; he has made every path impassable.

3:10  To me he is like a bear lying in ambush, like a hidden lion stalking its prey.

3:11  He has obstructed my paths and torn me to pieces; he has made me desolate.

3:12  He drew his bow and made me the target for his arrow.

3:13  He shot his arrows into my heart.

3:14  I have become the laughingstock of all people, their mocking song all day long.

3:15  He has given me my fill of bitter herbs and made me drunk with bitterness.

3:16  He ground my teeth in gravel; he trampled me in the dust.

3:17  I am deprived of peace; I have forgotten what happiness is.

3:18  So I said, "My endurance has expired; I have lost all hope of deliverance from the LORD."

3:19  Remember my impoverished and homeless condition, which is a bitter poison.

3:20  I continually think about this, and I am depressed.

3:21  But this I call to mind; therefore I have hope:

3:22  The LORD's loyal kindness never ceases; his compassions never end.

3:23  They are fresh every morning; your faithfulness is abundant!

3:24  "My portion is the Lord," I have said to myself, so I will put my hope in him.

3:25  The LORD is good to those who trust in him, to the one who seeks him.

3:26  It is good to wait patiently for deliverance from the LORD.

3:27  It is good for a man to bear the yoke while he is young.

3:28  Let a person sit alone in silence, when the LORD is disciplining him.

3:29  Let him bury his face in the dust; perhaps there is hope.

3:30  Let him offer his cheek to the one who hits him; let him have his fill of insults.

3:31  For the Lord will not reject us forever.

3:32  Though he causes us grief, he then has compassion on us according to the abundance of his loyal kindness.

3:33  For he is not predisposed to afflict or to grieve people.

3:34  To crush underfoot all the earth's prisoners,

3:35  to deprive a person of his rights in the presence of the Most High,

3:36  to defraud a person in a lawsuit - the Lord does not approve of such things!

3:37  Whose command was ever fulfilled unless the Lord decreed it?

3:38  Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that everything comes - both calamity and blessing?

3:39  Why should any living person complain when punished for his sins?

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

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

3:42  "We have blatantly rebelled; you have not forgiven."

3:43  You shrouded yourself with anger and then pursued us; you killed without mercy.

3:44  You shrouded yourself with a cloud so that no prayer can get through.

3:45  You make us like filthy scum in the estimation of the nations.

3:46  All our enemies have gloated over us;

3:47  Panic and pitfall have come upon us, devastation and destruction.

3:48  Streams of tears flow from my eyes because my people are destroyed.

3:49  Tears flow from my eyes and will not stop; there will be no break

3:50  until the LORD looks down from heaven and sees what has happened.

3:51  What my eyes see grieves me - all the suffering of the daughters in my city.

3:52  For no good reason my enemies hunted me down like a bird.

3:53  They shut me up in a pit and threw stones at me.

3:54  The waters closed over my head; I thought I was about to die.

3:55  I have called on your name, O LORD, from the deepest pit.

3:56  You heard my plea: "Do not close your ears to my cry for relief!"

3:57  You came near on the day I called to you; you said, "Do not fear!"

3:58  O Lord, you championed my cause, you redeemed my life.

3:59  You have seen the wrong done to me, O LORD; pronounce judgment on my behalf!

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

3:61  You have heard their taunts, O LORD, all their plots against me.

3:62  My assailants revile and conspire against me all day long.

3:63  Watch them from morning to evening; I am the object of their mocking songs.

3:64  Pay them back what they deserve, O LORD, according to what they have done.

3:65  Give them a distraught heart; may your curse be on them!

3:66  Pursue them in anger and eradicate them from under the Lord's heaven.