NHEBME - Lamentations - 3

3:1  ALEPH I am the man that has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.

3:2  He has led me and caused me to walk in darkness, and not in light.

3:3  Surely against me he turns his hand again and again all the day.

3:4  My flesh and my skin he has made old; he has broken my bones.

3:5  He has built against me, and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship.

3:6  He has made me to dwell in dark places, like those that have been long dead.

3:7  He has walled me in, so I can't escape; he has made my chains heavy.

3:8  Yes, when I cry, and call for help, he shuts out my prayer.

3:9  He has walled up my ways with cut stone; he has made my paths crooked.

3:10  He is to me as a bear lying in wait, as a lion in hiding.

3:11  He has obstructed my path, and torn me in pieces; he has made me desolate.

3:12  He has bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow.

3:13  He has caused the arrows of his quiver to pierce my inward parts.

3:14  I have become a laughingstock to all my people, and their song all the day.

3:15  He has filled me with bitterness, he has given me in full measure wormwood.

3:16  He has also broken my teeth with gravel; he has pressed me down in the dust.

3:17  You have removed my soul far away from peace; I have forgotten what prosperity is.

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

3:19  Remember my affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall.

3:20  My soul considers them, and is depressed.

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

3:22  The Lord's faithful love does not cease; his compassion does not fail.

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

3:24  "The Lord is my portion," says my soul, "therefore will I hope in him."

3:25  The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul that seeks him.

3:26  It is good that a man should hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord.

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

3:28  Let him sit alone and keep silence when he is disciplining him.

3:29  Let him put his mouth to the dust, there may yet be hope.

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

3:31  For the Lord will not reject forever.

3:32  For though he may cause grief, yet he will have compassion according to the abundance of his loving kindness.

3:33  For he is not predisposed to bring affliction or suffering to the children of men.

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

3:35  to deprive a man of justice before the face of the Most High,

3:36  to subvert a man in his cause, the Lord does not approve.

3:37  Who can speak a thing and have it come to pass, unless the Lord has commanded it?

3:38  Doesn't both calamity and good come out of the mouth of the Most High?

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

3:40  Let us examine and search our ways, and return to the Lord.

3:41  Let us lift up our heart with our hands to God in the heavens.

3:42  We have transgressed and have rebelled, and you have not forgiven.

3:43  You have covered yourself with anger and pursued us; you killed without sparing.

3:44  You have covered yourself with a cloud, so that no prayer can pass through.

3:45  You have made us rubbish and refuse in the midst of the peoples.

3:46  All our enemies have opened their mouth wide against us.

3:47  Fear and the pit have come on us, devastation and destruction.

3:48  Streams of tears run down from my eyes because of the destruction of the daughter of my people.

3:49  My tears flow and do not cease, without respite,

3:50  until the Lord looks down and sees from heaven.

3:51  My eyes bring my soul grief, because of all the daughters of my city.

3:52  They have chased me relentlessly like a bird, those who are my enemies without cause.

3:53  They have cut off my life in a pit, and have cast a stone on me.

3:54  Waters flowed over my head; I said, 'I am finished.'

3:55  I called on your name, Lord, out of the depths of the pit.

3:56  You heard my voice; do not hide your ear at my sighs, to my cry.

3:57  You drew near in the day that I called on you; you said, "Do not be afraid."

3:58  Lord, you have taken up the case for my soul; you have redeemed my life.

3:59  Lord, you have seen the wrong done to me; judge my case.

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

3:61  You have heard their insults, Lord, and all their plots against me.

3:62  The lips of those that rose up against me, and their plots against me all day long.

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

3:64  You will render to them what they deserve, Lord, according to the work of their hands.

3:65  You will give them hardness of heart as your curse to them.

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