RWebster - Lamentations - 3

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

3:2  He hath led me, and brought me into darkness, but not into light.

3:3  Surely against me is he turned; he turneth his hand against me all the day.

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

3:5  He hath besieged me, and surrounded me with gall and travail.

3:6  He hath set me in dark places, as they that are dead of old.

3:7  He hath hedged me about, that I cannot get out: he hath made my chain heavy.

3:8  Also when I cry and shout, he shutteth out my prayer.

3:9  He hath inclosed my ways with hewn stone, he hath made my paths crooked.

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

3:11  He hath turned aside my ways, and pulled me in pieces: he hath made me desolate.

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

3:13  He hath caused the arrows of his quiver to enter into my reins.

3:14  I was a derision to all my people; and their song all the day.

3:15  He hath filled me with bitterness, he hath made me drunk with wormwood.

3:16  He hath also broken my teeth with gravel stones, he hath covered me with ashes.

3:17  And thou hast removed my soul far off from peace: I forgot prosperity.

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

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

3:20  My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me.

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

3:22  It is of the LORD’S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.

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

3:24  The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him.

3:25  The LORD is good to them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him.

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

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

3:28  He sitteth alone and keepeth silence, because he hath borne it upon him.

3:29  He putteth his mouth in the dust; if there may be hope.

3:30  He giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him: he is filled full with reproach.

3:31  For the Lord will not cast off for ever:

3:32  But though he causeth grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies.

3:33  For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men.

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

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, the Lord approveth not.

3:37  Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth it not?

3:38  Out of the mouth of the most High proceedeth not evil and good?

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

3:40  Let us search and try our ways, and turn again 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: thou hast not pardoned.

3:43  Thou hast covered with anger, and persecuted us: thou hast slain, thou hast not pitied.

3:44  Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud, that our prayer should not pass through.

3:45  Thou hast made us as the offscouring and refuse in the midst of the people.

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

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

3:48  My eye runneth down with rivers of water for the destruction of the daughter of my people.

3:49  My eye trickleth down, and ceaseth not, without any intermission,

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

3:51  My eye affecteth my heart because of all the daughters of my city.

3:52  My enemies chased me hard, 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 thy name, O LORD, out of the low dungeon.

3:56  Thou hast heard my voice: hide not thy ear at my breathing, at my cry.

3:57  Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee: thou saidst, Fear not.

3:58  O Lord, thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul; thou hast redeemed my life.

3:59  O LORD, thou hast seen my wrong: judge thou my cause.

3:60  Thou hast seen all their vengeance and all their imaginations against me.

3:61  Thou hast heard their reproach, O LORD, and all their imaginations against me;

3:62  The lips of those that rose up against me, and they plot against me all the day.

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

3:64  Render to them a recompence, O LORD, according to the work of their hands.

3:65  Give them sorrow of heart, thy curse to them.

3:66  Persecute and destroy them in anger from under the heavens of the LORD.