THE BIBLE

Lamentations
Chapter 3


3:1  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 has he made old; he has broken my bones.

3:5  He has built against me, and compassed me with gall and travail.

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

3:7  He has walled me about, that I can't go forth; he has made my chain 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 hewn stone; he has made my paths crooked.

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

3:11  He has turned aside my ways, and pulled 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 shafts of his quiver to enter into my reins.

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

3:15  He has filled me with bitterness, he has sated me with wormwood.

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

3:17  You have removed my soul far off from peace; I forgot prosperity.

3:18  I said, My strength is perished, and my expectation from Yahweh.

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

3:20  My soul still remembers them, and is bowed down within me.

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

3:22  It is of Yahweh's loving kindnesses that we are not consumed, because his compassion doesn't fail.

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

3:24  Yahweh is my portion, says my soul; therefore will I hope in him.

3:25  Yahweh 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 Yahweh.

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

3:28  Let him sit alone and keep silence, because he has laid it on him.

3:29  Let him put his mouth in the dust, if so be there may be hope.

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

3:31  For the Lord will not cast off forever.

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

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

3:34  To crush under foot 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 doesn't approve.

3:37  Who is he who says, and it comes to pass, when the Lord doesn't command it?

3:38  Doesn't evil 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 search and try our ways, and turn again to Yahweh.

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

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

3:43  You have covered with anger and pursued us; you have killed, you have not pitied.

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

3:45  You have made us an off-scouring 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 are come on us, devastation and destruction.

3:48  My eye runs down with streams of water, for the destruction of the daughter of my people.

3:49  My eye pours down, and doesn't cease, without any intermission,

3:50  Until Yahweh look down, and see from heaven.

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

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

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

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

3:55  I called on your name, Yahweh, out of the lowest dungeon.

3:56  You heard my voice; don't hide your ear at my breathing, at my cry.

3:57  You drew near in the day that I called on you; you said, Don't be afraid.

3:58  Lord, you have pleaded the causes of my soul; you have redeemed my life.

3:59  Yahweh, you have seen my wrong; judge you my cause.

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

3:61  You have heard their reproach, Yahweh, and all their devices against me,

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

3:63  See you their sitting down, and their rising up; I am their song.

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

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

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


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