[Image: Introduction to Lamentations]
LAMENTATIONS 3
Great Is Your Faithfulness
[1] I am the man who has seen affliction
under the rod of his wrath;
[2] he has driven and brought me
into darkness without any light;
[3] surely against me he turns his hand
again and again the whole day long.
[4] He has made my flesh and my skin waste away;
he has broken my bones;
[5] he has besieged and enveloped me
with bitterness and tribulation;
[6] he has made me dwell in darkness
like the dead of long ago.
[7] He has walled me about so that I cannot escape;
he has made my chains heavy;
[8] though I call and cry for help,
he shuts out my prayer;
[9] he has blocked my ways with blocks of stones;
he has made my paths crooked.
[10] He is a bear lying in wait for me,
a lion in hiding;
[11] he turned aside my steps and tore me to pieces;
he has made me desolate;
[12] he bent his bow and set me
as a target for his arrow.
[13] He drove into my kidneys
the arrows of his quiver;
[14] I have become the laughingstock of all my people,
the object of their taunts all day long.
[15] He has filled me with bitterness;
he has sated me with wormwood.
[16] He has made my teeth grind on gravel,
and made me cower in ashes;
[17] my soul is bereft of peace;
I have forgotten what happiness is;
[18] so I say, “My endurance has perished;
so has my hope from the LORD.”
[19] Remember my affliction and my wanderings,
the wormwood and the gall!
[20] My soul continually remembers it
and is bowed down within me.
[21] But this I call to mind,
and therefore I have hope:
[22] The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases;
his mercies never come to an end;
[23] they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
[24] “The LORD is my portion,” says my soul,
“therefore I will hope in him.”
[25] The LORD is good to those who wait for him,
to the soul who seeks him.
[26] It is good that one should wait quietly
for the salvation of the LORD.
[27] It is good for a man that he bear
the yoke in his youth.
[28] Let him sit alone in silence
when it is laid on him;
[29] let him put his mouth in the dust—
there may yet be hope;
[30] let him give his cheek to the one who strikes,
and let him be filled with insults.
[31] For the Lord will not
cast off forever,
[32] for, though he cause grief, he will have compassion
according to the abundance of his steadfast love;
[33] for he does not afflict from his heart
or grieve the children of men.
[34] To crush underfoot
all the prisoners of the earth,
[35] to deny a man justice
in the presence of the Most High,
[36] to subvert a man in his lawsuit,
the Lord does not approve.
[37] Who has spoken and it came to pass,
unless the Lord has commanded it?
[38] Is it not from the mouth of the Most High
that good and bad come?
[39] Why should a living man complain,
a man, about the punishment of his sins?
[40] Let us test and examine our ways,
and return to the LORD!
[41] Let us lift up our hearts and hands
to God in heaven:
[42] “We have transgressed and rebelled,
and you have not forgiven.
[43] “You have wrapped yourself with anger and pursued us,
killing without pity;
[44] you have wrapped yourself with a cloud
so that no prayer can pass through.
[45] You have made us scum and garbage
among the peoples.
[46] “All our enemies
open their mouths against us;
[47] panic and pitfall have come upon us,
devastation and destruction;
[48] my eyes flow with rivers of tears
because of the destruction of the daughter of my people.
[49] “My eyes will flow without ceasing,
without respite,
[50] until the LORD from heaven
looks down and sees;
[51] my eyes cause me grief
at the fate of all the daughters of my city.
[52] “I have been hunted like a bird
by those who were my enemies without cause;
[53] they flung me alive into the pit
and cast stones on me;
[54] water closed over my head;
I said, ‘I am lost.’
[55] “I called on your name, O LORD,
from the depths of the pit;
[56] you heard my plea, ‘Do not close
your ear to my cry for help!’
[57] You came near when I called on you;
you said, ‘Do not fear!’
[58] “You have taken up my cause, O Lord;
you have redeemed my life.
[59] You have seen the wrong done to me, O LORD;
judge my cause.
[60] You have seen all their vengeance,
all their plots against me.
[61] “You have heard their taunts, O LORD,
all their plots against me.
[62] The lips and thoughts of my assailants
are against me all the day long.
[63] Behold their sitting and their rising;
I am the object of their taunts.
[64] “You will repay them, O LORD,
according to the work of their hands.
[65] You will give them dullness of heart;
your curse will be on them.
[66] You will pursue them in anger and destroy them
from under your heavens, O LORD.” (ESV)
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