Lamentations 3
Great Is Your Faithfulness
1
I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of His wrath.
2
He has led me and made me walk
In darkness and not in light.
3
Surely He has turned His hand against me
Time and time again throughout the day.
4
He has aged a my flesh and my skin,
And b broken my bones.
5
He has besieged me
And surrounded me with bitterness and 1 woe.
6
c He has set me in dark places
Like the dead of long ago.
7
d He has hedged me in so that I cannot get out;
He has made my chain heavy.
8
Even e when I cry and shout,
He shuts out my prayer.
9
He has blocked my ways with hewn stone;
He has made my paths crooked.
10
f He has been to me a bear lying in wait,
Like a lion in 2 ambush.
11
He has turned aside my ways and g torn me in pieces;
He has made me desolate.
12
He has bent His bow
And h set me up as a target for the arrow.
13
He has caused i the 3 arrows of His quiver
To pierce my 4 loins.
14
I have become the j ridicule of all my people -
k Their taunting song all the day.
15
l He has filled me with bitterness,
He has made me drink wormwood.
16
He has also broken my teeth m with gravel,
And 5 covered me with ashes.
17
You have moved my soul far from peace;
I have forgotten 6 prosperity.
18
n And I said, "My strength and my hope
Have perished from the LORD."
19
Remember my affliction and roaming,
o The wormwood and the 7 gall.
20
My soul still remembers
And 8 sinks within me.
21
This I recall to my mind,
Therefore I have p hope.
22
q Through the LORD's mercies we are not consumed,
Because His compassions r fail not.
23
They are new s every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness.
24
"The LORD is my t portion," says my soul,
"Therefore I u hope in Him!"
25
The LORD is good to those who v wait for Him,
To the soul who seeks Him.
26
It is good that one should w hope x and wait quietly
For the salvation of the LORD.
27
y It is good for a man to bear
The yoke in his youth.
28
z Let him sit alone and keep silent,
Because God has laid it on him;
29
a Let him put his mouth in the dust -
There may yet be hope.
30
b Let him give his cheek to the one who strikes him,
And be full of reproach.
31
c For the Lord will not cast off forever.
32
Though He causes grief,
Yet He will show compassion
According to the multitude of His mercies.
33
For d He does not afflict 9 willingly,
Nor grieve the children of men.
34
To crush under one's feet
All the prisoners of the earth,
35
To turn aside the justice due a man
Before the face of the Most High,
36
Or subvert a man in his cause -
e The Lord does not approve.
37
Who is he f who speaks and it comes to pass,
When the Lord has not commanded it?
38
Is it not from the mouth of the Most High
That g woe and well-being proceed?
39
h Why should a living man 10 complain,
i A man for the punishment of his sins?
40
Let us search out and examine our ways,
And turn back to the LORD;
41
j Let us lift our hearts and hands
To God in heaven.
42
k We have transgressed and rebelled;
You have not pardoned.
43
You have covered Yourself with anger
And pursued us;
You have slain and not pitied.
44
You have covered Yourself with a cloud,
That prayer should not pass through.
45
You have made us an l offscouring and refuse
In the midst of the peoples.
46
m All our enemies
Have opened their mouths against us.
47
n Fear and a snare have come upon us,
o Desolation and destruction.
48
p My eyes overflow with rivers of water
For the destruction of the daughter of my people.
49
q My eyes flow and do not cease,
Without interruption,
50
Till the LORD from heaven
r Looks down and sees.
51
My eyes bring suffering to my soul
Because of all the daughters of my city.
52
My enemies s without cause
Hunted me down like a bird.
53
They 11 silenced my life t in the pit
And u threw 12 stones at me.
54
v The waters flowed over my head;
w I said, "I am cut off!"
55
x I called on Your name, O LORD,
From the lowest y pit.
56
z You have heard my voice:
"Do not hide Your ear
From my sighing, from my cry for help."
57
You a drew near on the day I called on You,
And said, b "Do not fear!"
58
O Lord, You have c pleaded the case for my soul;
d You have redeemed my life.
59
O LORD, You have seen 13 how I am wronged;
e Judge my case.
60
You have seen all their vengeance,
All their f schemes against me.
61
You have heard their reproach, O LORD,
All their schemes against me,
62
The lips of my enemies
And their whispering against me all the day.
63
Look at their g sitting down and their rising up;
I am their taunting song.
64
h Repay them, O LORD,
According to the work of their hands.
65
Give them 14 a veiled heart;
Your curse be upon them!
66
In Your anger,
Pursue and destroy them
i From under the heavens of the j LORD.