Chapter 3

Lamentations

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

Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated into any other language.