Lamentations 3

Lamentations 3

God’s Steadfast Love Endures

1I am one who has seen affliction[#Job 19.21; Jer 15.17, 18]

under the rod of God’s wrath;

2he has driven and brought me

into darkness without any light;

3against me alone he turns his hand,[#Isa 5.25]

again and again, all day long.

4He has made my flesh and my skin waste away;[#Job 16.8; Ps 51.8; Isa 38.13; Jer 50.17]

he has broken my bones;

5he has besieged and enveloped me

with bitterness and tribulation;

6he has made me sit in darkness[#Ps 88.5, 6]

like the dead of long ago.

7He has walled me about so that I cannot escape;[#Job 3.23; Jer 40.4]

he has put heavy chains on me;

8though I call and cry for help,[#Job 30.20; Ps 22.2]

he shuts out my prayer;

9he has blocked my ways with hewn stones;

he has made my paths crooked.

10He is a bear lying in wait for me,[#Job 10.16; Isa 38.13]

a lion in hiding;

11he led me off my way and tore me to pieces;

he has made me desolate;

12he bent his bow and set me[#Job 7.20; Ps 7.12, 13]

as a mark for his arrow.

13He shot into my vitals

the arrows of his quiver;

14I have become the laughingstock of all my people,[#Job 30.9; Jer 20.7]

the object of their taunt songs all day long.

15He has filled me with bitterness;

he has sated me with wormwood.

16He has made my teeth grind on gravel;

he has made me cower in ashes;

17my soul is bereft of peace;

I have forgotten what happiness is;

18so I say, “Gone is my glory

and all that I had hoped for from the Lord .”

19The thought of my affliction and my homelessness[#Jer 9.15]

is wormwood and gall!

20My soul continually thinks of it[#Ps 42.5, 6, 11]

and is bowed down within me.

21But this I call to mind,

and therefore I have hope:

22The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases,[#Mal 3.6; #3.22 Syr Tg: Heb , we are not cut off]

his mercies never come to an end;

23they are new every morning;[#Zeph 3.5]

great is your faithfulness.

24“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,[#Ps 16.5; 33.18]

“therefore I will hope in him.”

25The Lord is good to those who wait for him,[#Isa 25.9; 26.9; 30.18]

to the soul that seeks him.

26It is good that one should wait quietly[#Ps 37.7; 40.1; Isa 30.15]

for the salvation of the Lord .

27It is good for one to bear[#Ps 94.12]

the yoke in youth,

28to sit alone in silence[#Jer 15.17]

when the Lord has imposed it,

29to put one’s mouth to the dust

(there may yet be hope),

30to give one’s cheek to the smiter[#Isa 50.6; Mt 5.39]

and be filled with insults.

31For the Lord will not[#Ps 94.14]

reject forever.

32Although he causes grief, he will have compassion[#Ps 78.38; Hos 11.8]

according to the abundance of his steadfast love;

33for he does not willingly afflict[#Ezek 33.11; Heb 12.10]

or grieve anyone.

34When all the prisoners of the land

are crushed under foot,

35when justice is perverted[#Ps 140.12]

in the presence of the Most High,

36when one’s case is subverted—[#Hab 1.13]

does the Lord not see it?

37Who can command and have it done,[#Ps 33.9]

if the Lord has not ordained it?

38Is it not from the mouth of the Most High[#Job 2.10; Isa 45.7]

that evil and good come?

39Why should any who draw breath complain[#Mic 7.9; Heb 12.5, 6]

about the punishment of their sins?

40Let us test and examine our ways[#Ps 119.59; 2 Cor 13.5]

and return to the Lord .

41Let us lift up our hearts as well as our hands[#Ps 25.1; 28.2]

to God in heaven.

42We have transgressed and rebelled,[#Jer 5.7, 9; Dan 9.5]

and you have not forgiven.

43You have wrapped yourself with anger and pursued us,[#Ps 83.15; Lam 2.21]

killing without pity;

44you have wrapped yourself with a cloud

so that no prayer can pass through.

45You have made us filth and rubbish[#1 Cor 4.13]

among the peoples.

46All our enemies[#Lam 2.16]

have opened their mouths against us;

47panic and pitfall have come upon us,[#Isa 24.17; Jer 48.43]

devastation and destruction.

48My eyes flow with rivers of tears

because of the destruction of my people.

49My eyes will flow without ceasing,[#Ps 77.2]

without respite,

50until the Lord from heaven[#Isa 63.15]

looks down and sees.

51My eyes cause me grief

at the fate of all the young women in my city.

52Those who were my enemies without cause[#Ps 35.7]

have hunted me like a bird;

53they flung me alive into a pit[#Jer 37.16]

and hurled stones on me;

54water closed over my head;[#Ps 69.2; Isa 38.10]

I said, “I am lost.”

55I called on your name, O Lord ,[#Jon 2.2]

from the depths of the pit;

56you heard my plea, “Do not close your ear[#Ps 116.1, 2]

to my cry for help, but give me relief!”

57You came near when I called on you;[#Ps 145.18; Isa 41.10, 14]

you said, “Do not fear!”

58You have taken up my cause, O Lord;[#Ps 71.23; Jer 51.36]

you have redeemed my life.

59You have seen the wrong done to me, O Lord ;

judge my cause.

60You have seen all their malice,[#Jer 11.19, 20; 18.18]

all their plots against me.

61You have heard their taunts, O Lord ,

all their plots against me.

62The whispers and murmurs of my assailants

are against me all day long.

63Whether they sit or rise—see,

I am the object of their taunt songs.

64Pay them back for their deeds, O Lord ,

according to the work of their hands!

65Give them anguish of heart;

your curse be on them!

66Pursue them in anger and destroy them[#Ps 8.3]

from under the Lord ’s heavens.

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Published by: National Council of the Churches of Christ