Lamentations 3

Great Is Your Faithfulness

1I am the man who has seen affliction[#Jer. 20:18]

under the rod of his wrath;

2he has driven and brought me

into darkness without any light;

3surely against me he turns his hand

again 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 me[#Job 19:12]

with bitterness and tribulation;

6he has made me dwell in darkness[#Ps. 143:3]

like the dead of long ago.

7He has walled me about so that I cannot escape;[#Job 19:8; #Ps. 88:8]

he has made my chains heavy;

8though I call and cry for help,[#Job 19:7; 30:20; Ps. 22:2]

he shuts out my prayer;

9he has blocked my ways with blocks of stones;[#7]

he has made my paths crooked.

10He is a bear lying in wait for me,[#Hos. 13:8]

a lion in hiding;

11he turned aside my steps and tore me to pieces;[#Jer. 18:15; #10]

he has made me desolate;

12he bent his bow and set me[#2:4; #Job 16:12]

as a target for his arrow.

13He drove into my kidneys

the arrows of his quiver;

14I have become the laughingstock of all peoples,[#Jer. 20:7]

the object of their taunts all day long.

15He has filled me with bitterness;[#Isa. 51:17, 21]

he has sated me with wormwood.

16He has made my teeth grind on gravel,[#Prov. 20:17]

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;[#Ps. 9:18]

so has my hope from the Lord .”

19Remember my affliction and my wanderings,[#1:9, 11, 20]

the wormwood and the gall!

20My soul continually remembers it

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 Syriac, Targum; Hebrew]

his mercies never come to an end;

23they are new every morning;[#Job 7:18]

great is your faithfulness.

24“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,[#Ps. 16:5; 73:26]

“therefore I will hope in him.”

25The Lord is good to those who wait for him,[#Ps. 130:6; Isa. 30:18]

to the soul who seeks him.

26It is good that one should wait quietly[#Ps. 130:5, 7; Mic. 7:7]

for the salvation of the Lord .

27It is good for a man that he bear[#Matt. 11:29]

the yoke in his youth.

28Let him sit alone in silence[#1:1; 2:10; Isa. 3:26]

when it is laid on him;

29let him put his mouth in the dust—[#Job 42:6]

there may yet be hope;

30let him give his cheek to the one who strikes,[#Isa. 50:6; Matt. 5:39]

and let him be filled with insults.

31For the Lord will not[#Ps. 103:9]

cast off forever,

32but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion[#1:5; #Ps. 103:8]

according to the abundance of his steadfast love;

33for he does not afflict from his heart[#Heb. 12:6, 10]

or grieve the children of men.

34To crush underfoot

all the prisoners of the earth,

35to deny a man justice[#Hab. 1:13]

in 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,[#Ps. 33:9]

unless the Lord has commanded it?

38Is it not from the mouth of the Most High[#Isa. 45:7; Amos 3:6]

that good and bad come?

39Why should a living man complain,[#Prov. 19:3]

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 hands[#Ps. 25:1; 119:48]

to God in heaven:

42“We have transgressed and rebelled,[#Dan. 9:5; #Ps. 78:17]

and you have not forgiven.

43“You have wrapped yourself with anger and pursued us,

killing without pity;

44you have wrapped yourself with a cloud[#8; 2:1]

so that no prayer can pass through.

45You have made us scum and garbage[#1 Cor. 4:13]

among the peoples.

46“All our enemies[#2:16, 17]

open 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[#1:16; Jer. 13:17]

because of the destruction of the daughter of my people.

49“My eyes will flow without ceasing,[#48]

without respite,

50until the Lord from heaven[#Ps. 14:2; Isa. 63:15]

looks down and sees;

51my eyes cause me grief

at the fate of all the daughters of my city.

52“I have been hunted like a bird[#4:18; #Ps. 11:1]

by those who were my enemies without cause;

53they flung me alive into the pit[#Jer. 37:16; 38:6, 9, 10]

and cast stones on me;

54water closed over my head;[#Ps. 69:2]

I said, ‘I am lost.’

55“I called on your name, O Lord ,[#Ps. 130:1]

from the depths of the pit;

56you heard my plea, ‘Do not close[#Ps. 130:2]

your ear to my cry for help!’

57You came near when I called on you;[#James 4:8]

you said, ‘Do not fear!’

58“You have taken up my cause, O Lord;[#Ps. 119:154; #1 Sam. 24:15]

you have redeemed my life.

59You have seen the wrong done to me, O Lord ;[#Ps. 35:22, 23]

judge my cause.

60You have seen all their vengeance,

all their plots against me.

61“You have heard their taunts, O Lord ,[#5:1]

all their plots against me.

62The lips and thoughts of my assailants[#Ps. 18:39, 48]

are against me all the day long.

63Behold their sitting and their rising;[#Ps. 139:2]

I am the object of their taunts.

64“You will repay them, O Lord ,[#Jer. 11:20; #3:64 Or Repay them]

according to the work of their hands.

65You will give them dullness of heart;[#3:65 Or Give them]

your curse will be on them.

66You will pursue them in anger and destroy them[#3:66 Or Pursue them; #Deut. 25:19; Jer. 10:11]

from under your heavens, O Lord .”

The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
Published by: Crossway / Good News Publishers