Lamentations 3:1–33
The Prophet’s Anguish and Hope
3 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 amy flesh and my skin,
And bbroken my bones.
And surrounded me with bitterness and 1woe.
6 cHe has set me in dark places
Like the dead of long ago.
7 dHe has hedged me in so that I cannot get out;
He has made my chain heavy.
8 Even ewhen 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 fHe has been to me a bear lying in wait,
Like a lion in 2ambush.
11 He has turned aside my ways and gtorn me in pieces;
He has made me desolate.
And hset me up as a target for the arrow.
13 He has caused ithe 3arrows of His quiver
To pierce my 4loins.
14 I have become the jridicule of all my people—
kTheir taunting song all the day.
15 lHe has filled me with bitterness,
He has made me drink wormwood.
16 He has also broken my teeth mwith gravel,
And 5covered me with ashes.
17 You have moved my soul far from peace;
I have forgotten 6prosperity.
18 nAnd I said, “My strength and my hope
Have perished from the Lord.”
19 Remember my affliction and roaming,
And 8sinks within me.
Therefore I have phope.
22 qThrough the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed,
Because His compassions rfail not.
23 They are new severy morning;
Great is Your faithfulness.
24 “The Lord is my tportion,” says my soul,
“Therefore I uhope in Him!”
25 The Lord is good to those who vwait for Him,
To the soul who seeks Him.
26 It is good that one should whope xand wait quietly
For the salvation of the Lord.
27 yIt is good for a man to bear
The yoke in his youth.
28 zLet him sit alone and keep silent,
Because God has laid it on him;
29 aLet him put his mouth in the dust—
There may yet be hope.
30 bLet him give his cheek to the one who strikes him,
And be full of reproach.
31 cFor the Lord will not cast off forever.
Yet He will show compassion
According to the multitude of His mercies.
33 For dHe does not afflict 9willingly,
Nor grieve the children of men.