Lamentations 3:34–66

³⁴To crush under foot all the prisoners of the earth, ³⁵To turn aside the right of a man before the face of the Most High, ³⁶To subvert a man in his cause, the Lord approveth not. ³⁷Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth it not? ³⁸Out of the mouth of the Most High cometh there not evil and good? ³⁹Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?

⁴⁰Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to Jehovah. ⁴¹Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens. ⁴²We have transgressed and have rebelled; thou hast not pardoned. ⁴³Thou hast covered with anger and pursued us; thou hast slain, thou hast not pitied. ⁴⁴Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud, so that no prayer can pass through. ⁴⁵Thou hast made us an offscouring and refuse in the midst of the peoples. ⁴⁶All our enemies have opened their mouth wide against us. ⁴⁷Fear and the pit are come upon us, devastation and destruction. ⁴⁸Mine eye runneth down with streams of water, for the destruction of the daughter of my people. ⁴⁹Mine eye poureth down, and ceaseth not, without any intermission, ⁵⁰Till Jehovah look down, and behold from heaven. ⁵¹Mine eye affecteth my soul, because of all the daughters of my city. ⁵²They have chased me sore like a bird, they that are mine enemies without cause. ⁵³They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and have cast a stone upon me. ⁵⁴Waters flowed over my head; I said, I am cut off.

⁵⁵I called upon thy name, O Jehovah, out of the lowest dungeon. ⁵⁶Thou heardest my voice; hide not thine ear at my breathing, at my cry. ⁵⁷Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee; thou saidst, Fear not. ⁵⁸O Lord, thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul; thou hast redeemed my life. ⁵⁹O Jehovah, thou hast seen my wrong; judge thou my cause. ⁶⁰Thou hast seen all their vengeance and all their devices against me. ⁶¹Thou hast heard their reproach, O Jehovah, and all their devices against me, ⁶²The lips of those that rose up against me, and their device against me all the day. ⁶³Behold thou their sitting down, and their rising up; I am their song. ⁶⁴Thou wilt render unto them a recompense, O Jehovah, according to the work of their hands. ⁶⁵Thou wilt give them hardness of heart, thy curse unto them. ⁶⁶Thou wilt pursue them in anger, and destroy them from under the heavens of Jehovah.