Lamentations 3:1–20

HOPE THROUGH GOD’S MERCY

א Aleph

3I am the man who has seen affliction

under the rod of God’s wrath.

²He has driven me away and forced me to walk

in darkness instead of light.^t

³Yes, he repeatedly turns his hand

against me all day long.

ב Beth

⁴He has worn away my flesh and skin;^u

he has broken my bones.^v

⁵He has laid siege against me,^w

encircling me with bitterness and hardship.^x

⁶He has made me dwell in darkness

like those who have been dead for ages.^y

ג Gimel

⁷He has walled me in so I cannot get out;^a

he has weighed me down with chains.

⁸Even when I cry out and plead for help,

he blocks out my prayer.^b

⁹He has walled in my ways with blocks of stone;^c

he has made my paths crooked.^d

ד Daleth

¹⁰He is^A a bear waiting in ambush,

a lion in hiding.^e

¹¹He forced me off my way and tore me to pieces;

he left me desolate.

¹²He strung his bow^f

and set me as the target for his arrow.

ה He

¹³He pierced my kidneys

with shafts from his quiver.^g

¹⁴I am a laughingstock^h to all my people,^B

mocked by their songsⁱ all day long.

¹⁵He filled me with bitterness,

satiated me with wormwood.^j

ו Waw

¹⁶He ground my teeth with gravel^k

and made me cower^C in the dust.

¹⁷I have been deprived^D of peace;^l

I have forgotten what prosperity is.

¹⁸Then I thought, “My future^E is lost,

as well as my hope from the Lord.”

ז Zayin

¹⁹Remember^F my affliction and my homelessness,^m

the wormwood and the poison.ⁿ

²⁰I continually remember them

and have become depressed.^Go