Lamentations 3:1–20

Punishment, Repentance, and Hope

3I am one who knows what it is to be punished by God.

²He drove me deeper and deeper into darkness

³And beat me again and again with merciless blows.

⁴He has left my flesh open and raw, and has broken my bones.

⁵He has shut me in a prison of misery and anguish.

⁶He has forced me to live in the stagnant darkness of death.

⁷He has bound me in chains; I am a prisoner with no hope of escape.

⁸I cry aloud for help, but God refuses to listen;

⁹I stagger as I walk; stone walls block me wherever I turn.

¹⁰He waited for me like a bear; he pounced on me like a lion.

¹¹He chased me off the road, tore me to pieces, and left me.

¹²He drew his bow and made me the target for his arrows.

¹³He shot his arrows deep into my body.

¹⁴People laugh at me all day long; I am a joke to them all.

¹⁵Bitter suffering is all he has given me for food and drink.

¹⁶He rubbed my face in the ground and broke my teeth on the gravel.

¹⁷I have forgotten what health and peace and happiness are.

¹⁸I have not much longer to live; my hope in the Lord is gone.

¹⁹The thought of my pain, my homelessness, is bitter poison;

²⁰I think of it constantly and my spirit is depressed.