Lamentations 3:34–66

³⁴crush any prisoner on earth underfoot, 

³⁵deny people their rights in the presence of the Most High God, 

³⁶or deprive people of justice in court. 

The Lord isn’t happy to see ⸤these things⸥. 

³⁷Who was it who spoke and it came into being? 

It was the Lord who gave the order. 

³⁸Both good and bad come from the mouth of the Most High God. 

³⁹“Why should any living mortal (any person) 

complain about being punished for sin? 

⁴⁰Let us look closely at our ways and examine them 

and then return to the Lord. 

⁴¹Let us raise our hearts and hands to God in heaven. 

⁴²“We have been disobedient and rebellious. 

You haven’t forgiven us. 

⁴³You covered yourself with anger and pursued us. 

You killed without pity. 

⁴⁴You covered yourself with a cloud 

so that no prayer could get through it. 

⁴⁵You made us the scum and trash of the nations. 

⁴⁶All our enemies gawk at us. 

⁴⁷Panic and pitfalls have found us, so have devastation and destruction. 

⁴⁸“Streams of tears run down from my eyes 

over the ruin of my dear people. 

⁴⁹My eyes will keep flowing without stopping for a moment 

⁵⁰until the Lord looks down from heaven and sees. 

⁵¹What I see with my eyes disturbs me deeply 

because of all the young women in my city. 

⁵²“Those who were my enemies for no reason hunted me like a bird. 

⁵³They threw me alive into a pit and threw rocks at me. 

⁵⁴Water flowed over my head. I thought I was finished. 

⁵⁵“I call your name from the deepest pit, O Lord. 

⁵⁶Listen to my cry ⸤for help⸥. 

Don’t close your ears when I cry out for relief. 

⁵⁷Be close at hand when I call to you. You told me not to be afraid. 

⁵⁸Plead my case for me, O Lord. Reclaim my life. 

⁵⁹Look at the wrong that has been done to me, O Lord. 

Give me a fair verdict. 

⁶⁰Look at all their malice, all their plots against me. 

⁶¹Listen to their insults, all their plots against me. 

⁶²The words and thoughts of those who attack me 

are directed against me all day long. 

⁶³Look at them! Whether they are sitting or standing, 

they make fun of me in their songs. 

⁶⁴Pay them back, O Lord, for what they deserve, 

for what their own hands have done. 

⁶⁵Make them stubborn. Let your curse be on them. 

⁶⁶Pursue them in anger, and wipe them out from under the Lord’s heaven.”