Lamentations 3–5

Chapter 3

Jeremiah Shares Israel’s Affliction

¹I am the man who has ^aseen affliction

Because of the rod of His wrath.

²He has driven me and made me walk

In ^adarkness and not in light.

³Surely against me He has ^aturned His hand

Repeatedly all the day.

⁴He has caused my ^aflesh and my skin to waste away,

He has ^bbroken my bones.

⁵He has ^abesieged and encompassed me with ^bbitterness and hardship.

⁶In ^adark places He has made me dwell,

Like those who have long been dead.

⁷He has ^awalled me in so that I cannot go out;

He has made my ^1bchain heavy.

⁸Even when I cry out and call for help,

He ^ashuts out my prayer.

⁹He has ^ablocked my ways with hewn stone;

He has made my paths crooked.

¹⁰He is to me like a bear lying in wait,

Like a lion in secret places.

¹¹He has turned aside my ways and ^atorn me to pieces;

He has made me desolate.

¹²He ^abent His bow

And ^bset me as a target for the arrow.

¹³He made the ¹arrows of His ^aquiver

To enter into my ²inward parts.

¹⁴I have become a ^alaughingstock to all my people,

Their mocking ^bsong all the day.

¹⁵He has ^afilled me with bitterness,

He has made me drunk with wormwood.

¹⁶He has ^abroken my teeth with ^bgravel;

He has made me cower in the ^cdust.

¹⁷My soul has been rejected ^afrom peace;

I have forgotten ¹happiness.

¹⁸So I say, “My strength has perished,

And so has my ^ahope from the Lord.”

Hope of Relief in God’s Mercy

¹⁹Remember my affliction and my ¹wandering, the ^awormwood and bitterness.

²⁰Surely ^amy soul remembers

And is ^bbowed down within me.

²¹This I recall to my mind,

Therefore I have ^ahope.

²²The Lord’s ^alovingkindnesses ¹indeed never cease,

^bFor His compassions never fail.

²³They are new ^aevery morning;

Great is ^bYour faithfulness.

²⁴“The Lord is my ^aportion,” says my soul,

“Therefore I ^bhave hope in Him.”

²⁵The Lord is good to those who ^await for Him,

To the ¹person who ^bseeks Him.

²⁶It is good that he ^awaits silently

For the salvation of the Lord.

²⁷It is good for a man that he should bear

The yoke in his youth.

²⁸Let him ^asit alone and be silent

Since He has laid it on him.

²⁹Let him ¹put his mouth in the ^adust,

Perhaps there is ^bhope.

³⁰Let him give his ^acheek to ¹the smiter,

Let him be filled with reproach.

³¹For the Lord will ^anot reject forever,

³²For if He causes grief,

Then He will have ^acompassion

According to His abundant lovingkindness.

³³For He ^adoes not afflict ¹willingly

Or grieve the sons of men.

³⁴To crush under His feet

All the prisoners of the ¹land,

³⁵To ¹deprive a man of ^ajustice

In the presence of the Most High,

³⁶To ^1adefraud a man in his lawsuit—

Of these things the Lord does not ²approve.

³⁷Who is ¹there who speaks and it ^acomes to pass,

Unless the Lord has commanded it?

³⁸Is it not from the mouth of the Most High

That ^1aboth good and ill go forth?

³⁹Why should any living ¹mortal, or any man,

Offer ^acomplaint ²in view of his sins?

⁴⁰Let us ^aexamine and probe our ways,

And let us return to the Lord.

⁴¹We ^alift up our heart ¹and hands

Toward God in heaven;

⁴²We have ^atransgressed and rebelled,

You have ^bnot pardoned.

⁴³You have covered Yourself with ^aanger

And ^bpursued us;

You have slain and ^chave not spared.

⁴⁴You have ^acovered Yourself with a cloud

So that ^bno prayer can pass through.

⁴⁵You have made us mere ^aoffscouring and refuse

In the midst of the peoples.

⁴⁶All our enemies have ^aopened their mouths against us.

^47aPanic and pitfall have befallen us,

Devastation and destruction;

⁴⁸My ^1aeyes run down with streams of water

Because of the destruction of the daughter of my people.

⁴⁹My eyes pour down ^aunceasingly,

Without stopping,

⁵⁰Until the Lord ^alooks down

And sees from heaven.

⁵¹My eyes bring pain to my soul

Because of all the daughters of my city.

⁵²My enemies ^awithout cause

Hunted me down ^blike a bird;

⁵³They have silenced ¹me ^ain the pit

And have ^2bplaced a stone on me.

⁵⁴Waters flowed ^aover my head;

I said, “I am cut off!”

⁵⁵I ^acalled on Your name, O Lord,

Out of the lowest pit.

⁵⁶You have ^aheard my voice,

“^bDo not hide Your ear from my prayer for relief,

From my cry for help.”

⁵⁷You ^adrew near when I called on You;

You said, “^bDo not fear!”

⁵⁸O Lord, You ^ahave pleaded my soul’s cause;

You have ^bredeemed my life.

⁵⁹O Lord, You have ^aseen my oppression;

^bJudge my case.

⁶⁰You have seen all their vengeance,

All their ^aschemes against me.

⁶¹You have heard their ^areproach, O Lord,

All their schemes against me.

⁶²The ^alips of my assailants and their whispering

Are against me all day long.

⁶³Look on their ^asitting and their rising;

^bI am their mocking song.

⁶⁴You will ^arecompense them, O Lord,

According to the work of their hands.

⁶⁵You will give them ^1ahardness of heart,

Your curse will be on them.

⁶⁶You will ^apursue them in anger and destroy them

From under the ^bheavens of the Lord!

Chapter 4

Distress of the Siege Described

¹How ^adark the gold has become,

How the pure gold has changed!

The sacred stones are poured out

At the ¹corner of every street.

²The precious sons of Zion,

Weighed against fine gold,

How they are regarded as ^aearthen jars,

The work of a potter’s hands!

³Even ^ajackals offer the breast,

They nurse their young;

But the daughter of my people has become ^bcruel

Like ^costriches in the wilderness.

⁴The ^atongue of the infant cleaves

To the roof of its mouth because of ^bthirst;

The little ones ^cask for bread,

But no one breaks it for them.

⁵Those who ate ^adelicacies

Are desolate in the streets;

Those ¹reared in purple

Embrace ash pits.

⁶For the ¹iniquity of the daughter of my people

Is greater than the ^2asin of Sodom,

Which was ^boverthrown as in a moment,

And no hands were ³turned toward her.

⁷Her ¹consecrated ones were ^apurer than snow,

They were whiter than milk;

They were more ruddy in ²body than corals,

Their polishing was like ^3blapis lazuli.

⁸Their appearance is ^ablacker than soot,

They are not recognized in the streets;

Their ^bskin is shriveled on their bones,

It is withered, it has become like wood.

⁹Better are those ^1aslain with the sword

Than those slain with hunger;

For they ^2bpine away, being stricken

For lack of the fruits of ³the field.

¹⁰The hands of compassionate women

^aBoiled their own children;

They became ^bfood for them

Because of the destruction of the daughter of my people.

¹¹The Lord has ^aaccomplished His wrath,

He has poured out His fierce anger;

And He has ^bkindled a fire in Zion

Which has consumed its foundations.

¹²The kings of the earth did not believe,

Nor did any of ^athe inhabitants of the world,

That the adversary and the enemy

Could ^benter the gates of Jerusalem.

¹³Because of the sins of her ^aprophets

And the iniquities of her priests,

Who have shed in her midst

The ^bblood of the righteous;

¹⁴They wandered, ^ablind, in the streets;

They were defiled with ^bblood

So that no one could touch their ^cgarments.

¹⁵“Depart! ^aUnclean!” ¹they cried of themselves.

“Depart, depart, do not touch!”

So they ^bfled and wandered;

Men among the nations said,

“They shall not continue to dwell with us.”

¹⁶The presence of the Lord has scattered them,

He will not continue to regard them;

They did not ^1ahonor the priests,

They did not favor the elders.

¹⁷Yet our eyes failed,

Looking for ¹help was ^auseless;

In our watching we have watched

For a ^bnation that could not save.

¹⁸They ^ahunted our steps

So that we could not walk in our streets;

Our ^bend drew near,

Our days were ¹finished

For our end had come.

¹⁹Our pursuers were ^aswifter

Than the eagles of the sky;

They chased us on the mountains,

They waited in ambush for us in the wilderness.

²⁰The ^abreath of our nostrils, the ^bLord’s anointed,

Was ^ccaptured in their pits,

Of whom we had said, “Under his ^dshadow

We shall live among the nations.”

²¹Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of ^aEdom,

Who dwells in the land of Uz;

But the ^bcup will come around to you as well,

You will become drunk and make yourself naked.

²²The punishment of your iniquity has been ^acompleted, O daughter of Zion;

He will exile you no longer.

But He ^bwill punish your iniquity, O daughter of Edom;

He will expose your sins!

Chapter 5

A Prayer for Mercy

¹Remember, O Lord, what has befallen us;

Look, and see our ^areproach!

²Our inheritance has been turned over to ^astrangers,

Our ^bhouses to aliens.

³We have become orphans ^awithout a father,

Our mothers are like widows.

⁴¹We have to pay for our drinking ^awater,

Our wood comes to us at a price.

⁵¹Our pursuers are at our necks;

We are worn out, there is ^ano rest for us.

⁶We have ¹submitted to ^aEgypt and Assyria ²to get enough bread.

⁷Our ^afathers sinned, and are no more;

It is we who have borne their iniquities.

^8aSlaves rule over us;

There is ^bno one to deliver us from their hand.

⁹We get our bread ¹at the ^arisk of our lives

²Because of the sword in the wilderness.

¹⁰Our skin has become as ^ahot as an oven,

Because of ¹the burning heat of famine.

¹¹They ravished the ^awomen in Zion,

The virgins in the cities of Judah.

¹²Princes were hung by their hands;

^1aElders were not respected.

¹³Young men ^1aworked at the grinding mill,

And youths ^bstumbled under loads of wood.

¹⁴Elders ¹are gone from the gate,

Young men from their ^amusic.

¹⁵The joy of our hearts has ^aceased;

Our dancing has been turned into mourning.

¹⁶The ^acrown has fallen from our head;

^bWoe to us, for we have sinned!

¹⁷Because of this our ^aheart is faint,

Because of these things our ^beyes are dim;

¹⁸Because of ^aMount Zion which lies desolate,

^bFoxes prowl in it.

^19aYou, O Lord, ¹rule forever;

Your ^bthrone is from generation to generation.

²⁰Why do You ^aforget us forever?

Why do You forsake us ¹so long?

^21aRestore us to You, O Lord, that we may be restored;

Renew ^bour days as of old,

²²Unless ^aYou have utterly rejected us

And are exceedingly ^bangry with us.