Lamentations 3:1–20

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.