Lamentations 3–5

The Prophet’s Anguish and Hope

3I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of His wrath.

²He has led me and made me walk

In darkness and not in light.

³Surely He has turned His hand against me

Time and time again throughout the day.

⁴He has aged ^amy flesh and my skin,

And ^bbroken my bones.

⁵He has besieged me

And surrounded me with bitterness and ¹woe.

^6cHe has set me in dark places

Like the dead of long ago.

^7dHe has hedged me in so that I cannot get out;

He has made my chain heavy.

⁸Even ^ewhen I cry and shout,

He shuts out my prayer.

⁹He has blocked my ways with hewn stone;

He has made my paths crooked.

^10fHe has been to me a bear lying in wait,

Like a lion in ²ambush.

¹¹He has turned aside my ways and ^gtorn me in pieces;

He has made me desolate.

¹²He has bent His bow

And ^hset me up as a target for the arrow.

¹³He has caused ⁱthe ³arrows of His quiver

To pierce my ⁴loins.

¹⁴I have become the ^jridicule of all my people—

^kTheir taunting song all the day.

^15lHe has filled me with bitterness,

He has made me drink wormwood.

¹⁶He has also broken my teeth ^mwith gravel,

And ⁵covered me with ashes.

¹⁷You have moved my soul far from peace;

I have forgotten ⁶prosperity.

¹⁸ⁿAnd I said, “My strength and my hope

Have perished from the Lord.”

¹⁹Remember my affliction and roaming,

^oThe wormwood and the ⁷gall.

²⁰My soul still remembers

And ⁸sinks within me.

²¹This I recall to my mind,

Therefore I have ^phope.

^22qThrough the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed,

Because His compassions ^rfail not.

²³They are new ^severy morning;

Great is Your faithfulness.

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

“Therefore I ^uhope in Him!”

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

To the soul who seeks Him.

²⁶It is good that one should ^whope ^xand wait quietly

For the salvation of the Lord.

^27yIt is good for a man to bear

The yoke in his youth.

^28zLet him sit alone and keep silent,

Because God has laid it on him;

^29aLet him put his mouth in the dust—

There may yet be hope.

^30bLet him give his cheek to the one who strikes him,

And be full of reproach.

^31cFor the Lord will not cast off forever.

³²Though He causes grief,

Yet He will show compassion

According to the multitude of His mercies.

³³For ^dHe does not afflict ⁹willingly,

Nor grieve the children of men.

³⁴To crush under one’s feet

All the prisoners of the earth,

³⁵To turn aside the justice due a man

Before the face of the Most High,

³⁶Or subvert a man in his cause—

^eThe Lord does not approve.

³⁷Who is he ^fwho speaks and it comes to pass,

When the Lord has not commanded it?

³⁸Is it not from the mouth of the Most High

That ^gwoe and well-being proceed?

^39hWhy should a living man ¹complain,

ⁱA man for the punishment of his sins?

⁴⁰Let us search out and examine our ways,

And turn back to the Lord;

^41jLet us lift our hearts and hands

To God in heaven.

^42kWe have transgressed and rebelled;

You have not pardoned.

⁴³You have covered Yourself with anger

And pursued us;

You have slain and not pitied.

⁴⁴You have covered Yourself with a cloud,

That prayer should not pass through.

⁴⁵You have made us an ^loffscouring and refuse

In the midst of the peoples.

^46mAll our enemies

Have opened their mouths against us.

⁴⁷ⁿFear and a snare have come upon us,

^oDesolation and destruction.

^48pMy eyes overflow with rivers of water

For the destruction of the daughter of my people.

^49qMy eyes flow and do not cease,

Without interruption,

⁵⁰Till the Lord from heaven

^rLooks down and sees.

⁵¹My eyes bring suffering to my soul

Because of all the daughters of my city.

⁵²My enemies ^swithout cause

Hunted me down like a bird.

⁵³They ²silenced my life ^tin the pit

And ^uthrew ³stones at me.

^54vThe waters flowed over my head;

^wI said, “I am cut off!”

^55xI called on Your name, O Lord,

From the lowest ^ypit.

^56zYou have heard my voice:

“Do not hide Your ear

From my sighing, from my cry for help.”

⁵⁷You ^adrew near on the day I called on You,

And said, ^b“Do not fear!”

⁵⁸O Lord, You have ^cpleaded the case for my soul;

^dYou have redeemed my life.

⁵⁹O Lord, You have seen ⁴how I am wronged;

^eJudge my case.

⁶⁰You have seen all their vengeance,

All their ^fschemes against me.

⁶¹You have heard their reproach, O Lord,

All their schemes against me,

⁶²The lips of my enemies

And their whispering against me all the day.

⁶³Look at their ^gsitting down and their rising up;

I am their taunting song.

^64hRepay them, O Lord,

According to the work of their hands.

⁶⁵Give them ⁵a veiled heart;

Your curse be upon them!

⁶⁶In Your anger,

Pursue and destroy them

ⁱFrom under the heavens of the ^jLord.

The Degradation of Zion

4How the gold has become dim!

How changed the fine gold!

The stones of the sanctuary are ¹scattered

At the head of every street.

²The precious sons of Zion,

²Valuable as fine gold,

How they are ³regarded ^aas clay pots,

The work of the hands of the potter!

³Even the jackals present their breasts

To nurse their young;

But the daughter of my people is cruel,

^bLike ostriches in the wilderness.

⁴The tongue of the infant clings

To the roof of its mouth for thirst;

^cThe young children ask for bread,

But no one breaks it for them.

⁵Those who ate delicacies

Are desolate in the streets;

Those who were brought up in scarlet

^dEmbrace ash heaps.

⁶The punishment of the iniquity of the daughter of my people

Is greater than the punishment of the ^esin of Sodom,

Which was ^foverthrown in a moment,

With no hand to help her!

⁷Her ⁴Nazirites were ⁵brighter than snow

And whiter than milk;

They were more ruddy in body than rubies,

Like sapphire in their ⁶appearance.

⁸Now their appearance is blacker than soot;

They go unrecognized in the streets;

^gTheir skin clings to their bones,

It has become as dry as wood.

⁹Those slain by the sword are better off

Than those who die of hunger;

For these ^hpine away,

Stricken for lack of the fruits of the ⁱfield.

¹⁰The hands of the ^jcompassionate women

Have ⁷cooked their ^kown children;

They became ^lfood for them

In the destruction of the daughter of my people.

¹¹The Lord has fulfilled His fury,

^mHe has poured out His fierce anger.

ⁿHe kindled a fire in Zion,

And it has devoured its foundations.

¹²The kings of the earth,

And all inhabitants of the world,

Would not have believed

That the adversary and the enemy

Could ^oenter the gates of Jerusalem—

^13pBecause of the sins of her prophets

And the iniquities of her priests,

^qWho shed in her midst

The blood of the just.

¹⁴They wandered blind in the streets;

^rThey have defiled themselves with blood,

^sSo that no one would touch their garments.

¹⁵They cried out to them,

“Go away, ^tunclean!

Go away, go away,

Do not touch us!”

When they fled and wandered,

Those among the nations said,

“They shall no longer dwell here.”

¹⁶The ⁸face of the Lord scattered them;

He no longer regards them.

^uThe people do not respect the priests

Nor show favor to the elders.

¹⁷Still ^vour eyes failed us,

Watching vainly for our help;

In our watching we watched

For a nation that could not save us.

^18wThey ⁹tracked our steps

So that we could not walk in our streets.

^xOur end was near;

Our days were over,

For our end had come.

¹⁹Our pursuers were ^yswifter

Than the eagles of the heavens.

They pursued us on the mountains

And lay in wait for us in the wilderness.

²⁰The ^zbreath of our nostrils, the anointed of the Lord,

^aWas caught in their pits,

Of whom we said, “Under his shadow

We shall live among the nations.”

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

You who dwell in the land of Uz!

^cThe cup shall also pass over to you

And you shall become drunk and make yourself naked.

^22dThe punishment of your iniquity ¹is accomplished,

O daughter of Zion;

He will no longer send you into captivity.

^eHe will punish your iniquity,

O daughter of Edom;

He will uncover your sins!

A Prayer for Restoration

5Remember, ^aO Lord, what has come upon us;

Look, and behold ^bour reproach!

^2cOur inheritance has been turned over to aliens,

And our houses to foreigners.

³We have become orphans and waifs,

Our mothers are like ^dwidows.

⁴We pay for the water we drink,

And our wood comes at a price.

^5eThey pursue at our ¹heels;

We labor and have no rest.

^6fWe have given our hand ^gto the Egyptians

And the ^hAssyrians, to be satisfied with bread.

⁷ⁱOur fathers sinned and are no more,

But we bear their iniquities.

⁸Servants rule over us;

There is none to deliver us from their hand.

⁹We get our bread at the risk of our lives,

Because of the sword in the wilderness.

¹⁰Our skin is hot as an oven,

Because of the fever of famine.

¹¹They ^jravished the women in Zion,

The maidens in the cities of Judah.

¹²Princes were hung up by their hands,

And elders were not respected.

¹³Young men ^kground at the millstones;

Boys staggered under loads of wood.

¹⁴The elders have ceased gathering at the gate,

And the young men from their ^lmusic.

¹⁵The joy of our heart has ceased;

Our dance has turned into ^mmourning.

¹⁶ⁿThe crown has fallen from our head.

Woe to us, for we have sinned!

¹⁷Because of this our heart is faint;

^oBecause of these things our eyes grow dim;

¹⁸Because of Mount Zion which is ^pdesolate,

With foxes walking about on it.

¹⁹You, O Lord, ^qremain forever;

^rYour throne from generation to generation.

^20sWhy do You forget us forever,

And forsake us for so long a time?

^21tTurn us back to You, O Lord, and we will be ²restored;

Renew our days as of old,

²²Unless You have utterly rejected us,

And are very angry with us!