Lamentations 3:1–20

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.