Lamentations 3

God’s Steadfast Love Endures

³I am one who has seen affliction

under the rod of God’sⁱ wrath;^*

²he has driven and brought me

into darkness without any light;

³against me alone he turns his hand,

again and again, all day long.^*

⁴He has made my flesh and my skin waste away;

he has broken my bones;^*

⁵he has besieged and enveloped me

with bitterness and tribulation;

⁶he has made me sit in darkness

like the dead of long ago.^*

⁷He has walled me about so that I cannot escape;

he has put heavy chains on me;^*

⁸though I call and cry for help,

he shuts out my prayer;^*

⁹he has blocked my ways with hewn stones;

he has made my paths crooked.

¹⁰He is a bear lying in wait for me,

a lion in hiding;^*

¹¹he led me off my way and tore me to pieces;

he has made me desolate;

¹²he bent his bow and set me

as a mark for his arrow.^*

¹³He shot into my vitals

the arrows of his quiver;

¹⁴I have become the laughingstock of all my people,

the object of their taunt songs all day long.^*

¹⁵He has filled me with bitterness;

he has sated me with wormwood.

¹⁶He has made my teeth grind on gravel;

he has made me cower in ashes;

¹⁷my soul is bereft of peace;

I have forgotten what happiness is;

¹⁸so I say, “Gone is my glory

and all that I had hoped for from the Lord.”

¹⁹The thought of my affliction and my homelessness

is wormwood and gall!^*

²⁰My soul continually thinks of it

and is bowed down within me.^*

²¹But this I call to mind,

and therefore I have hope:

²²The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases,^j

his mercies never come to an end;^*

²³they are new every morning;

great is your faithfulness.^*

²⁴“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,

“therefore I will hope in him.”^*

²⁵The Lord is good to those who wait for him,

to the soul that seeks him.^*

²⁶It is good that one should wait quietly

for the salvation of the Lord.^*

²⁷It is good for one to bear

the yoke in youth,^*

²⁸to sit alone in silence

when the Lord^k has imposed it,^*

²⁹to put one’s mouth to the dust

(there may yet be hope),

³⁰to give one’s cheek to the smiter

and be filled with insults.^*

³¹For the Lord will not

reject forever.^*

³²Although he causes grief, he will have compassion

according to the abundance of his steadfast love;^*

³³for he does not willingly afflict

or grieve anyone.^*

³⁴When all the prisoners of the land

are crushed under foot,

³⁵when justice is perverted

in the presence of the Most High,^*

³⁶when one’s case is subverted—

does the Lord not see it?^*

³⁷Who can command and have it done,

if the Lord has not ordained it?^*

³⁸Is it not from the mouth of the Most High

that evil and good come?^*

³⁹Why should any who draw breath complain

about the punishment of their sins?^*

⁴⁰Let us test and examine our ways

and return to the Lord.^*

⁴¹Let us lift up our hearts as well as our hands

to God in heaven.^*

⁴²We have transgressed and rebelled,

and you have not forgiven.^*

⁴³You have wrapped yourself with anger and pursued us,

killing without pity;^*

⁴⁴you have wrapped yourself with a cloud

so that no prayer can pass through.

⁴⁵You have made us filth and rubbish

among the peoples.^*

⁴⁶All our enemies

have opened their mouths against us;^*

⁴⁷panic and pitfall have come upon us,

devastation and destruction.^*

⁴⁸My eyes flow with rivers of tears

because of the destruction of my people.^l

⁴⁹My eyes will flow without ceasing,

without respite,^*

⁵⁰until the Lord from heaven

looks down and sees.^*

⁵¹My eyes cause me grief

at the fate of all the young women in my city.

⁵²Those who were my enemies without cause

have hunted me like a bird;^*

⁵³they flung me alive into a pit

and hurled stones on me;^*

⁵⁴water closed over my head;

I said, “I am lost.”^*

⁵⁵I called on your name, O Lord,

from the depths of the pit;^*

⁵⁶you heard my plea, “Do not close your ear

to my cry for help, but give me relief!”^*

⁵⁷You came near when I called on you;

you said, “Do not fear!”^*

⁵⁸You have taken up my cause, O Lord;

you have redeemed my life.^*

⁵⁹You have seen the wrong done to me, O Lord;

judge my cause.

⁶⁰You have seen all their malice,

all their plots against me.^*

⁶¹You have heard their taunts, O Lord,

all their plots against me.

⁶²The whispers and murmurs of my assailants

are against me all day long.

⁶³Whether they sit or rise—see,

I am the object of their taunt songs.

⁶⁴Pay them back for their deeds, O Lord,

according to the work of their hands!

⁶⁵Give them anguish of heart;

your curse be on them!

⁶⁶Pursue them in anger and destroy them

from under the Lord’s heavens.^*