Lamentations 3:34–66

³⁴To crush under foot

all the prisoners of the earth,

³⁵to turn aside the right of a man

in the presence of the Most High,

³⁶to subvert a man in his cause,

the Lord does not approve.

³⁷Who has commanded and it came to pass,

unless the Lord has ordained it?

³⁸Is it not from the mouth of the Most High

that good and evil come?

³⁹Why should a living man complain,

a man, about the punishment of his sins?

⁴⁰Let us test and examine our ways,

and return to the Lord!

⁴¹Let us lift up our hearts and hands

to God in heaven:

⁴²“We have transgressed and rebelled,

and thou hast not forgiven.

⁴³“Thou hast wrapped thyself with anger and pursued us,

slaying without pity;

⁴⁴thou hast wrapped thyself with a cloud

so that no prayer can pass through.

⁴⁵Thou hast made us offscouring and refuse

among the peoples.

⁴⁶“All our enemies

rail against us;

⁴⁷panic and pitfall have come upon us,

devastation and destruction;

⁴⁸my eyes flow with rivers of tears

because of the destruction of the daughter of my people.

⁴⁹“My 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 maidens of my city.

⁵²“I have been hunted like a bird

by those who were my enemies without cause;

⁵³they flung me alive into the pit

and cast stones on me;

⁵⁴water closed over my head;

I said, ‘I am lost.’

⁵⁵“I called on thy name, O Lord,

from the depths of the pit;

⁵⁶thou didst hear my plea, ‘Do not close

thine ear to my cry for help!’

⁵⁷Thou didst come near when I called on thee;

thou didst say, ‘Do not fear!’

⁵⁸“Thou hast taken up my cause, O Lord,

thou hast redeemed my life.

⁵⁹Thou hast seen the wrong done to me, O Lord;

judge thou my cause.

⁶⁰Thou hast seen all their vengeance, all their devices against me.

⁶¹“Thou hast heard their taunts, O Lord,

all their devices against me.

⁶²The lips and thoughts of my assailants

are against me all the day long.

⁶³Behold their sitting and their rising;

I am the burden of their songs.

⁶⁴“Thou wilt requite them, O Lord,

according to the work of their hands.

⁶⁵Thou wilt give them dullness of heart;

thy curse will be on them.

⁶⁶Thou wilt pursue them in anger and destroy them

from under thy heavens, O Lord.”