Lamentations 3:1-25

Amplified Bible

3 I am [Jeremiah] the man who has seen affliction
Because of the rod of His wrath.
² 
He has led me and made me walk
In darkness and not in light.
³ 
Surely He has turned His hand against me
Repeatedly all the day.
⁴ 
He has caused my flesh and my skin to waste away;
He has shattered my bones.
⁵ 
He has besieged and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship.
⁶ 
He has made me live in dark places
Like those who have long been dead.
⁷ 
He walled me in so that I cannot get out;
He has weighted down my chain.
⁸ 
Even when I cry out and shout for help,
He shuts out my prayer.
⁹ 
He has blocked my ways with cut stone;
He has made my paths crooked.
¹⁰ 
He is to me like a bear lying in wait,
And like a lion [hiding] in secret places.
¹¹ 
He has turned aside my ways and torn me in pieces;
He has made me desolate.
¹² 
He has bent His bow
And set me as a target for the arrow.
¹³ 
He has caused the arrows of His quiver
To enter my inner parts.
¹⁴ 
I have become the [object of] ridicule to all my people,
And [the subject of] their mocking song all the day.
¹⁵ 
He has filled me with bitterness;
He has made me drunk with wormwood (bitterness).
¹⁶ 
He has broken my teeth with gravel;
He has [covered me with ashes and] made me cower in the dust.
¹⁷ 
My soul has been cast far away from peace;
I have forgotten happiness.
¹⁸ 
So I say, “My strength has perished
And so has my hope and expectation from the Lord.”

¹⁹ 
Remember [O Lord] my affliction and my wandering, the wormwood and the gall (bitterness).
²⁰ 
My soul continually remembers them
And is bowed down within me.
²¹ 
But this I call to mind,
Therefore I have hope.
²² 
It is because of the Lord’s lovingkindnesses that we are not consumed,
Because His [tender] compassions never fail.^(A)
23 
They are new every morning;
Great and beyond measure is Your faithfulness.^(B)
24 
“The Lord is my portion and my inheritance,” says my soul;
“Therefore I have hope in Him and wait expectantly for Him.”^(C)
25 
The Lord is good to those who wait [confidently] for Him,
To those who seek Him [on the authority of God’s word].