Lamentations 3

Great Is Your Faithfulness

 ¹ I am the man who has seen affliction
   under the rod of his wrath;
² he has driven and brought me
   into darkness without any light;
³ surely against me he turns his hand
   again and again the whole day long.

 ⁴ He has made my flesh and my skin waste away;
   he has broken my bones;
⁵ he has besieged and enveloped me
   with bitterness and tribulation;
⁶ he has made me dwell in darkness
   like the dead of long ago.

 ⁷ He has walled me about so that I cannot escape;
   he has made my chains heavy;
⁸ though I call and cry for help,
   he shuts out my prayer;
⁹ he has blocked my ways with blocks of stones;
   he has made my paths crooked.

 ¹⁰ He is a bear lying in wait for me,
   a lion in hiding;
¹¹ he turned aside my steps and tore me to pieces;
   he has made me desolate;
¹² he bent his bow and set me
   as a target for his arrow.

 ¹³ He drove into my kidneys
   the arrows of his quiver;
¹⁴ I have become the laughingstock of all peoples,
   the object of their taunts all day long.
¹⁵ He has filled me with bitterness;
   he has sated me with wormwood.

 ¹⁶ He has made my teeth grind on gravel,
   and made me cower in ashes;
¹⁷ my soul is bereft of peace;
   I have forgotten what happiness^[a] is;
¹⁸ so I say, “My endurance has perished;
   so has my hope from the LORD.”

 ¹⁹ Remember my affliction and my wanderings,
   the wormwood and the gall!
²⁰ My soul continually remembers it
   and is bowed down within me.
²¹ But this I call to mind,
   and therefore I have hope:

 ²² The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases;^[b]
   his mercies never come to an end;
²³ they are new every morning;
   great is your faithfulness.
²⁴ “The LORD is my portion,” says my soul,
   “therefore I will hope in him.”

 ²⁵ The LORD is good to those who wait for him,
   to the soul who seeks him.
²⁶ It is good that one should wait quietly
   for the salvation of the LORD.
²⁷ It is good for a man that he bear
   the yoke in his youth.

 ²⁸ Let him sit alone in silence
   when it is laid on him;
²⁹ let him put his mouth in the dust—
   there may yet be hope;
³⁰ let him give his cheek to the one who strikes,
   and let him be filled with insults.

 ³¹ For the Lord will not
   cast off forever,
³² but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion
   according to the abundance of his steadfast love;
³³ for he does not afflict from his heart
   or grieve the children of men.

 ³⁴ To crush underfoot
   all the prisoners of the earth,
³⁵ to deny a man justice
   in the presence of the Most High,
³⁶ to subvert a man in his lawsuit,
   the Lord does not approve.

 ³⁷ Who has spoken and it came to pass,
   unless the Lord has commanded it?
³⁸ Is it not from the mouth of the Most High
   that good and bad come?
³⁹ Why should a living man complain,
   a man, about the punishment of his sins?

 ⁴⁰ Let us test and examine our ways,
   and return to the LORD!
⁴¹ Let us lift up our hearts and hands
   to God in heaven:
⁴² “We have transgressed and rebelled,
   and you have not forgiven.

 ⁴³ “You have wrapped yourself with anger and pursued us,
   killing without pity;
⁴⁴ you have wrapped yourself with a cloud
   so that no prayer can pass through.
⁴⁵ You have made us scum and garbage
   among the peoples.

 ⁴⁶ “All our enemies
   open their mouths against us;
⁴⁷ panic and pitfall have come upon us,
   devastation and destruction;
⁴⁸ my 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,
⁵⁰ until the LORD from heaven
   looks down and sees;
⁵¹ my eyes cause me grief
   at the fate of all the daughters of my city.

 ⁵² “I have been hunted like a bird
   by those who were my enemies without cause;
⁵³ they flung me alive into the pit
   and cast stones on me;
⁵⁴ water closed over my head;
   I said, ‘I am lost.’

 ⁵⁵ “I called on your name, O LORD,
   from the depths of the pit;
⁵⁶ you heard my plea, ‘Do not close
   your ear to my cry for help!’
⁵⁷ You came near when I called on you;
   you said, ‘Do not fear!’

 ⁵⁸ “You have taken up my cause, O Lord;
   you have redeemed my life.
⁵⁹ You have seen the wrong done to me, O LORD;
   judge my cause.
⁶⁰ You have seen all their vengeance,
   all their plots against me.

 ⁶¹ “You have heard their taunts, O LORD,
   all their plots against me.
⁶² The lips and thoughts of my assailants
   are against me all the day long.
⁶³ Behold their sitting and their rising;
   I am the object of their taunts.

 ⁶⁴ “You will repay them,^[c] O LORD,
   according to the work of their hands.
⁶⁵ You will give them^[d] dullness of heart;
   your curse will be^[e] on them.
⁶⁶ You will pursue them^[f] in anger and destroy them
   from under your heavens, O LORD.”^[g]