18 Why is my pain unending
    and my wound grievous and incurable?(A)
You are to me like a deceptive brook,
    like a spring that fails.(B)

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18 Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable, which refuseth to be healed? wilt thou be altogether unto me as a liar, and as waters that fail?

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15 Why do you cry out over your wound,
    your pain that has no cure?(A)
Because of your great guilt and many sins
    I have done these things to you.(B)

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15 Why criest thou for thine affliction? thy sorrow is incurable for the multitude of thine iniquity: because thy sins were increased, I have done these things unto thee.

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Although I am right,
    I am considered a liar;(A)
although I am guiltless,(B)
    his arrow inflicts an incurable wound.’(C)

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Should I lie against my right? my wound is incurable without transgression.

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For Samaria’s plague(A) is incurable;(B)
    it has spread to Judah.(C)
It has reached the very gate(D) of my people,
    even to Jerusalem itself.

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For her wound is incurable; for it is come unto Judah; he is come unto the gate of my people, even to Jerusalem.

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12 “This is what the Lord says:

“‘Your wound(A) is incurable,
    your injury beyond healing.(B)

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12 For thus saith the Lord, Thy bruise is incurable, and thy wound is grievous.

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Jeremiah’s Complaint

You deceived[a](A) me, Lord, and I was deceived[b];
    you overpowered(B) me and prevailed.
I am ridiculed(C) all day long;
    everyone mocks(D) me.

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Footnotes

  1. Jeremiah 20:7 Or persuaded
  2. Jeremiah 20:7 Or persuaded

O Lord, thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived; thou art stronger than I, and hast prevailed: I am in derision daily, every one mocketh me.

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19 Have you rejected Judah completely?(A)
    Do you despise Zion?
Why have you afflicted us
    so that we cannot be healed?(B)
We hoped for peace
    but no good has come,
for a time of healing
    but there is only terror.(C)

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19 Hast thou utterly rejected Judah? hath thy soul lothed Zion? why hast thou smitten us, and there is no healing for us? we looked for peace, and there is no good; and for the time of healing, and behold trouble!

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The nobles send their servants for water;
    they go to the cisterns
    but find no water.(A)
They return with their jars unfilled;
    dismayed and despairing,
    they cover their heads.(B)

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And their nobles have sent their little ones to the waters: they came to the pits, and found no water; they returned with their vessels empty; they were ashamed and confounded, and covered their heads.

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[a]I am the man who has seen affliction(A)
    by the rod of the Lord’s wrath.(B)
He has driven me away and made me walk
    in darkness(C) rather than light;
indeed, he has turned his hand against me(D)
    again and again, all day long.

He has made my skin and my flesh grow old(E)
    and has broken my bones.(F)
He has besieged me and surrounded me
    with bitterness(G) and hardship.(H)
He has made me dwell in darkness
    like those long dead.(I)

He has walled me in so I cannot escape;(J)
    he has weighed me down with chains.(K)
Even when I call out or cry for help,(L)
    he shuts out my prayer.(M)
He has barred(N) my way with blocks of stone;
    he has made my paths crooked.(O)

10 Like a bear lying in wait,
    like a lion(P) in hiding,(Q)
11 he dragged me from the path and mangled(R) me
    and left me without help.
12 He drew his bow(S)
    and made me the target(T) for his arrows.(U)

13 He pierced(V) my heart
    with arrows from his quiver.(W)
14 I became the laughingstock(X) of all my people;(Y)
    they mock me in song(Z) all day long.
15 He has filled me with bitter herbs
    and given me gall to drink.(AA)

16 He has broken my teeth with gravel;(AB)
    he has trampled me in the dust.(AC)
17 I have been deprived of peace;
    I have forgotten what prosperity is.
18 So I say, “My splendor is gone
    and all that I had hoped from the Lord.”(AD)

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Footnotes

  1. Lamentations 3:1 This chapter is an acrostic poem; the verses of each stanza begin with the successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet, and the verses within each stanza begin with the same letter.

I Am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.

He hath led me, and brought me into darkness, but not into light.

Surely against me is he turned; he turneth his hand against me all the day.

My flesh and my skin hath he made old; he hath broken my bones.

He hath builded against me, and compassed me with gall and travail.

He hath set me in dark places, as they that be dead of old.

He hath hedged me about, that I cannot get out: he hath made my chain heavy.

Also when I cry and shout, he shutteth out my prayer.

He hath inclosed my ways with hewn stone, he hath made my paths crooked.

10 He was unto me as a bear lying in wait, and as a lion in secret places.

11 He hath turned aside my ways, and pulled me in pieces: he hath made me desolate.

12 He hath bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow.

13 He hath caused the arrows of his quiver to enter into my reins.

14 I was a derision to all my people; and their song all the day.

15 He hath filled me with bitterness, he hath made me drunken with wormwood.

16 He hath also broken my teeth with gravel stones, he hath covered me with ashes.

17 And thou hast removed my soul far off from peace: I forgat prosperity.

18 And I said, My strength and my hope is perished from the Lord:

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18 Today I have made you(A) a fortified city, an iron pillar and a bronze wall to stand against the whole land—against the kings of Judah, its officials, its priests and the people of the land. 19 They will fight against you but will not overcome(B) you, for I am with you(C) and will rescue(D) you,” declares the Lord.

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18 For, behold, I have made thee this day a defenced city, and an iron pillar, and brasen walls against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, against the princes thereof, against the priests thereof, and against the people of the land.

19 And they shall fight against thee; but they shall not prevail against thee; for I am with thee, saith the Lord, to deliver thee.

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Psalm 13[a]

For the director of music. A psalm of David.

How long,(A) Lord? Will you forget me(B) forever?
    How long will you hide your face(C) from me?
How long must I wrestle with my thoughts(D)
    and day after day have sorrow in my heart?
    How long will my enemy triumph over me?(E)

Look on me(F) and answer,(G) Lord my God.
    Give light to my eyes,(H) or I will sleep in death,(I)

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Footnotes

  1. Psalm 13:1 In Hebrew texts 13:1-6 is numbered 13:2-6.

13 How long wilt thou forget me, O Lord? for ever? how long wilt thou hide thy face from me?

How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? how long shall mine enemy be exalted over me?

Consider and hear me, O Lord my God: lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death;

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My soul is also sore vexed: but thou, O Lord, how long?

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15 But my brothers are as undependable as intermittent streams,(A)
    as the streams that overflow
16 when darkened by thawing ice
    and swollen with melting snow,(B)
17 but that stop flowing in the dry season,
    and in the heat(C) vanish from their channels.
18 Caravans turn aside from their routes;
    they go off into the wasteland and perish.
19 The caravans of Tema(D) look for water,
    the traveling merchants of Sheba(E) look in hope.
20 They are distressed, because they had been confident;
    they arrive there, only to be disappointed.(F)

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15 My brethren have dealt deceitfully as a brook, and as the stream of brooks they pass away;

16 Which are blackish by reason of the ice, and wherein the snow is hid:

17 What time they wax warm, they vanish: when it is hot, they are consumed out of their place.

18 The paths of their way are turned aside; they go to nothing, and perish.

19 The troops of Tema looked, the companies of Sheba waited for them.

20 They were confounded because they had hoped; they came thither, and were ashamed.

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