28 I go about blackened,(A) but not by the sun;
    I stand up in the assembly and cry for help.(B)

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You are God my stronghold.
    Why have you rejected(A) me?
Why must I go about mourning,(B)
    oppressed by the enemy?(C)

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I say to God my Rock,(A)
    “Why have you forgotten(B) me?
Why must I go about mourning,(C)
    oppressed(D) by the enemy?”(E)

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I am bowed down(A) and brought very low;
    all day long I go about mourning.(B)

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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.

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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.

He was despised and rejected by mankind,
    a man of suffering,(A) and familiar with pain.(B)
Like one from whom people hide(C) their faces
    he was despised,(D) and we held him in low esteem.

Surely he took up our pain
    and bore our suffering,(E)
yet we considered him punished by God,(F)
    stricken by him, and afflicted.(G)

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“Though I cry, ‘Violence!’ I get no response;(A)
    though I call for help,(B) there is no justice.(C)

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