Lamentations 3:1-20

Revised Geneva Translation

3 I am the man who has seen affliction in the rod of His indignation.

² He has led me, and brought me into darkness, but not to light.

³ Surely, He has turned against me; His Hand overturns me all day long.

⁴ He has caused my flesh and my skin to grow old. He has broken my bones.

⁵ He has built against me and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship.

⁶ He has set me in dark places, as those who are dead forever.

⁷ He has put a hedge around me, so that I cannot get out. He has made my chains heavy.

⁸ Also, when I cry and shout, He shuts out my prayer.

⁹ He has blocked my way with hewn stone, turned away my paths.

¹⁰ He was, to me, like a bear lying in wait, as a lion in secret places.

¹¹ He has blocked my way and torn me in pieces. He has made me desolate.

¹² He has bent His bow and made me a mark for the arrow.

¹³ He caused the arrows of His quiver to enter into my core.

¹⁴ I was a laughingstock to all my people, their song all day long.

¹⁵ He has filled me with bitterness, made me drunk with wormwood.

¹⁶ He has also broken my teeth with gravel and covered me with ashes.

¹⁷ Thus, my soul was far away from peace. I forgot what is good.

¹⁸ And I said, “My strength and my hope have perished from the LORD.”

¹⁹ Remember my affliction and my mourning, the wormwood and the bitterness.

²⁰ My soul has remembered them and is humbled in me.