Add parallel Print Page Options

I am a man seeing my poverty in the rod of his indignation. (I am a man who seeth my poverty, I have felt the rod of his indignation, or of his anger.)

He drove me, and brought (me) into darknesses, and not into light.

Only he turned into me, and turned together his hand all day. (He turned only against me, and he turned his hand against me all day long.)

He made eld my skin, and my flesh; he all-brake my bones. (He made old, or wasted, my skin, and my flesh; he broke all my bones.)

He builded in my compass, and he compassed me with gall and travail. (He built all around me, yea, he surrounded me with gall and tribulation.)

He setted me in dark places, as everlasting dead men. (He put me in dark places, like the everlasting dead.)

He builded about against me, (so) that I go not out; he aggrieved my gyves (he made my chains heavy).

But and when I cry and pray, he hath excluded my prayer.

He closed together my ways with square stones; he destroyed my paths. (He altogether enclosed my ways with square stones; he destroyed my paths.)

10 He is made (like) a bear setting ambush to me, (like) a lion in hid places.

11 He destroyed my paths, and brake me; he setted me desolate (he left me desolate).

12 He bent his bow, and setted me as a sign to an arrow. (He bent his bow, and made me a target for his arrows.)

13 He sent in(to) my reins the daughters of his arrow case.

14 I am made into scorn to all the people (I am mocked by everyone), the song of them all day (long).

15 He filled me with bitternesses; he greatly filled me with wormwood.

16 He brake at number my teeth (He broke my teeth on gravel); he fed me with ashes.

17 And my soul is put away; I have forgotten goods. (And I have given up; I have forgotten the good things/I have forgotten whatever was good.)

18 And I said, Mine end perished, and mine hope, from the Lord. (And I said, My strength, and my hope in the Lord, have all perished.)

Read full chapter

[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)

Read full chapter

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.