Lamentations 3
New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition
God’s Steadfast Love Endures
3 I am one who has seen affliction
under the rod of God’s[a] wrath;
2 he has driven and brought me
into darkness without any light;
3 against me alone he turns his hand,
again and again, all day long.
4 He has made my flesh and my skin waste away,
and broken my bones;
5 he has besieged and enveloped me
with bitterness and tribulation;
6 he has made me sit in darkness
like the dead of long ago.
7 He has walled me about so that I cannot escape;
he has put heavy chains on me;
8 though I call and cry for help,
he shuts out my prayer;
9 he has blocked my ways with hewn stones,
he has made my paths crooked.
10 He is a bear lying in wait for me,
a lion in hiding;
11 he led me off my way and tore me to pieces;
he has made me desolate;
12 he bent his bow and set me
as a mark for his arrow.
13 He shot into my vitals
the arrows of his quiver;
14 I have become the laughingstock of all my people,
the object of their taunt-songs 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 is;
18 so I say, “Gone is my glory,
and all that I had hoped for from the Lord.”
19 The thought of my affliction and my homelessness
is wormwood and gall!
20 My soul continually thinks of 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 that seeks him.
26 It is good that one should wait quietly
for the salvation of the Lord.
27 It is good for one to bear
the yoke in youth,
28 to sit alone in silence
when the Lord has imposed it,
29 to put one’s mouth to the dust
(there may yet be hope),
30 to give one’s cheek to the smiter,
and be filled with insults.
31 For the Lord will not
reject forever.
32 Although he causes grief, he will have compassion
according to the abundance of his steadfast love;
33 for he does not willingly afflict
or grieve anyone.
34 When all the prisoners of the land
are crushed under foot,
35 when human rights are perverted
in the presence of the Most High,
36 when one’s case is subverted
—does the Lord not see it?
37 Who can command and have it done,
if the Lord has not ordained it?
38 Is it not from the mouth of the Most High
that good and bad come?
39 Why should any who draw breath complain
about the punishment of their sins?
40 Let us test and examine our ways,
and return to the Lord.
41 Let us lift up our hearts as well as our 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 filth and rubbish
among the peoples.
46 All our enemies
have opened 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 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 young women in my city.
52 Those who were my enemies without cause
have hunted me like a bird;
53 they flung me alive into a pit
and hurled 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, but give me relief!”
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 malice,
all their plots against me.
61 You have heard their taunts, O Lord,
all their plots against me.
62 The whispers and murmurs of my assailants
are against me all day long.
63 Whether they sit or rise—see,
I am the object of their taunt-songs.
64 Pay them back for their deeds, O Lord,
according to the work of their hands!
65 Give them anguish of heart;
your curse be on them!
66 Pursue them in anger and destroy them
from under the Lord’s heavens.
Footnotes
- Lamentations 3:1 Heb his
- Lamentations 3:22 Syr Tg: Heb Lord, we are not cut off
Lamentationes 3
Biblia Sacra Vulgata
3 [Aleph.] Ego vir videns paupertatem meam in virga indignationis ejus.
2 [Aleph.] Me minavit, et adduxit in tenebras, et non in lucem.
3 [Aleph.] Tantum in me vertit et convertit manum suam tota die.
4 [Beth.] Vetustam fecit pellem meam et carnem meam; contrivit ossa mea.
5 [Beth.] AEdificavit in gyro meo, et circumdedit me felle et labore.
6 [Beth.] In tenebrosis collocavit me, quasi mortuos sempiternos.
7 [Ghimel.] Circumaedificavit adversum me, ut non egrediar; aggravavit compedem meum.
8 [Ghimel.] Sed et cum clamavero, et rogavero, exclusit orationem meam.
9 [Ghimel.] Conclusit vias meas lapidibus quadris; semitas meas subvertit.
10 [Daleth.] Ursus insidians factus est mihi, leo in absconditis.
11 [Daleth.] Semitas meas subvertit, et confregit me; posuit me desolatam.
12 [Daleth.] Tetendit arcum suum, et posuit me quasi signum ad sagittam.
13 [He.] Misit in renibus meis filias pharetrae suae.
14 [He.] Factus sum in derisum omni populo meo, canticum eorum tota die.
15 [He.] Replevit me amaritudinibus; inebriavit me absinthio.
16 [Vau.] Et fregit ad numerum dentes meos; cibavit me cinere.
17 [Vau.] Et repulsa est a pace anima mea; oblitus sum bonorum.
18 [Vau.] Et dixi: Periit finis meus, et spes mea a Domino.
19 [Zain.] Recordare paupertatis, et transgressionis meae, absinthii et fellis.
20 [Zain.] Memoria memor ero, et tabescet in me anima mea.
21 [Zain.] Haec recolens in corde meo, ideo sperabo.
22 [Heth.] Misericordiae Domini, quia non sumus consumpti; quia non defecerunt miserationes ejus.
23 [Heth.] Novi diluculo, multa est fides tua.
24 [Heth.] Pars mea Dominus, dixit anima mea; propterea exspectabo eum.
25 [Teth.] Bonus est Dominus sperantibus in eum, animae quaerenti illum.
26 [Teth.] Bonum est praestolari cum silentio salutare Dei.
27 [Teth.] Bonum est viro cum portaverit jugum ab adolescentia sua.
28 [Jod.] Sedebit solitarius, et tacebit, quia levavit super se.
29 [Jod.] Ponet in pulvere os suum, si forte sit spes.
30 [Jod.] Dabit percutienti se maxillam: saturabitur opprobriis.
31 [Caph.] Quia non repellet in sempiternum Dominus.
32 [Caph.] Quia si abjecit, et miserebitur, secundum multitudinem misericordiarum suarum.
33 [Caph.] Non enim humiliavit ex corde suo et abjecit filios hominum.
34 [Lamed.] Ut conteret sub pedibus suis omnes vinctos terrae.
35 [Lamed.] Ut declinaret judicium viri in conspectu vultus Altissimi.
36 [Lamed.] Ut perverteret hominem in judicio suo; Dominus ignoravit.
37 [Mem.] Quis est iste qui dixit ut fieret, Domino non jubente?
38 [Mem.] Ex ore Altissimi non egredientur nec mala nec bona?
39 [Mem.] Quid murmuravit homo vivens, vir pro peccatis suis?
40 [Nun.] Scrutemur vias nostras, et quaeramus, et revertamur ad Dominum.
41 [Nun.] Levemus corda nostra cum manibus ad Dominum in caelos.
42 [Nun.] Nos inique egimus, et ad iracundiam provocavimus; idcirco tu inexorabilis es.
43 [Samech.] Operuisti in furore, et percussisti nos; occidisti, nec pepercisti.
44 [Samech.] Opposuisti nubem tibi, ne transeat oratio.
45 [Samech.] Eradicationem et abjectionem posuisti me in medio populorum.
46 [Phe.] Aperuerunt super nos os suum omnes inimici.
47 [Phe.] Formido et laqueus facta est nobis vaticinatio, et contritio.
48 [Phe.] Divisiones aquarum deduxit oculus meus, in contritione filiae populi mei.
49 [Ain.] Oculus meus afflictus est, nec tacuit, eo quod non esset requies.
50 [Ain.] Donec respiceret et videret Dominus de caelis.
51 [Ain.] Oculus meus depraedatus est animam meam in cunctis filiabus urbis meae.
52 [Sade.] Venatione ceperunt me quasi avem inimici mei gratis.
53 [Sade.] Lapsa est in lacum vita mea, et posuerunt lapidem super me.
54 [Sade.] Inundaverunt aquae super caput meum; dixi: Perii.
55 [Coph.] Invocavi nomen tuum, Domine, de lacu novissimo.
56 [Coph.] Vocem meam audisti; ne avertas aurem tuam a singultu meo et clamoribus.
57 [Coph.] Appropinquasti in die quando invocavi te; dixisti: Ne timeas.
58 [Res.] Judicasti, Domine, causam animae meae, redemptor vitae meae.
59 [Res.] Vidisti, Domine, iniquitatem illorum adversum me: judica judicium meum.
60 [Res.] Vidisti omnem furorem, universas cogitationes eorum adversum me.
61 [Sin.] Audisti opprobrium eorum, Domine, omnes cogitationes eorum adversum me.
62 [Sin.] Labia insurgentium mihi, et meditationes eorum adversum me tota die.
63 [Sin.] Sessionem eorum et resurrectionem eorum vide; ego sum psalmus eorum.
64 [Thau.] Redes eis vicem, Domine, juxta opera manuum suarum.
65 [Thau.] Dabis eis scutum cordis, laborem tuum.
66 [Thau.] Persequeris in furore, et conteres eos sub caelis, Domine.
New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.