Lamentations 3:1-18

English Standard Version

Great Is Your Faithfulness

3 ^(A)I am the man who has seen affliction
    under the ^(B)rod of his wrath;
²he has driven and brought me
    ^(C)into darkness without any light;
³surely against me he turns his hand
    again and again the whole day long.

⁴He has made my flesh and my skin waste away;
    ^(D)he has broken my bones;
⁵^(E)he has besieged and enveloped me
    with ^(F)bitterness and tribulation;
⁶^(G)he has made me dwell in darkness
    like the dead of long ago.

⁷^(H)He has walled me about so that ^(I)I cannot escape;
    he has made my chains heavy;
⁸though ^(J)I call and cry for help,
    he shuts out my prayer;
⁹^(K)he has blocked my ways with blocks of stones;
    he has made my paths crooked.

¹⁰^(L)He is a bear lying in wait for me,
    a lion in hiding;
¹¹^(M)he turned aside my steps and ^(N)tore me to pieces;
    ^(O)he has made me desolate;
¹²^(P)he bent his bow ^(Q)and set me
    as a target for his arrow.

¹³He drove into my kidneys
    ^(R)the arrows of his quiver;
¹⁴^(S)I have become the laughingstock of all my people,^[a]
    ^(T)the object of their taunts all day long.
¹⁵^(U)He has filled me with bitterness;
    he has sated me with ^(V)wormwood.

¹⁶^(W)He has made my teeth grind on gravel,
    and ^(X)made me cower in ashes;
¹⁷my soul is bereft of peace;
    I have forgotten what happiness^[b] is;
¹⁸^(Y)so I say, “My endurance has perished;
    so has my hope from the Lord.”