Lamentations 3:1-22

New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised

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 laughing-stock of all my people,
    the object of their taunt-songs all day long.
¹⁵ He has filled me with bitterness,
    he has glutted 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;