Lamentations 3
Complete Jewish Bible
3 I am the man who has seen affliction
under the rod of his fury,
2 He has led me and made me walk
in darkness and not in light.
3 Against me alone he turns his hand
again and again, all day.
4 He has worn away my skin and flesh,
he has broken my bones.
5 He has besieged and surrounded me
with bitterness and hardship.
6 He has made me live in darkness,
like those who are long dead.
7 He has walled me in, so I can’t escape;
he has weighed me down with chains.
8 Even when I cry out, pleading for help,
he shuts out my prayer.
9 He has barred my way with blocks of stone,
he has made my paths crooked.
10 He lies in wait for me like a bear,
like a lion in hiding.
11 He has forced me aside and torn me to pieces,
leaving me stunned.
12 He has bent his bow and used me
as a target for his arrows.
13 He has pierced my vital organs
with shafts from his quiver.
14 I’m a laughingstock to all my people,
the butt of their taunts all day long.
15 He has filled me with bitterness,
sated me with wormwood.
16 He has broken my teeth with gravel
and pressed me down into ashes.
17 I have been so deprived of peace,
I have so forgotten what happiness is,
18 that I think, “My strength is gone,
and so is my hope in Adonai.”
19 Remember my utter misery,
the wormwood and the gall.
20 They are always on my mind;
this is why I am so depressed.
21 But in my mind I keep returning to something,
something that gives me hope —
22 that the grace of Adonai is not exhausted,
that his compassion has not ended.
23 [On the contrary,] they are new every morning!
How great your faithfulness!
24 “Adonai is all I have,” I say;
“therefore I will put my hope in him.
25 Adonai is good to those waiting for him,
to those who are seeking him out.
26 It is good to wait patiently
for the saving help of Adonai.
27 It is good for a man
to bear the yoke from his youth.
28 Let him sit alone in silence
when he has laid it on him.
29 Let him submit absolutely;
there may yet be hope.
30 Let him offer his cheek to the one who strikes it,
and receive his fill of insults.
31 For rejection by Adonai
does not last forever.
32 He may cause grief, but he will take pity,
in keeping with the greatness of his grace.
33 For he does not arbitrarily torment
or punish human beings.
34 When anyone tramples underfoot
any of the prisoners of the land;
35 when anyone deprives a person of justice,
in defiance of the Most High;
36 when someone is cheated of justice in court —
does Adonai not take note of such things?
37 Who can say something and have it happen
without Adonai’s commanding it?
38 Don’t both bad things and good proceed
from the mouth of the Most High?
39 Why should anyone alive complain,
even a strong man, about the punishment for his sins?
40 Let us examine and test our ways
and return to Adonai.
41 Let us lift up our hearts and our hands
to God in heaven and say,
42 “We, for our part, have transgressed and rebelled;
you, for your part, have not forgiven.
43 “You have covered us with anger,
pursued and slaughtered us without pity.
44 You have covered yourself with a cloud so thick
that no prayer can pass through.
45 You have reduced us
to rubbish and filth among the peoples.
46 “All our adversaries
open their mouths to jeer at us.
47 Panic and pitfall have come upon us,
desolation and destruction.
48 My eyes stream with rivers of water
over the destruction of the daughter of my people.”
49 My eyes weep ceaselessly;
there is no respite,
50 until Adonai looks down
and sees from heaven.
51 My eyes make me so upset
at the fate of the women in my city.
52 Those who are my enemies for no reason
hunted me down like a bird.
53 They forced me alive into a pit
and threw stones on me.
54 Water rose above my head;
I thought, “I am finished!”
55 I called on your name, Adonai,
from the bottom of the pit.
56 You heard my voice; don’t close your ear
at my sighs, at my cries.
57 You came near when I called to you;
you said, “Don’t be afraid.”
58 Adonai, you defended my cause;
you redeemed my life.
59 Adonai, you see how I have been wronged;
give judgment in my favor!
60 You have seen all their vindictiveness
and all their plots against me.
61 You have heard their taunts, Adonai,
and all their plots against me,
62 the whispered murmurings of my foes
against me all day long.
63 See how, whether they sit or stand,
I am the butt of their taunts.
64 Repay them, Adonai,
as their deeds deserve.
65 Give them hardheartedness
as your curse on them.
66 Pursue them in anger!
Destroy them from under your heavens!
Lamentations 3
King James Version
3 I Am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.
2 He hath led me, and brought me into darkness, but not into light.
3 Surely against me is he turned; he turneth his hand against me all the day.
4 My flesh and my skin hath he made old; he hath broken my bones.
5 He hath builded against me, and compassed me with gall and travail.
6 He hath set me in dark places, as they that be dead of old.
7 He hath hedged me about, that I cannot get out: he hath made my chain heavy.
8 Also when I cry and shout, he shutteth out my prayer.
9 He hath inclosed my ways with hewn stone, he hath made my paths crooked.
10 He was unto me as a bear lying in wait, and as a lion in secret places.
11 He hath turned aside my ways, and pulled me in pieces: he hath made me desolate.
12 He hath bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow.
13 He hath caused the arrows of his quiver to enter into my reins.
14 I was a derision to all my people; and their song all the day.
15 He hath filled me with bitterness, he hath made me drunken with wormwood.
16 He hath also broken my teeth with gravel stones, he hath covered me with ashes.
17 And thou hast removed my soul far off from peace: I forgat prosperity.
18 And I said, My strength and my hope is perished from the Lord:
19 Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall.
20 My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me.
21 This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope.
22 It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.
23 They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.
24 The Lord is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him.
25 The Lord is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him.
26 It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord.
27 It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.
28 He sitteth alone and keepeth silence, because he hath borne it upon him.
29 He putteth his mouth in the dust; if so be there may be hope.
30 He giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him: he is filled full with reproach.
31 For the Lord will not cast off for ever:
32 But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies.
33 For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men.
34 To crush under his feet all the prisoners of the earth.
35 To turn aside the right of a man before the face of the most High,
36 To subvert a man in his cause, the Lord approveth not.
37 Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth it not?
38 Out of the mouth of the most High proceedeth not evil and good?
39 Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?
40 Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the Lord.
41 Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens.
42 We have transgressed and have rebelled: thou hast not pardoned.
43 Thou hast covered with anger, and persecuted us: thou hast slain, thou hast not pitied.
44 Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud, that our prayer should not pass through.
45 Thou hast made us as the offscouring and refuse in the midst of the people.
46 All our enemies have opened their mouths against us.
47 Fear and a snare is come upon us, desolation and destruction.
48 Mine eye runneth down with rivers of water for the destruction of the daughter of my people.
49 Mine eye trickleth down, and ceaseth not, without any intermission.
50 Till the Lord look down, and behold from heaven.
51 Mine eye affecteth mine heart because of all the daughters of my city.
52 Mine enemies chased me sore, like a bird, without cause.
53 They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and cast a stone upon me.
54 Waters flowed over mine head; then I said, I am cut off.
55 I called upon thy name, O Lord, out of the low dungeon.
56 Thou hast heard my voice: hide not thine ear at my breathing, at my cry.
57 Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee: thou saidst, Fear not.
58 O Lord, thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul; thou hast redeemed my life.
59 O Lord, thou hast seen my wrong: judge thou my cause.
60 Thou hast seen all their vengeance and all their imaginations against me.
61 Thou hast heard their reproach, O Lord, and all their imaginations against me;
62 The lips of those that rose up against me, and their device against me all the day.
63 Behold their sitting down, and their rising up; I am their musick.
64 Render unto them a recompence, O Lord, according to the work of their hands.
65 Give them sorrow of heart, thy curse unto them.
66 Persecute and destroy them in anger from under the heavens of the Lord.
Copyright © 1998 by David H. Stern. All rights reserved.
Ang Bagong Tipan: Filipino Standard Version, Copyright © Philippine Bible Society 2009.
