Lamentations 3
English Standard Version
Great Is Your Faithfulness
3 (A)I am the man who has seen affliction
under the (B)rod of his wrath;
2 he has driven and brought me
(C)into darkness without any light;
3 surely against me he turns his hand
again and again the whole day long.
4 He 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;
8 though (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.
13 He 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;
17 my 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.”
19 (Z)Remember my affliction and my wanderings,
(AA)the wormwood and (AB)the gall!
20 My soul continually remembers it
(AC)and is bowed down within me.
21 But this I call to mind,
and (AD)therefore I have hope:
22 (AE)The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;[c]
(AF)his mercies never come to an end;
23 they are new (AG)every morning;
(AH)great is your faithfulness.
24 (AI)“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
(AJ)“therefore I will hope in him.”
25 The Lord is good to those who (AK)wait for him,
to the soul who seeks him.
26 (AL)It is good that one should wait quietly
for the salvation of the Lord.
27 (AM)It is good for a man that he bear
the yoke (AN)in his youth.
28 Let him (AO)sit alone in silence
when it is laid on him;
29 (AP)let him put his mouth in the dust—
there may yet be hope;
30 (AQ)let him give his cheek to the one who strikes,
and let him be filled with insults.
31 (AR)For the Lord will not
cast off forever,
32 for, though he (AS)cause grief, (AT)he will have compassion
(AU)according to the abundance of his steadfast love;
33 (AV)for he does not afflict from his heart
or (AW)grieve the children of men.
34 To crush underfoot
all (AX)the prisoners of the earth,
35 (AY)to deny a man justice
in the presence of the Most High,
36 to subvert a man in his lawsuit,
(AZ)the Lord does not approve.
37 (BA)Who has spoken and it came to pass,
unless the Lord has commanded it?
38 (BB)Is it not from the mouth of the Most High
that good and bad come?
39 (BC)Why should a living man complain,
a man, about the punishment of his sins?
40 Let us test and examine our ways,
(BD)and return to the Lord!
41 (BE)Let us lift up our hearts and hands
to God in heaven:
42 (BF)“We have transgressed and (BG)rebelled,
and you have not forgiven.
43 “You have wrapped yourself with anger and pursued us,
(BH)killing without pity;
44 (BI)you have wrapped yourself with a cloud
so that no prayer can pass through.
45 (BJ)You have made us scum and garbage
among the peoples.
46 (BK)“All our enemies
open their mouths against us;
47 (BL)panic and pitfall have come upon us,
devastation and (BM)destruction;
48 (BN)my eyes flow with rivers of tears
because of the destruction of the daughter of my people.
49 (BO)“My eyes will flow without ceasing,
without respite,
50 (BP)until the Lord from heaven
looks down and sees;
51 my eyes cause me grief
at the fate of all the daughters of my city.
52 (BQ)“I have been hunted (BR)like a bird
by those who were my enemies (BS)without cause;
53 (BT)they flung me alive into the pit[d]
(BU)and cast stones on me;
54 (BV)water closed over my head;
I said, (BW)‘I am lost.’
55 (BX)“I called on your name, O Lord,
from the depths of the pit;
56 (BY)you heard my plea, ‘Do not close
your ear to my cry for help!’
57 (BZ)You came near when I called on you;
you said, (CA)‘Do not fear!’
58 “You have (CB)taken up my cause, (CC)O Lord;
you have (CD)redeemed my life.
59 You have seen the wrong done to me, (CE)O Lord;
judge my cause.
60 You have seen all their vengeance,
all (CF)their plots against me.
61 (CG)“You have heard their taunts, O Lord,
all (CH)their plots against me.
62 The lips and thoughts (CI)of my assailants
are against me all the day long.
63 (CJ)Behold their sitting and their rising;
(CK)I am the object of their taunts.
64 (CL)“You will repay them,[e] O Lord,
(CM)according to the work of their hands.
65 You will give them[f] dullness of heart;
your curse will be[g] on them.
66 You will pursue them[h] in anger and (CN)destroy them
from under (CO)your heavens, O Lord.”[i]
Footnotes
- Lamentations 3:14 Some manuscripts all peoples
- Lamentations 3:17 Hebrew good
- Lamentations 3:22 Syriac, Targum; Hebrew Because of the steadfast love of the Lord, we are not cut off
- Lamentations 3:53 Or they end my life in the pit
- Lamentations 3:64 Or Repay them
- Lamentations 3:65 Or Give them
- Lamentations 3:65 Or place your curse
- Lamentations 3:66 Or Pursue them
- Lamentations 3:66 Syriac (compare Septuagint, Vulgate); Hebrew the heavens of the Lord
Lamentations 3
Jubilee Bible 2000
Aleph
3 ¶ I am a man that sees affliction in the rod of his wrath.
Aleph
2 He has led me and brought me into darkness, but not into light.
Aleph
3 Surely he is turned against me; he turns his hand against me all the day.
Beth
4 My flesh and my skin he has made old; he has broken my bones.
Beth
5 He has built against me and compassed me with gall and travail.
Beth
6 He has set me in dark places as those that are dead for ever.
Gimel
7 He has hedged me about that I cannot get out; he has made my chain heavy.
Gimel
8 Even when I cried and shouted, he shut out my prayer.
Gimel
9 He has enclosed my ways with hewn stone; he has made my paths crooked.
Daleth
10 He was unto me as a bear lying in wait and as a lion in secret places.
Daleth
11 He has made my ways crooked and pulled me in pieces; he has made me desolate.
Daleth
12 He has bent his bow and set me as a mark for the arrow.
He
13 He has caused the arrows of his quiver to enter into my kidneys.
He
14 I was a derision to all my people and their song every day.
He
15 He has filled me with bitterness, he has made me drunk with wormwood.
Vau
16 He has broken my teeth with gravel stones; he has covered me with ashes.
Vau
17 My soul removed itself far from peace; I forgot about good.
Vau
18 And I said, My strength and my hope of the LORD is perished.
Zain
19 Remember my affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall.
Zain
20 My soul shall have them still in remembrance because it is humbled in me.
Zain
21 ¶ This shall go down into my heart; therefore I shall wait.
Cheth
22 It is of the LORD’s mercies that we are not consumed because his mercies never diminish.
Cheth
23 They are new every morning; great is thy faith.
Cheth
24 The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore I will wait for him.
Teth
25 The LORD is good unto those that wait in him, to the soul that seeks him.
Teth
26 It is good to wait quietly in the salvation of the LORD.
Teth
27 It is good for the man if he bears the yoke from his youth.
Jod
28 He shall sit alone and keep silence because he has borne it upon him.
Jod
29 He shall put his mouth in the dust; if so be there may be hope.
Jod
30 He shall turn his cheek unto him that smites him; he shall be filled with reproach.
Caph
31 For the Lord will not cast off for ever:
Caph
32 But though he causes grief, yet he will also have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies.
Caph
33 For he does not afflict nor grieve the sons of men from his heart.
Lamed
34 To crush under his feet all the prisoners of the earth,
Lamed
35 To turn aside the right of a man before the face of the most High,
Lamed
36 To subvert a man in his cause, the Lord does not approve.
37 ¶ Mem Who shall he be that saith that something comes which the Lord has not sent?
Mem
38 Out of the mouth of the most High proceeds not evil and good?
Mem
39 Why does the living man have pain, the man in his sins?
Nun
40 Let us search out our ways, and seek, and turn again to the LORD.
Nun
41 Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens.
Nun
42 ¶ We have rebelled and been disloyal; therefore thou hast not forgiven.
Samech
43 Thou hast unfurled anger and persecuted us; thou hast slain, thou hast not forgiven.
Samech
44 Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud that our prayer should not pass through.
Samech
45 Thou hast made us as the offscouring and abomination in the midst of the peoples.
Pe
46 All our enemies have opened their mouths upon us.
Pe
47 Fear and a snare is come upon us, desolation and destruction.
Pe
48 My eyes stream with rivers of water for the destruction of the daughter of my people.
Ain
49 My eyes run down, and cease not, for there is no relief,
Ain
50 Until the LORD looks down, and beholds from the heavens.
Ain
51 My eyes make my soul sad because of all the daughters of my city.
Tzaddi
52 My enemies hunted me like a bird, without cause.
Tzaddi
53 They bound up my life in the dungeon, and cast a stone upon me.
Tzaddi
54 Waters flowed over my head; then I said, I am dead.
Koph
55 ¶ I called upon thy name, O LORD, out of the low dungeon.
Koph
56 Thou hast heard my voice; do not hide thine ear at my cry that I might breath.
Koph
57 Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee; thou didst say, Fear not.
Resh
58 O Lord, thou hast pleaded the cause of my soul; thou hast redeemed my life.
Resh
59 O LORD, thou hast seen where I was wrong; plead thou my cause.
Resh
60 Thou hast seen all their vengeance and all their imaginations against me.
Schin
61 Thou hast heard their reproach, O LORD, and all their imaginations against me;
Schin
62 The words of those that rose up against me, and their design against me all the day.
Schin
63 Behold their sitting down, and their rising up; I am their music.
Tau
64 Render unto them a recompense, O LORD, according to the work of their hands.
Tau
65 Give them sorrow of heart; thy curse unto them.
Tau
66 Persecute them in thy anger and cut them off from under the heavens, oh LORD.
The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. ESV Text Edition: 2025.
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