Lamentations 3:1-18

Revised Standard Version

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 dwell 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 to me like a bear lying in wait,
    like 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 drove into my heart
    the arrows of his quiver;
¹⁴ I have become the laughingstock of all peoples,
    the burden of their 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 my expectation from the Lord.”