Lamentations 3

Great Is Your Faithfulness

1. I am the man who has seen affliction 1 under the rod of his wrath;

2. he has driven and brought me 2 into darkness without any light;

3. surely against me he turns his hand 3 again and again the whole day long.

4. He has made my flesh and my skin waste away; 4 he has broken my bones;

5. he has besieged and enveloped me 5 with bitterness and tribulation;

6. he has made me dwell in darkness 6 like the dead of long ago.

7. He has walled me about so that I cannot escape; 7 he has made my chains heavy;

8. though I call and cry for help, 8 he shuts out my prayer;

9. he has blocked my ways with blocks of stones; 9 he has made my paths crooked.

10. He is a bear lying in wait for me, 10 a lion in hiding;

11. he turned aside my steps and tore me to pieces; 11 he has made me desolate;

12. he bent his bow and set me 12 as a target for his arrow.

13. He drove into my kidneys 13 the arrows of his quiver;

14. I have become the laughingstock of all peoples, 14 the object of their taunts all day long.

15. He has filled me with bitterness; 15 he has sated me with wormwood.

16. He has made my teeth grind on gravel, 16 and made me cower in ashes;

17. my soul is bereft of peace; 17 I have forgotten what happiness[a] is;

18. so I say, “My endurance has perished; 18 so has my hope from the Lord.”

19. Remember my affliction and my wanderings, 19 the wormwood and the gall!

20. My soul continually remembers it 20 and is bowed down within me.

21. But this I call to mind, 21 and therefore I have hope:

22. The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;[b] 22 his mercies never come to an end;

23. they are new every morning; 23 great is your faithfulness.

24. “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, 24 “therefore I will hope in him.”

25. The Lord is good to those who wait for him, 25 to the soul who seeks him.

26. It is good that one should wait quietly 26 for the salvation of the Lord.

27. It is good for a man that he bear 27 the yoke in his youth.

28. Let him sit alone in silence 28 when it is laid on him;

29. let him put his mouth in the dust— 29 there may yet be hope;

30. let him give his cheek to the one who strikes, 30 and let him be filled with insults.

31. For the Lord will not 31 cast off forever,

32. but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion 32 according to the abundance of his steadfast love;

33. for he does not afflict from his heart 33 or grieve the children of men.

34. To crush underfoot 34 all the prisoners of the earth,

35. to deny a man justice 35 in the presence of the Most High,

36. to subvert a man in his lawsuit, 36 the Lord does not approve.

37. Who has spoken and it came to pass, 37 unless the Lord has commanded it?

38. Is it not from the mouth of the Most High 38 that good and bad come?

39. Why should a living man complain, 39 a man, about the punishment of his sins?

40. Let us test and examine our ways, 40 and return to the Lord!

41. Let us lift up our hearts and hands 41 to God in heaven:

42. “We have transgressed and rebelled, 42 and you have not forgiven.

43. “You have wrapped yourself with anger and pursued us, 43 killing without pity;

44. you have wrapped yourself with a cloud 44 so that no prayer can pass through.

45. You have made us scum and garbage 45 among the peoples.

46. “All our enemies 46 open their mouths against us;

47. panic and pitfall have come upon us, 47 devastation and destruction;

48. my eyes flow with rivers of tears 48 because of the destruction of the daughter of my people.

49. “My eyes will flow without ceasing, 49 without respite,

50. until the Lord from heaven 50 looks down and sees;

51. my eyes cause me grief 51 at the fate of all the daughters of my city.

52. “I have been hunted like a bird 52 by those who were my enemies without cause;

53. they flung me alive into the pit 53 and cast stones on me;

54. water closed over my head; 54 I said, ‘I am lost.’

55. “I called on your name, O Lord, 55 from the depths of the pit;

56. you heard my plea, ‘Do not close 56 your ear to my cry for help!’

57. You came near when I called on you; 57 you said, ‘Do not fear!’

58. “You have taken up my cause, O Lord; 58 you have redeemed my life.

59. You have seen the wrong done to me, O Lord; 59 judge my cause.

60. You have seen all their vengeance, 60 all their plots against me.

61. “You have heard their taunts, O Lord, 61 all their plots against me.

62. The lips and thoughts of my assailants 62 are against me all the day long.

63. Behold their sitting and their rising; 63 I am the object of their taunts.

64. “You will repay them,[c] O Lord, 64 according to the work of their hands.

65. You will give them[d] dullness of heart; 65 your curse will be[e] on them.

66. You will pursue them[f] in anger and destroy them 66 from under your heavens, O Lord.”[g]

Footnotes:
a. Lamentations 3:17: Hebrew good
b. Lamentations 3:22: Syriac, Targum; Hebrew Because of the steadfast love of the Lord, we are not cut off
c. Lamentations 3:64: Or Repay them
d. Lamentations 3:65: Or Give them
e. Lamentations 3:65: Or place your curse
f. Lamentations 3:66: Or Pursue them
g. Lamentations 3:66: Syriac (compare Septuagint, Vulgate); Hebrew the heavens of the Lord