Lamentations 3
The Prophet’s Afflictions
¹ I 1 am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of God’s wrath.
² He has driven me away and made me walk in darkness instead of light.
³ Indeed, He keeps turning His hand against me all day long.
⁴ He has worn away my flesh and skin; He has shattered my bones.
⁵ He has besieged me and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship.
⁶ He has made me dwell in darkness like those dead for ages.
⁷ He has walled me in so I cannot escape; He has weighed me down with chains.
⁸ Even when I cry out and plead for help, He shuts out my prayer.
⁹ He has barred my ways with cut stones; He has made my paths crooked.
¹⁰ He is a bear lying in wait, a lion hiding in ambush.
¹¹ He forced me off my path and tore me to pieces; He left me without help.
¹² He bent His bow and set me as the target for His arrow.
¹³ He pierced my kidneys with His arrows.
¹⁴ I am a laughingstock to all my people; they mock me in song all day long.
¹⁵ He has filled me with bitterness; He has intoxicated me with wormwood.
¹⁶ He has ground my teeth with gravel and trampled me in the dust.
¹⁷ My soul has been deprived of peace; I have forgotten what prosperity is.
¹⁸ So I say, “My strength has perished, along with my hope from the LORD.”
The Prophet’s Hope
¹⁹ Remember my affliction and wandering, the wormwood and the gall.
²⁰ Surely my soul remembers and is humbled within me.
²¹ Yet I call this to mind, and therefore I have hope:
²² Because of the loving devotion 2 of the LORD we are not consumed, for His mercies never fail.
²³ They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness!
²⁴ “The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in Him.”
²⁵ The LORD is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him.
²⁶ It is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.
²⁷ It is good for a man to bear the yoke while he is still young.
²⁸ Let him sit alone in silence, for the LORD has laid it upon him.
²⁹ Let him bury his face in the dust— perhaps there is still hope.
³⁰ Let him offer his cheek to the one who would strike him; let him be filled with reproach.
³¹ For the Lord will not cast us off forever.
³² Even if He causes grief, He will show compassion according to His abundant loving devotion.
³³ For He does not willingly afflict or grieve the sons of men.
³⁴ To crush underfoot all the prisoners of the land,
³⁵ to deny a man justice before the Most High,
³⁶ to subvert a man in his lawsuit— of these the Lord does not approve.
God’s Justice
³⁷ Who has spoken and it came to pass, unless the Lord has ordained it?
³⁸ Do not both adversity and good come from the mouth of the Most High?
³⁹ Why should any mortal man complain, in view of his sins?
⁴⁰ Let us examine and test our ways, and turn back to the LORD.
⁴¹ Let us lift up our hearts and hands to God in heaven:
⁴² “We have sinned and rebelled; You have not forgiven.”
⁴³ You have covered Yourself in anger and pursued us; You have killed without pity.
⁴⁴ You have covered Yourself with a cloud that no prayer can pass through.
⁴⁵ You have made us scum and refuse among the nations.
⁴⁶ All our enemies open their mouths against us.
⁴⁷ Panic and pitfall have come upon us— devastation and destruction.
⁴⁸ Streams of tears flow from my eyes over the destruction of the daughter of my people.
⁴⁹ My eyes overflow unceasingly, without relief,
⁵⁰ until the LORD looks down from heaven and sees.
⁵¹ My eyes bring grief to my soul because of all the daughters of my city.
⁵² Without cause my enemies hunted me like a bird.
⁵³ They dropped me alive into a pit and cast stones upon me.
⁵⁴ The waters flowed over my head, and I thought I was going to die.
⁵⁵ I called on Your name, O LORD, out of the depths of the Pit.
⁵⁶ You heard my plea: “Do not ignore my cry for relief.”
⁵⁷ You drew near when I called on You; You said, “Do not be afraid.”
⁵⁸ You defend my cause, O Lord; You redeem my life.
⁵⁹ You have seen, O LORD, the wrong done to me; vindicate my cause!
⁶⁰ You have seen all their malice, all their plots against me.
⁶¹ O LORD, You have heard their insults, all their plots against me—
⁶² the slander and murmuring of my assailants against me all day long.
⁶³ When they sit and when they rise, see how they mock me in song.
⁶⁴ You will pay them back what they deserve, O LORD, according to the work of their hands.
⁶⁵ Put a veil of anguish over their hearts; may Your curse be upon them!
⁶⁶ You will pursue them in anger and exterminate them from under Your heavens, O LORD.
3:1 This chapter is an acrostic poem, each 3–verse stanza beginning with the successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet. ↩︎
3:22 Forms of the Hebrew chesed are translated here and in most cases throughout the Scriptures as loving devotion; the range of meaning includes love, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, and mercy, as well as loyalty to a covenant. ↩︎