Lamentations Three

Hope of Relief through God's Mercy

1: 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.