BBEV Lamentations Chapter 3
3:1 I am the man who has seen trouble by the rod of his wrath. 3:2 By him I have been made to go in the dark where there is no light. 3:3 Truly against me his hand has been turned again and again all the day. 3:4 My flesh and my skin have been used up by him and my bones broken. 3:5 He has put up a wall against me, shutting me in with bitter sorrow. 3:6 He has kept me in dark places, like those who have been long dead. 3:7 He has put a wall round me, so that I am not able to go out; he has made great the weight of my chain. 3:8 Even when I send up a cry for help, he keeps my prayer shut out. 3:9 He has put up a wall of cut stones about my ways, he has made my roads twisted. 3:10 He is like a bear waiting for me, like a lion in secret places. 3:11 By him my ways have been turned on one side and I have been pulled in bits; he has made me waste. 3:12 With his bow bent, he has made me the mark for his arrows. 3:13 He has let loose his arrows into the inmost parts of my body. 3:14 I have become the sport of all the peoples; I am their song all the day. 3:15 He has made my life nothing but pain, he has given me the bitter root in full measure. 3:16 By him my teeth have been broken with crushed stones, and I am bent low in the dust. 3:17 My soul is sent far away from peace, I have no more memory of good. 3:18 And I said, My strength is cut off, and my hope from the Lord. 3:19 Keep in mind my trouble and my wandering, the bitter root and the poison. 3:20 My soul still keeps the memory of them; and is bent down in me. 3:21 This I keep in mind, and because of this I have hope. 3:22 It is through the Lord's love that we have not come to destruction, because his mercies have no limit. 3:23 They are new every morning; great is your good faith. 3:24 I said to myself, The Lord is my heritage; and because of this I will have hope in him. 3:25 The Lord is good to those who are waiting for him, to the soul which is looking for him. 3:26 It is good to go on hoping and quietly waiting for the salvation of the Lord. 3:27 It is good for a man to undergo the yoke when he is young. 3:28 Let him be seated by himself, saying nothing, because he has put it on him. 3:29 Let him put his mouth in the dust, if by chance there may be hope. 3:30 Let his face be turned to him who gives him blows; let him be full of shame. 3:31 For the Lord does not give a man up for ever. 3:32 For though he sends grief, still he will have pity in the full measure of his love. 3:33 For he has no pleasure in troubling and causing grief to the children of men. 3:34 In a man's crushing under his feet all the prisoners of the earth, 3:35 In his turning away the right of a man before the face of the Most High. 3:36 In his doing wrong to a man in his cause, the Lord has no pleasure. 3:37 Who is able to say a thing, and give effect to it, if it has not been ordered by the Lord? 3:38 Do not evil and good come from the mouth of the Most High? 3:39 What protest may a living man make, even a man about the punishment of his sin? 3:40 Let us make search and put our ways to the test, turning again to the Lord; 3:41 Lifting up our hearts with our hands to God in the heavens. 3:42 We have done wrong and gone against your law; we have not had your forgiveness. 3:43 Covering yourself with wrath you have gone after us, cutting us off without pity; 3:44 Covering yourself with a cloud, so that prayer may not get through. 3:45 You have made us like waste and that for which there is no use, among the peoples. 3:46 The mouths of all our haters are open wide against us. 3:47 Fear and deep waters have come on us, wasting and destruction. 3:48 Rivers of water are running down from my eyes, for the destruction of the daughter of my people. 3:49 My eyes are streaming without stopping, they have no rest, 3:50 Till the Lord's eye is turned on me, till he sees my trouble from heaven. 3:51 The Lord is unkind to my soul, more than all the daughters of my town. 3:52 They who are against me without cause have gone hard after me as if I was a bird; 3:53 They have put an end to my life in the prison, stoning me with stones. 3:54 Waters were flowing over my head; I said, I am cut off. 3:55 I was making prayer to your name, O Lord, out of the lowest prison. 3:56 My voice came to you; let not your ear be shut to my breathing, to my cry. 3:57 You came near in the day when I made my prayer to you: you said, Have no fear. 3:58 O Lord, you have taken up the cause of my soul, you have made my life safe. 3:59 O Lord, you have seen my wrong; be judge in my cause. 3:60 You have seen all the evil rewards they have sent on me, and all their designs against me. 3:61 Their bitter words have come to your ears, O Lord, and all their designs against me; 3:62 The lips of those who came up against me, and their thoughts against me all the day. 3:63 Take note of them when they are seated, and when they get up; I am their song. 3:64 You will give them their reward, O Lord, answering to the work of their hands. 3:65 You will let their hearts be covered over with your curse on them. 3:66 You will go after them in wrath, and put an end to them from under the heavens of the Lord.