Lamentations 3

Great Is Your Faithfulness

1  a I am the man who has seen affliction
under the b rod of his wrath;
 2 he has driven and brought me
c into darkness without any light;
 3 surely against me he turns his hand
again and again the whole day long.
 4  He has made my flesh and my skin waste away;
d he has broken my bones;
 5  e he has besieged and enveloped me
with f bitterness and tribulation;
 6  g he has made me dwell in darkness
like the dead of long ago.
 7  h He has walled me about so that i I cannot escape;
he has made my chains heavy;
 8 though j I call and cry for help,
he shuts out my prayer;
 9  k he has blocked my ways with blocks of stones;
he has made my paths crooked.
 10  l He is a bear lying in wait for me,
a lion in hiding;
 11  m he turned aside my steps and n tore me to pieces;
o he has made me desolate;
 12  p he bent his bow q and set me
as a target for his arrow.
 13  He drove into my kidneys
r the arrows of his quiver;
 14  s I have become the laughingstock of all peoples,
t the object of their taunts all day long.
 15  u He has filled me with bitterness;
he has sated me with v wormwood.
 16  w He has made my teeth grind on gravel,
and x made me cower in ashes;
 17 my soul is bereft of peace;
I have forgotten what happiness ▼
▼ Hebrew good
 is;
 18  z so I say, “My endurance has perished;
so has my hope from the  Lord.”
 19  aa Remember my affliction and my wanderings,
ab the wormwood and ac the gall!
 20 My soul continually remembers it
ad and is bowed down within me.
 21 But this I call to mind,
and ae therefore I have hope:
 22  af The steadfast love of the  Lord never ceases; ▼
▼ Syriac, Targum; Hebrew Because of the steadfast love of the  Lord, we are not cut off

ah his mercies never come to an end;
 23 they are new ai every morning;
aj great is your faithfulness.
 24  ak “The  Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
al “therefore I will hope in him.”
 25  The  Lord is good to those who am wait for him,
to the soul who seeks him.
 26  an It is good that one should wait quietly
for the salvation of the  Lord.
 27  ao It is good for a man that he bear
the yoke ap in his youth.
 28  Let him aq sit alone in silence
when it is laid on him;
 29  ar let him put his mouth in the dust—
there may yet be hope;
 30  as let him give his cheek to the one who strikes,
and let him be filled with insults.
 31  at For the Lord will not
cast off forever,
 32 but, though he au cause grief av he will have compassion
aw according to the abundance of his steadfast love;
 33  ax for he does not afflict from his heart
or ay grieve the children of men.
 34  To crush underfoot
all az the prisoners of the earth,
 35  ba to deny a man justice
in the presence of the Most High,
 36 to subvert a man in his lawsuit,
bb the Lord does not approve.
 37  bc Who has spoken and it came to pass,
unless the Lord has commanded it?
 38  bd Is it not from the mouth of the Most High
that good and bad come?
 39  be Why should a living man complain,
a man, about the punishment of his sins?
 40  Let us test and examine our ways,
bf and return to the  Lord!
 41  bg Let us lift up our hearts and hands
to God in heaven:
 42  bh “We have transgressed and bi rebelled,
and you have not forgiven.
 43  “You have wrapped yourself with anger and pursued us,
bj killing without pity;
 44  bk you have wrapped yourself with a cloud
so that no prayer can pass through.
 45  bl You have made us scum and garbage
among the peoples.
 46  bm “All our enemies
open their mouths against us;
 47  bn panic and pitfall have come upon us,
devastation and bo destruction;
 48  bp my eyes flow with rivers of tears
because of the destruction of the daughter of my people.
 49  bq “My eyes will flow without ceasing,
without respite,
 50  br until the  Lord from heaven
looks down and sees;
 51 my eyes cause me grief
at the fate of all the daughters of my city.
 52  bs “I have been hunted bt like a bird
by those who were my enemies bu without cause;
 53  bv they flung me alive into the pit
bw and cast stones on me;
 54  bx water closed over my head;
I said by ‘I am lost.’
 55  bz “I called on your name, O  Lord,
from the depths of the pit;
 56  ca you heard my plea, ‘Do not close
your ear to my cry for help!’
 57  cb You came near when I called on you;
you said cc ‘Do not fear!’
 58  “You have cd taken up my cause, ce O Lord;
you have cf redeemed my life.
 59 You have seen the wrong done to me cg O  Lord;
judge my cause.
 60 You have seen all their vengeance,
all ch their plots against me.
 61  ci “You have heard their taunts, O  Lord,
all cj their plots against me.
 62 The lips and thoughts ck of my assailants
are against me all the day long.
 63  cl Behold their sitting and their rising;
cm I am the object of their taunts.
 64  cn “You will repay them, ▼
▼ Or Repay them
 O  Lord,
cp according to the work of their hands.
 65 You will give them ▼
▼ Or Give them
 dullness of heart;
your curse will be ▼
▼ Or place your curse
 on them.
 66 You will pursue them ▼
▼ Or Pursue them
 in anger and ct destroy them
from under cu your heavens, O  Lord.” ▼
▼ Syriac (compare Septuagint, Vulgate); Hebrew the heavens of the  Lord
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