# Lamentations 3 [[Lam-02|← Lamentations 02]] | [[Lamentations]] | [[Lam-04|Lamentations 04 →]] *** ###### v1 I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath. ###### v2 He has led me and caused me to walk in darkness, and not in light. ###### v3 Surely he turns his hand against me again and again all day long. ###### v4 He has made my flesh and my skin old. He has broken my bones. ###### v5 He has built against me, and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship. ###### v6 He has made me dwell in dark places, as those who have been long dead. ###### v7 He has walled me about, so that I can't go out. He has made my chain heavy. ###### v8 Yes, when I cry, and call for help, he shuts out my prayer. ###### v9 He has walled up my ways with cut stone. He has made my paths crooked. ###### v10 He is to me as a bear lying in wait, as a lion in secret places. ###### v11 He has turned away my ways, and pulled me in pieces. He has made me desolate. ###### v12 He has bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow. ###### v13 He has caused the shafts of his quiver to enter into my kidneys. ###### v14 I have become a derision to all my people, and their song all day long. ###### v15 He has filled me with bitterness. He has stuffed me with wormwood. ###### v16 He has also broken my teeth with gravel. He has covered me with ashes. ###### v17 You have removed my soul far away from peace. I forgot prosperity. ###### v18 I said, "My strength has perished, along with my expectation from Yahweh." ###### v19 Remember my affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the bitterness. ###### v20 My soul still remembers them, and is bowed down within me. ###### v21 This I recall to my mind; therefore I have hope. ###### v22 It is because of Yahweh's loving kindnesses that we are not consumed, because his compassion doesn't fail. ###### v23 They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. ###### v24 "Yahweh is my portion," says my soul. "Therefore I will hope in him." ###### v25 Yahweh is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. ###### v26 It is good that a man should hope and quietly wait for the salvation of Yahweh. ###### v27 It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. ###### v28 Let him sit alone and keep silence, because he has laid it on him. ###### v29 Let him put his mouth in the dust, if it is so that there may be hope. ###### v30 Let him give his cheek to him who strikes him. Let him be filled full of reproach. ###### v31 For the Lord will not cast off forever. ###### v32 For though he causes grief, yet he will have compassion according to the multitude of his loving kindnesses. ###### v33 For he does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men. ###### v34 To crush under foot all the prisoners of the earth, ###### v35 to turn away the right of a man before the face of the Most High, ###### v36 to subvert a man in his cause, the Lord doesn't approve. ###### v37 Who is he who says, and it comes to pass, when the Lord doesn't command it? ###### v38 Doesn't evil and good come out of the mouth of the Most High? ###### v39 Why does a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins? ###### v40 Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to Yahweh. ###### v41 Let's lift up our heart with our hands to God in the heavens. ###### v42 "We have transgressed and have rebelled. You have not pardoned. ###### v43 "You have covered us with anger and pursued us. You have killed. You have not pitied. ###### v44 You have covered yourself with a cloud, so that no prayer can pass through. ###### v45 You have made us an off-scouring and refuse in the middle of the peoples. ###### v46 "All our enemies have opened their mouth wide against us. ###### v47 Terror and the pit have come on us, devastation and destruction." ###### v48 My eye runs down with streams of water, for the destruction of the daughter of my people. ###### v49 My eye pours down and doesn't cease, without any intermission, ###### v50 until Yahweh looks down, and sees from heaven. ###### v51 My eye affects my soul, because of all the daughters of my city. ###### v52 They have chased me relentlessly like a bird, those who are my enemies without cause. ###### v53 They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and have cast a stone on me. ###### v54 Waters flowed over my head. I said, "I am cut off." ###### v55 I called on your name, Yahweh, out of the lowest dungeon. ###### v56 You heard my voice: "Don't hide your ear from my sighing, and my cry." ###### v57 You came near in the day that I called on you. You said, "Don't be afraid." ###### v58 Lord, you have pleaded the causes of my soul. You have redeemed my life. ###### v59 Yahweh, you have seen my wrong. Judge my cause. ###### v60 You have seen all their vengeance and all their plans against me. ###### v61 You have heard their reproach, Yahweh, and all their plans against me, ###### v62 the lips of those that rose up against me, and their plots against me all day long. ###### v63 You see their sitting down and their rising up. I am their song. ###### v64 You will pay them back, Yahweh, according to the work of their hands. ###### v65 You will give them hardness of heart, your curse to them. ###### v66 You will pursue them in anger, and destroy them from under the heavens of Yahweh. *** [[Lam-02|← Lamentations 02]] | [[Lamentations]] | [[Lam-04|Lamentations 04 →]]