| 1 | I am [Jeremiah] the man who has seen affliction under the rod of His wrath. |
| 2 | He has led me and brought me into darkness and not light. |
| 3 | Surely He has turned away from me; His hand is against me all the day. |
| 4 | My flesh and my skin has He worn out
and
made old; He has shattered my bones. |
| 5 | He has built up [siege mounds] against me and surrounded me with bitterness, tribulation,
and
anguish. |
| 6 | He has caused me to dwell in dark places like those long dead. |
| 7 | He walled me in so that I cannot get out; He has weighted down my chain. |
| 8 | Even when I cry and shout for help, He shuts out my prayer. |
| 9 | He has enclosed my ways with hewn stone; He has made my paths crooked. |
| 10 | He is to me like a bear lying in wait, and like a lion [hiding] in secret places. |
| 11 | He has turned me off my ways and pulled me in pieces; He has made me desolate. |
| 12 | He has bent His bow and set me as a mark for the arrow. |
| 13 | He has caused the arrows of His quiver to enter into my heart [the seat of my affections and desires]. |
| 14 | I have become a derision to all my people, and [the subject of] their singsong all the day. |
| 15 | He has filled me with bitterness; He has made me drink to excess
and
until drunken with wormwood [bitterness]. |
| 16 | He has also broken my teeth with gravel (stones); He has covered me with ashes. |
| 17 | And You have bereaved my soul
and
cast it off far from peace; I have forgotten what good
and
happiness
are
. |
| 18 | And I say, Perished is my strength and my expectation from the Lord. |
| 19 | [O Lord] remember [earnestly] my affliction and my misery, my wandering
and
my outcast state, the wormwood and the gall. |
| 20 | My soul has them continually in remembrance and is bowed down within me. |
| 21 | But this I recall and therefore have I hope
and
expectation: |
| 22 | It is because of the Lord’s mercy
and
loving-kindness that we are not consumed, because His [tender] compassions fail not. |
| 23 | They are new every morning; great
and
abundant is Your stability
and
faithfulness. |
| 24 | The Lord is my portion
or
share, says my living being (my inner self); therefore will I hope in Him
and
wait expectantly for Him. |
| 25 | The Lord is good to those who wait hopefully
and
expectantly for Him, to those who seek Him [inquire of and for Him and require Him by right of necessity and on the authority of God’s word]. |
| 26 | It is good that one should hope in
and
wait quietly for the salvation (the safety and ease) of the Lord. |
| 27 | It is good for a man that he should bear the yoke [of divine disciplinary dealings] in his youth. |
| 28 | Let him sit alone uncomplaining
and
keeping silent [in hope], because [God] has laid [the yoke] upon him [for his benefit]. |
| 29 | Let him put his mouth in the dust [in abject recognition of his unworthiness]—there may yet be hope. |
| 30 | Let him give his cheek to the One Who smites him [even through His human agents]; let him be filled [full] with [men’s] reproach [in meekness]. |
| 31 | For the Lord will not cast off forever! |
| 32 | But though He causes grief, yet will He be moved to compassion according to the multitude of His loving-kindness
and
tender mercy. |
| 33 | For He does not willingly
and
from His heart afflict or grieve the children of men. |
| 34 | To trample
and
crush underfoot all the prisoners of the earth, |
| 35 | To turn aside
and
deprive a man of his rights before the face of the Most High
or
a superior [acting as God’s representative], |
| 36 | To subvert a man in his cause—[of these things] the Lord does not approve. |
| 37 | Who is he who speaks and it comes to pass, if the Lord has not authorized
and
commanded it? |
| 38 | Is it not out of the mouth of the Most High that evil and good both proceed [adversity and prosperity, physical evil or misfortune and physical good or happiness]? |
| 39 | Why does a living man sigh [one who is still in this life’s school of discipline]? [And why does] a man complain for the punishment of his sins? |
| 40 | Let us test and examine our ways, and let us return to the Lord! |
| 41 | Let us lift up our hearts and our hands [and then with them mount up in prayer] to God in heaven: |
| 42 | We have transgressed and rebelled and You have not pardoned. |
| 43 | You have covered Yourself with wrath and pursued
and
afflicted us; You have slain without pity. |
| 44 | You have covered Yourself with a cloud so that no prayer can pass through. |
| 45 | You have made us offscouring and refuse among the nations. |
| 46 | All our enemies have gaped at us
and
railed against us. |
| 47 | Fear and pitfall have come upon us, devastation and destruction. |
| 48 | My eyes overflow with streams of tears because of the destruction of the daughter of my people. |
| 49 | My eyes overflow continually and will not cease |
| 50 | Until the Lord looks down and sees from heaven. |
| 51 | My eyes cause me grief at the fate of all the maidens [and the daughter-towns] of my city [Jerusalem]. |
| 52 | I have been hunted down like a bird by those who were my enemies without cause. |
| 53 | They [thought they had] destroyed my life in the dungeon (pit) and cast a stone [over it] above me. |
| 54 | The waters ran down on my head; I said, I am gone. |
| 55 | I called upon Your name, O Lord, out of the depths [of the mire] of the dungeon. |
| 56 | You heard my voice [then]: [Oh] hide not Your ear [now] at my prayer for relief. |
| 57 | You drew near on the day I called to You; You said, Fear not. |
| 58 | O Lord, You have pleaded the causes of my soul [You have managed my affairs and You have protected my person and my rights]; You have rescued
and
redeemed my life! |
| 59 | O Lord, You have seen my wrong [done to me]; judge
and
maintain my cause. |
| 60 | You have seen all their vengeance, all their devices against me. |
| 61 | You have heard their reproach
and
revilings, O Lord, and all their devices against me— |
| 62 | The lips
and
thoughts of my assailants are against me all day long. |
| 63 | Look at their sitting down and their rising up [their movements, doings, and secret counsels]; I am their singsong [the subject of their derision and merriment]. |
| 64 | Render to them a recompense, O Lord, according to the work of their hands. |
| 65 | You will give them hardness
and
blindness of heart; Your curse will be upon them. |
| 66 | You will pursue
and
afflict them in anger and destroy them from under Your heavens, O Lord. |
Cross references:
-
Lamentations 3:22 : Mal. 3:6.
-
Lamentations 3:23 : Isa. 33:2.
-
Lamentations 3:24 : Num. 18:20.
-
Lamentations 3:28 : Rom. 8:28.
-
Lamentations 3:29 : Mic. 7:17.
-
Lamentations 3:31 : Ps. 94:14.
-
Lamentations 3:33 : Ezek. 18:23, 32; Hos. 11:8; Heb. 12:5-10; II Pet. 3:9.
-
Lamentations 3:53 : Jer. 38.
-
Lamentations 3:55 : Jer. 38:6.
-
Lamentations 3:57 : James 4:8.
-
Lamentations 3:63 : Ps. 139:2; Isa. 37:28.
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