Lamentations 3
Common English Bible
An individual’s complaint
3 I am someone[a] who saw the suffering caused by God’s[b] angry rod.
2 He drove me away, forced me to walk in darkness, not light.
3 He turned his hand even against me, over and over again, all day long.
4 He wore out my flesh and my skin; he broke my bones.
5 He besieged me, surrounding me with bitterness and weariness.
6 He made me live in dark places like those who’ve been dead a long time.
7 He walled me in so I couldn’t escape; he made my chains heavy.
8 Even though I call out and cry for help, he silences my prayer.
9 He walled in my paths with stonework; he made my routes crooked.
10 He is a bear lurking for me, a lion in hiding.
11 He took me from my path[c] and tore me apart; he made me desolate.
12 He drew back his bow, made me a shooting target for arrows.
13 He shot the arrows of his quiver into my inside parts.
14 I have become a joke to all my people, the object of their song of ridicule all day long.
15 He saturated me with grief, made me choke on bitterness.
16 He crushed my teeth into the gravel; he pressed me down into the ashes.
17 I’ve[d] rejected peace; I’ve forgotten what is good.
18 I thought: My future is gone, as well as my hope from the Lord.
19 The memory of my suffering and homelessness is bitterness and poison.
20 I[e] can’t help but remember and am depressed.
21 I call all this to mind—therefore, I will wait.
22 Certainly the faithful love of the Lord hasn’t ended;[f] certainly God’s compassion isn’t through!
23 They are renewed every morning. Great is your faithfulness.
24 I think:[g] The Lord is my portion! Therefore, I’ll wait for him.
25 The Lord is good to those who hope in him, to the person[h] who seeks him.
26 It’s good to wait in silence for the Lord’s deliverance.
27 It’s good for a man to carry a yoke in his youth.
28 He should sit alone and be silent when God lays it on him.
29 He should put his mouth in the dirt—perhaps there is hope.
30 He should offer his cheek for a blow; he should be filled with shame.
31 My Lord definitely[i] won’t reject forever.
32 Although he has caused grief, he will show compassion in measure with his covenant loyalty.
33 He definitely doesn’t enjoy affliction,[j] making humans suffer.
34 Now crushing underfoot all the earth’s prisoners,
35 denying someone justice before the Most High,
36 subverting a person’s lawsuit—doesn’t my Lord see all this?
37 Who ever spoke and it happened if my Lord hadn’t commanded the same?
38 From the mouth of the Most High evil things don’t come, but rather good!
39 Why then does any living person complain; why should anyone complain about their sins?
40 We must search and examine our ways; we must return to the Lord.
41 We should lift up our hearts and hands to God in heaven.
42 We are the ones who did wrong; we rebelled. But you, God, have not forgiven.
43 You wrapped yourself up in wrath and hunted us; you killed, showing no compassion.
44 You wrapped yourself up in a cloud; prayers can’t make it through!
45 You made us trash and garbage in front of all other people.
46 All our enemies have opened their mouths against us.
47 Terror and trap have come upon us, catastrophe and collapse!
48 Streams of water pour from my eyes because of the destruction of the daughter of my people.
49 My eyes flow and don’t stop. There is no relief
50 until the Lord looks down from the heavens and notices.
51 My eyes hurt me[k] because of what’s happened to my city’s daughters.
52 My enemies hunted me down like a bird, relentlessly, for no reason.
53 They caught me alive in a pit and threw stones at me;
54 water flowed over my head. I thought: I’m finished.
55 I call on your name, Lord, from the depths of the pit.
56 Hear my voice. Don’t close your ear[l] to my need for relief, to my cry for help.[m]
57 Come near to me on the day I call to you. Say to me, “Don’t be afraid.”
58 My Lord! Plead my desperate case;[n] redeem my life.
59 Lord, look at my mistreatment; judge my cause.
60 Look at all of my enemies’ vengeance, all of their scheming against me.
61 Hear their jeering, Lord, all of their scheming against me,
62 the speech of those who rise up against me, their incessant gossiping about me.
63 Whether sitting or standing, look at how I am the object of their song of ridicule.
64 Pay them back fully, Lord, according to what they have done.
65 Give them a tortured mind—put your curse on them!
66 Angrily hunt them down; wipe them out from under the Lord’s heaven.
Footnotes
- Lamentations 3:1 Or the man; also in 3:27, 35, 39
- Lamentations 3:1 Or his
- Lamentations 3:11 Heb uncertain
- Lamentations 3:17 Or my spirit; also in 3:20, 24, 25, 51, 58
- Lamentations 3:20 Or My spirit can’t help but remember and is depressed
- Lamentations 3:22 Tg, Syr, and other ancient sources; MT we aren’t finished.
- Lamentations 3:24 Or My spirit thinks
- Lamentations 3:25 Or spirit
- Lamentations 3:31 Or Because my Lord won’t reject forever
- Lamentations 3:33 Heb He does not afflict from his heart.
- Lamentations 3:51 Or my spirit
- Lamentations 3:56 Or You didn’t close your ear.
- Lamentations 3:56 Or You have heard my voice.
- Lamentations 3:58 Or my spirit’s case or my spirit’s grievance
Lamentations 3
King James Version
3 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.
Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible