| 3 | Lamentations | ||
| 1 | I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of his wrath; | Punishment, repentance & hope. Lm.3.1-66 | |
| 2 | he has driven and brought me 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, and broken my bones; | ||
| 5 | he has besieged and enveloped me with bitterness and tribulation; | ||
| 6 | he has made me dwell in darkness like the dead of long ago. | ||
| 7 | He has walled me about so that I cannot escape; he has put heavy chains on me; | ||
| 8 | though I call and cry for help, he shuts out my prayer; | ||
| 9 | he has blocked my ways with hewn stones, he has made my paths crooked. | ||
| 10 | He is to me like a bear lying in wait, like a lion in hiding; | ||
| 11 | he led me off my way and tore me to pieces; he has made me desolate; | ||
| 12 | he bent his bow and set me as a mark for his arrow. | ||
| 13 | He drove into my heart the arrows of his quiver; | ||
| 14 | I have become the laughingstock of all peoples, the burden of their songs all day long. | ||
| 15 | He has filled me with bitterness, he has sated me with wormwood. | ||
| 16 | He has made my teeth grind on gravel, and made me cower in ashes; | ||
| 17 | my soul is bereft of peace, I have forgotten what happiness is; | ||
| 18 | so I say, "Gone is my glory, and my expectation from Yahweh." | ||
| 19 | Remember my affliction and my bitterness, the wormwood and the gall! | ||
| 20 | My soul continually thinks of it and is bowed down within me. | ||
| 21 | But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: | ||
| 22 | The steadfast love of Yahweh never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; | ||
| 23 | they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. | ||
| 24 | "Yahweh is my portion," says my soul, "therefore I will hope in him." | ||
| 25 | Yahweh is good to those who wait for him, to the soul that seeks him. | ||
| 26 | It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of Yahweh. | ||
| 27 | It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. | ||
| 28 | Let him sit alone in silence when he has laid it on him; | ||
| 29 | let him put his mouth in the dust - there may yet be hope; | ||
| 30 | let him give his cheek to the smiter, and be filled with insults. | ||
| 31 | For Yahweh will not cast off for ever, | ||
| 32 | but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love; | ||
| 33 | for he does not willingly afflict or grieve the sons of men. | ||
| 34 | To crush under foot all the prisoners of the earth, | ||
| 35 | to turn aside the right of a man in the presence of the Most High, | ||
| 36 | to subvert a man in his cause, Yahweh does not approve. | ||
| 37 | Who has commanded and it came to pass, unless Yahweh has ordained it? | ||
| 38 | Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and evil come? | ||
| 39 | Why should a living man complain, a man, about the punishment of his sins? | ||
| 40 | Let us test and examine our ways, and return to Yahweh! | ||
| 41 | Let us lift up our hearts and hands to God in heaven: | ||
| 42 | "We have transgressed and rebelled, and you have not forgiven. | ||
| 43 | "You have wrapped yourself with anger and pursued us, slaying without pity; | ||
| 44 | you have wrapped yourself with a cloud so that no prayer can pass through. | ||
| 45 | You have made us offscouring and refuse among the peoples. | ||
| 46 | "All our enemies rail against us; | ||
| 47 | panic and pitfall have come upon us, devastation and destruction; | ||
| 48 | my eyes flow with rivers of tears because of the destruction of the daughter of my people. | ||
| 49 | "My eyes will flow without ceasing, without respite, | ||
| 50 | until Yahweh from heaven looks down and sees; | ||
| 51 | my eyes cause me grief at the fate of all the maidens of my city. | ||
| 52 | "I have been hunted like a bird by those who were my enemies without cause; | ||
| 53 | they flung me alive into the pit and cast stones on me; | ||
| 54 | water closed over my head; I said, 'I am lost.' | ||
| 55 | "I called on your name, O Yahweh, from the depths of the pit; | ||
| 56 | you heard my plea, 'Do not close your ear to my cry for help! | ||
| 57 | You came near when I called on you; you said, 'Do not fear! | ||
| 58 | "You have taken up my cause, O Yahweh, you have redeemed my life. | ||
| 59 | You have seen the wrong done to me, O Yahweh; judge my cause. | ||
| 60 | You have seen all their vengeance, all their devices against me. | ||
| 61 | "You have heard their taunts, O Yahweh, all their devices against me. | ||
| 62 | The lips and thoughts of my assailants are against me all the day long. | ||
| 63 | Behold their sitting and their rising; I am the burden of their songs. | ||
| 64 | "You will requite them, O Yahweh, according to the work of their hands. | ||
| 65 | You will give them dullness of heart; your curse will be on them. | ||
| 66 | You will persue them in anger and destroy them from under your heavens, O Yahweh." | ||
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