Lamentations of Jeremiah 3 The sorrow of Jeremiah; he invites the people to acknowledge their sin and return to God for mercy.

 Lamentations of Jeremiah 3

The sorrow of Jeremiah; he invites the people to acknowledge their sin and return to God for mercy.

1 I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.

2 He has led me away and made me walk in darkness and not in light.

3 He has turned against me; he has continually turned his hand all day long.

4 He has made my flesh and my skin grow old, he has broken my bones.

5 He has built against me, and surrounded me with gall and toil.

6 He has set me in dark places, like those who have been long dead.

7 He has surrounded me, so that I cannot escape; he has made my chains heavy.

8 Even when I cry out and shout, he shuts out my prayer.

9 He has surrounded my ways with hewn stones, he has made my paths crooked.

10 He has become like a bear lying in wait for me, like a lion in ambush.

11 He has turned aside my ways and torn me to pieces; he has left me desolate.

12 He has bent his bow and set me as a target for his arrows.

13 He has pierced my kidneys with the arrows of his quiver.

14 I have become an object of scorn to all my people, their song all day long.

15 He has filled me with bitterness; he has made me drink wormwood.

16 He has broken my teeth with gravel; he has covered me with ashes.

17 You have taken away peace from my soul; I have forgotten what is good.

18 Then I said, “My strength is gone, as is my hope in the Lord.”

19 Remember my affliction and my wandering, the wormwood and the gall.

20 My soul certainly remembers, and is bowed down within me.

21 This I recall to mind in my heart; therefore I have hope.

22 The Lord’s mercies are the reason we are not consumed; for his mercies never end.

23 They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

24 “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul; “therefore I will hope in him.”

25 The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.

26 It is good to have hope and wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.

27 It is good for a man to bear the yoke in his youth;

28 to sit alone and be silent, for God has laid it on him.

29 Let him put his mouth in the dust; perhaps there is hope.

30 Let him give his cheek to the one who strikes him; let him be filled with reproach.

31 For the Lord will not reject forever.

32 For though he causes grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his mercies.

33 For he does not willingly afflict or grieve the children of men.

34 To trample underfoot all the prisoners of the earth,

35 To pervert the right of man before the face of the Most High,

36 To subvert a man in his cause—would not the Lord see it?

37 Who is he who speaks, and it comes to pass, when the Lord has not commanded it?

38 Does not the mouth of the Most High speak both good and evil?

39 Why then should a living man complain? Let each one complain of his own sins.

40 Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the Lord.

41 Let us lift up our hearts with our hands to God in heaven, saying:

42 We have transgressed and rebelled; therefore you have not forgiven.

43 You have covered yourself with anger and persecuted us; you have killed, you have not spared.

44 You have covered yourself with clouds, so that our prayer cannot pass through.

45 You have made us like chaff and rejects among the peoples.

46 All our enemies have opened their mouths against us.

47 Terror and the pit have come upon us, desolation and destruction.

48 My eyes have poured out torrents of water because of the destruction of the daughter of my people.

49 My eyes weep and do not cease, for there is no rest.

50 Until the Lord looks down and sees from heaven.

51 My eye moves my soul because of all the daughters of my city.

52 My enemies without cause hunted me like a bird.

53 They plucked my life from the pit and threw stones upon me.

54 Waters rushed over my head; I said, “I am cut off.”

55 I called upon Your name, O Lord, from the deepest pit.

56 You heard my voice; do not hide Your ear from my sigh, from my cry.

57 You drew near on the day I called upon You; You said, “Do not fear.”

58 You pleaded, O Lord, the cause of my soul; You redeemed my life.

59 You saw, O Lord, the injustice done to me; judge my cause.

60 You saw all their vengeance, all their thoughts against me.

61 You heard their insults, O Lord, all their thoughts against me;

62 The lips of those who rise up against me and their fantasies against me all day long. 63 Watch them as they sit down and as they rise up; I am their song.

64 You will reward them, Lord, according to the work of their hands.

65 You will give them heartache, your curse upon them.

66 In your anger you will pursue them, and they will be destroyed under the heavens of the Lord.