Lamentations 3:1-18 ▼

1 I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of His wrath;

2 He has led me and has made me walk in darkness, and not light;

3 surely He turns back against me; He turns over His hand all the day.

4 He has worn out my flesh and my skin; he has broken my bones.

5 He has built up against me and surrounded me with bitterness and weariness;

6 in dark places He has settled me, like the dead of old.

7 He has put a hedge around me, so that I cannot get out; He has made heavy my chain of bronze;

8 even when I cry out and call for help, He shuts out my prayer.

9 He has blocked off my ways with cut stone, my paths He has made crooked.

10 A bear lying in ambush He is to me, a lion in hiding places;

11 my ways He has turned aside, and has torn me apart; He has set me as a desolation.

12 He has bent His bow and stood me up as the target for an arrow.

13 He has brought into my kidneys the sons of His quiver;

14 I have become a laughingstock to all my people, their taunt all the day.

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

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

17 My soul has been rejected from peace; I have forgotten good,

18 and I say, “My strength has perished, and also my hope from YHWH!”