Lamentaciones 3

¹ I am the man that has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath. ² He has led me and caused me to walk in darkness, and not in light. ³ Surely against me he turns his hand again and again all the day. ⁴ My flesh and my skin has he made old; he has broken my bones. ⁵ He has built against me, and compassed me with gall and travail. ⁶ He has made me to dwell in dark places, as those that have been long dead. ⁷ He has walled me about, that I can't go forth; he has made my chain heavy. ⁸ Yes, when I cry, and call for help, he shuts out my prayer. ⁹ He has walled up my ways with hewn stone; he has made my paths crooked. ¹⁰ He is to me as a bear lying in wait, as a lion in secret places. ¹¹ He has turned aside 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 shafts of his quiver to enter into my kidneys. ¹⁴ I am become a derision to all my people, and their song all the day. ¹⁵ He has filled me with bitterness, he has sated me with wormwood. ¹⁶ He has also broken my teeth with gravel stones; he has covered me with ashes. ¹⁷ You have removed my soul far off from peace; I forgot prosperity. ¹⁸ I said, My strength is perished, and my expectation from Yahweh. ¹⁹ Remember my affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall. ²⁰ My soul still remembers them, and is bowed down within me. ²¹ This I recall to my mind; therefore have I hope. ²² [It is of] Yahweh's loving kindnesses that we are not consumed, because his compassion doesn't fail. ²³ They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. ²⁴ Yahweh is my portion, says my soul; therefore will I hope in him. ²⁵ Yahweh is good to those who wait for him, to the soul that seeks him. ²⁶ It is good that a man should hope and quietly wait 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 and keep silence, because he has laid it on him. ²⁹ Let him put his mouth in the dust, if so be there may be hope. ³⁰ Let him give his cheek to him who strikes him; let him be filled full with reproach. ³¹ For the Lord will not cast off forever. ³² For though he cause grief, yet he will have compassion according to the multitude of his loving kindnesses. ³³ For he does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men. ³⁴ To crush under foot 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 doesn't approve. ³⁷ Who is he who says, and it comes to pass, when the Lord doesn't command it? ³⁸ Doesn't evil and good come out of the mouth of the Most High? ³⁹ Why does a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins? ⁴⁰ Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to Yahweh. ⁴¹ Let us lift up our heart with our hands to God in the heavens. ⁴² We have transgressed and have rebelled; you have not pardoned. ⁴³ You have covered with anger and pursued us; you have killed, you have not pitied. ⁴⁴ You have covered yourself with a cloud, so that no prayer can pass through. ⁴⁵ You have made us an off-scouring and refuse in the midst of the peoples. ⁴⁶ All our enemies have opened their mouth wide against us. ⁴⁷ Fear and the pit are come on us, devastation and destruction. ⁴⁸ My eye runs down with streams of water, for the destruction of the daughter of my people. ⁴⁹ My eye pours down, and doesn't cease, without any intermission, ⁵⁰ Until Yahweh look down, and see from heaven. ⁵¹ My eye affects my soul, because of all the daughters of my city. ⁵² They have chased me sore like a bird, those who are my enemies without cause. ⁵³ They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and have cast a stone on me. ⁵⁴ Waters flowed over my head; I said, I am cut off. ⁵⁵ I called on your name, Yahweh, out of the lowest dungeon. ⁵⁶ You heard my voice; don't hide your ear at my breathing, at my cry. ⁵⁷ You drew near in the day that I called on you; you said, Don't be afraid. ⁵⁸ Lord, you have pleaded the causes of my soul; you have redeemed my life. ⁵⁹ Yahweh, you have seen my wrong; judge you my cause. ⁶⁰ You have seen all their vengeance and all their devices against me. ⁶¹ You have heard their reproach, Yahweh, and all their devices against me, ⁶² The lips of those that rose up against me, and their device against me all the day. ⁶³ See you their sitting down, and their rising up; I am their song. ⁶⁴ You will render to them a recompense, Yahweh, according to the work of their hands. ⁶⁵ You will give them hardness of heart, your curse to them. ⁶⁶ You will pursue them in anger, and destroy them from under the heavens of Yahweh.