Shared Word Translation
Lamentations 3
Affliction Under the LORD’s Hand
I am the one who has seen affliction
under the rod of the LORD’s wrath.
The LORD has driven me and brought me
into darkness and not into light.
Surely the LORD turns a hand against me,
again and again all the day long.
The LORD has made my flesh and my skin waste away;
the LORD has broken my bones.
The LORD has besieged me
and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship.
The LORD has made me dwell in darkness,
like those long dead.
The LORD has walled me in so that I cannot escape;
the LORD has made my chains heavy.
Even when I cry and call for help,
the LORD shuts out my prayer.
The LORD has blocked my ways with hewn stones;
the LORD has made my paths crooked.
The LORD is to me like a bear lying in wait,
like a lion in hiding.
The LORD turned aside my steps and tore me to pieces;
the LORD has left me desolate.
The LORD bent the bow
and set me as a target for the arrow.
The LORD drove into my kidneys
the arrows of the LORD’s quiver.
I have become a laughingstock to all my people,
their mocking song all day long.
The LORD has filled me with bitterness;
the LORD has made me drunk with wormwood.
The LORD has ground my teeth with gravel;
the LORD has pressed me into the dust.
My whole being is deprived of peace;
I have forgotten what well-being is.
So I said, “My endurance has perished,
and so has my hope from the LORD.”
Remember my affliction and my wandering—
the wormwood and the gall!
My whole being remembers it
and is bowed down within me.
The Steadfast Love of the LORD
But this I call to mind,
and therefore I have hope:
The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases;
the LORD’s mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
“The LORD is my portion,” says my whole being,
“therefore I will hope in the LORD.”
The LORD is good to those who wait for him,
to the one who seeks him.
It is good to wait quietly
for the salvation of the LORD.
It is good for a person to bear
the yoke in youth.
Let them sit alone in silence
when the LORD has laid it on them;
let them put their mouth in the dust—
perhaps there may yet be hope;
let them give their cheek to the one who strikes,
and let them be filled with insults.
For the Lord will not reject forever,
but though he causes grief, he will have compassion
according to the abundance of his steadfast love;
for he does not afflict from his heart
or grieve the children of humanity.
God Sees, God Judges, God Will Hear
To crush underfoot
all the prisoners of the earth,
to deny a person justice
before the face of the Most High,
to subvert a person in a lawsuit—
the Lord does not approve.
Who has spoken and it came to pass,
unless the Lord has commanded it?
Is it not from the mouth of the Most High
that both calamity and good come?
Why should any living person complain
about the punishment of their sins?
Let us examine our ways and test them,
and let us return to the LORD.
Let us lift up our hearts and hands
to God in heaven:
“We have rebelled and been stubborn,
and you have not forgiven.”
You have wrapped yourself in anger and pursued us;
you have killed without pity.
You have wrapped yourself with a cloud
so that prayer cannot pass through.
You have made us scum and refuse
among the peoples.
All our enemies
open their mouths against us.
Terror and pitfall have come upon us,
ruin and destruction.
My eyes flow with streams of tears
because of the destruction of the daughter of my people.
My eyes will pour down without ceasing,
without relief,
until the LORD looks down
and sees from heaven.
My eyes bring grief to my soul
because of all the daughters of my city.
Those who are my enemies without cause
hunted me like a bird;
they cast me alive into the pit
and threw stones on me;
water closed over my head;
I said, “I am lost.”
I called on your name, O LORD,
from the depths of the pit;
you heard my voice:
“Do not hide your ear from my sighing,
from my cry for help.”
You came near when I called on you;
you said, “Do not fear!”
You have taken up my cause, O Lord;
you have redeemed my life.
O LORD, you have seen the wrong done to me;
judge my case.
You have seen all their vengeance,
all their plots against me.
You have heard their insults, O LORD,
all their plots against me—
the lips and thoughts of my attackers,
all day long.
Look at them—sitting or rising;
I am their mocking song.
You will repay them, O LORD,
according to the work of their hands.
You will give them hardness of heart;
your curse will be on them.
You will pursue them in anger and destroy them
from under the heavens of the LORD.