Fluent Translation · Read & Reflect
Lamentations 3
The man who has seen affliction
I am the man who has seen affliction
under the rod of his fury.
He led me and made me walk
in darkness, without light.
Against me he turns his hand
again and again, all day long.
He wore away my flesh and skin;
he broke my bones.
He built siegeworks against me,
surrounding me with bitterness and hardship.
He made me live in dark places,
like those long dead.
He walled me in so I cannot escape;
he made my bronze chain heavy.
Even when I cry out and plead,
he shuts out my prayer.
He blocked my roads with cut stone
and twisted my paths.
He is a bear lying in wait for me,
a lion in hiding.
He forced me off my paths and tore me apart;
he left me desolate.
He drew his bow
and set me up as a target for his arrow.
He drove the sons of his quiver
into my kidneys.
I became a laughingstock to all my people,
the subject of their songs all day long.
He filled me with bitter things
and made me drink my fill of wormwood.
He ground my teeth with gravel
and pressed me into ashes.
You have driven my life away from peace;
I have forgotten what good is.
I said, “My endurance is gone,
and so is my hope from the LORD.”
Remembering and hoping
Remember my affliction and wandering,
the wormwood and the poison.
My soul remembers them again and again
and sinks within me.
But this I bring back to mind,
and so I have hope:
Through the LORD's acts of steadfast love we have not come to an end,
for his compassion has not run out.
They are new every morning.
Great is your faithfulness!
“The LORD is my portion,” my soul says,
“so I will hope in him.”
The LORD is good to those who wait for him,
to the person who seeks him.
It is good to wait quietly
for the LORD's salvation.
It is good for a man
to carry a yoke in his youth.
Let him sit alone and be silent,
for God has laid it on him.
Let him put his mouth in the dust—
perhaps there is hope.
Let him offer his cheek to the one who strikes him;
let him have his fill of disgrace.
For the Lord will not reject forever.
Though he causes grief, he will show compassion
according to his abundant steadfast love.
For it is not from his heart
that he afflicts or grieves human beings.
Justice and judgment
To crush underfoot
all the prisoners of the earth,
to deny a man justice
in the presence of the Most High,
to wrong someone in a lawsuit—
does the Lord not see?
Who speaks and it happens
unless the Lord has commanded it?
Do not disaster and good alike
come from the mouth of the Most High?
Why should a living man complain
about the consequences of his sins?
Let us return
Let us examine and search our ways
and return to the LORD.
Let us lift our hearts with our hands
to God in heaven.
We have rebelled and defied you;
you have not forgiven.
You wrapped yourself in anger and pursued us;
you killed without pity.
You wrapped yourself in a cloud
so no prayer could pass through.
You made us refuse and filth
among the peoples.
All our enemies
open their mouths against us.
Terror and pit have come upon us,
devastation and destruction.
Tears and a plea
My eye pours out streams of water
because my people are shattered.
My eye streams without stopping,
without a moment's relief,
until the LORD looks down
and sees from heaven.
What my eye sees torments my soul
because of all the daughters of my city.
Those who hated me without cause
hunted me like a bird.
They tried to end my life in a pit
and threw stones at me.
Water closed over my head.
I said, “I am cut off!”
I called your name, LORD,
from the deepest pit.
You heard my voice:
“Do not close your ear
to my plea for relief, to my cry for help.”
You drew near when I called to you;
you said, “Do not fear.”
Lord, you took up the cases concerning my life;
you redeemed my life.
You have seen the wrong done to me, LORD;
judge my case.
You have seen all their vengeance,
all their plots against me.
You have heard their insults, LORD,
all their plots against me,
the words of those who rise against me,
their muttering against me all day long.
Look at them sitting and rising—
I am their mocking song.
Repay them, LORD,
according to what their hands have done.
Give them a covering over the heart;
let your curse be on them.
Pursue them in anger and destroy them
from beneath the heavens of the LORD.