ESV - Lam 3

(ESV) Lamentations 3 : 1 I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of his wrath;

(ESV) Lamentations 3 : 2 he has driven and brought me into darkness without any light;

(ESV) Lamentations 3 : 3 surely against me he turns his hand again and again the whole day long.

(ESV) Lamentations 3 : 4 He has made my flesh and my skin waste away; he has broken my bones;

(ESV) Lamentations 3 : 5 he has besieged and enveloped me with bitterness and tribulation;

(ESV) Lamentations 3 : 6 he has made me dwell in darkness like the dead of long ago.

(ESV) Lamentations 3 : 7 He has walled me about so that I cannot escape; he has made my chains heavy;

(ESV) Lamentations 3 : 8 though I call and cry for help, he shuts out my prayer;

(ESV) Lamentations 3 : 9 he has blocked my ways with blocks of stones; he has made my paths crooked.

(ESV) Lamentations 3 : 10 He is a bear lying in wait for me, a lion in hiding;

(ESV) Lamentations 3 : 11 he turned aside my steps and tore me to pieces; he has made me desolate;

(ESV) Lamentations 3 : 12 he bent his bow and set me as a target for his arrow.

(ESV) Lamentations 3 : 13 He drove into my kidneys the arrows of his quiver;

(ESV) Lamentations 3 : 14 I have become the laughingstock of all peoples, the object of their taunts all day long.

(ESV) Lamentations 3 : 15 He has filled me with bitterness; he has sated me with wormwood.

(ESV) Lamentations 3 : 16 He has made my teeth grind on gravel, and made me cower in ashes;

(ESV) Lamentations 3 : 17 my soul is bereft of peace; I have forgotten what happiness is;

(ESV) Lamentations 3 : 18 so I say, “My endurance has perished; so has my hope from the LORD.”

(ESV) Lamentations 3 : 19 Remember my affliction and my wanderings, the wormwood and the gall!

(ESV) Lamentations 3 : 20 My soul continually remembers it and is bowed down within me.

(ESV) Lamentations 3 : 21 But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope:

(ESV) Lamentations 3 : 22 The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end;

(ESV) Lamentations 3 : 23 they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

(ESV) Lamentations 3 : 24 “The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.”

(ESV) Lamentations 3 : 25 The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.

(ESV) Lamentations 3 : 26 It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.

(ESV) Lamentations 3 : 27 It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.

(ESV) Lamentations 3 : 28 Let him sit alone in silence when it is laid on him;

(ESV) Lamentations 3 : 29 let him put his mouth in the dust— there may yet be hope;

(ESV) Lamentations 3 : 30 let him give his cheek to the one who strikes, and let him be filled with insults.

(ESV) Lamentations 3 : 31 For the Lord will not cast off forever,

(ESV) Lamentations 3 : 32 but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love;

(ESV) Lamentations 3 : 33 for he does not willingly afflict or grieve the children of men.

(ESV) Lamentations 3 : 34 To crush underfoot all the prisoners of the earth,

(ESV) Lamentations 3 : 35 to deny a man justice in the presence of the Most High,

(ESV) Lamentations 3 : 36 to subvert a man in his lawsuit, the Lord does not approve.

(ESV) Lamentations 3 : 37 Who has spoken and it came to pass, unless the Lord has commanded it?

(ESV) Lamentations 3 : 38 Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and bad come?

(ESV) Lamentations 3 : 39 Why should a living man complain, a man, about the punishment of his sins?

(ESV) Lamentations 3 : 40 Let us test and examine our ways, and return to the LORD!

(ESV) Lamentations 3 : 41 Let us lift up our hearts and hands to God in heaven:

(ESV) Lamentations 3 : 42 “We have transgressed and rebelled, and you have not forgiven.

(ESV) Lamentations 3 : 43 “You have wrapped yourself with anger and pursued us, killing without pity;

(ESV) Lamentations 3 : 44 you have wrapped yourself with a cloud so that no prayer can pass through.

(ESV) Lamentations 3 : 45 You have made us scum and garbage among the peoples.

(ESV) Lamentations 3 : 46 “All our enemies open their mouths against us;

(ESV) Lamentations 3 : 47 panic and pitfall have come upon us, devastation and destruction;

(ESV) Lamentations 3 : 48 my eyes flow with rivers of tears because of the destruction of the daughter of my people.

(ESV) Lamentations 3 : 49 “My eyes will flow without ceasing, without respite,

(ESV) Lamentations 3 : 50 until the LORD from heaven looks down and sees;

(ESV) Lamentations 3 : 51 my eyes cause me grief at the fate of all the daughters of my city.

(ESV) Lamentations 3 : 52 “I have been hunted like a bird by those who were my enemies without cause;

(ESV) Lamentations 3 : 53 they flung me alive into the pit and cast stones on me;

(ESV) Lamentations 3 : 54 water closed over my head; I said, ‘I am lost.’

(ESV) Lamentations 3 : 55 “I called on your name, O LORD, from the depths of the pit;

(ESV) Lamentations 3 : 56 you heard my plea, ‘Do not close your ear to my cry for help!’

(ESV) Lamentations 3 : 57 You came near when I called on you; you said, ‘Do not fear!’

(ESV) Lamentations 3 : 58 “You have taken up my cause, O Lord; you have redeemed my life.

(ESV) Lamentations 3 : 59 You have seen the wrong done to me, O LORD; judge my cause.

(ESV) Lamentations 3 : 60 You have seen all their vengeance, all their plots against me.

(ESV) Lamentations 3 : 61 “You have heard their taunts, O LORD, all their plots against me.

(ESV) Lamentations 3 : 62 The lips and thoughts of my assailants are against me all the day long.

(ESV) Lamentations 3 : 63 Behold their sitting and their rising; I am the object of their taunts.

(ESV) Lamentations 3 : 64 “You will repay them, O LORD, according to the work of their hands.

(ESV) Lamentations 3 : 65 You will give them dullness of heart; your curse will be on them.

(ESV) Lamentations 3 : 66 You will pursue them in anger and destroy them from under your heavens, O LORD.”