Lamentations 3

The Depth of Despair Lamentations 3:10–18

¹⁰Verse 10. He is to me as a bear lying in wait,as a lion in secret places.¹¹Verse 11. He has turned away my ways,and pulled me in pieces.He has made me desolate.¹²Verse 12. He has bent his bow,and set me as a mark for the arrow.¹³Verse 13. He has caused the shafts of his quiver to enter into my kidneys.¹⁴Verse 14. I have become a derision to all my people,and their song all day long.¹⁵Verse 15. He has filled me with bitterness.He has stuffed me with wormwood.¹⁶Verse 16. He has also broken my teeth with gravel.He has covered me with ashes.¹⁷Verse 17. You have removed my soul far away from peace.I forgot prosperity.¹⁸Verse 18. I said, “My strength has perished,along with my expectation from Yahweh.”

Shift to Hope Lamentations 3:19–24

¹⁹Verse 19. Remember my affliction and my misery,the wormwood and the bitterness.²⁰Verse 20. My soul still remembers them,and is bowed down within me.²¹Verse 21. This I recall to my mind;therefore I have hope.²²Verse 22. It is because of Yahweh’s loving kindnesses that we are not consumed,because his compassion doesn’t fail.²³Verse 23. They are new every morning.Great is your faithfulness.²⁴Verse 24. “Yahweh is my portion,” says my soul.“Therefore I will hope in him.”

The Value of Patience Lamentations 3:25–30

²⁵Verse 25. Yahweh is good to those who wait for him,to the soul who seeks him.²⁶Verse 26. It is good that a man should hopeand quietly wait for the salvation of Yahweh.²⁷Verse 27. It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.²⁸Verse 28. Let him sit alone and keep silence,because he has laid it on him.²⁹Verse 29. Let him put his mouth in the dust,if it is so that there may be hope.³⁰Verse 30. Let him give his cheek to him who strikes him.Let him be filled full of reproach.

God’s Justice and Discipline Lamentations 3:31–39

³¹Verse 31. For the Lord will not cast off forever. ³²Verse 32. For though he causes grief, yet he will have compassion according to the multitude of his loving kindnesses. ³³Verse 33. For he does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men. ³⁴Verse 34. To crush under foot all the prisoners of the earth, ³⁵Verse 35. to turn away the right of a man before the face of the Most High, ³⁶Verse 36. to subvert a man in his cause, the Lord doesn’t approve.

³⁷Verse 37. Who is he who says, and it comes to pass, when the Lord doesn’t command it? ³⁸Verse 38. Doesn’t evil and good come out of the mouth of the Most High? ³⁹Verse 39. Why does a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?

A Call for Reflection and Justice Lamentations 3:40–66

⁴⁰Verse 40. Let us search and try our ways,and turn again to Yahweh.⁴¹Verse 41. Let us lift up our heart with our hands to God in the heavens.⁴²Verse 42. “We have transgressed and have rebelled.You have not pardoned.⁴³Verse 43. “You have covered us with anger and pursued us.You have killed.You have not pitied.⁴⁴Verse 44. You have covered yourself with a cloud,so that no prayer can pass through.⁴⁵Verse 45. You have made us an off-scouring and refusein the middle of the peoples.⁴⁶Verse 46. “All our enemies have opened their mouth wide against us.⁴⁷Verse 47. Terror and the pit have come on us,devastation and destruction.”⁴⁸Verse 48. My eye runs down with streams of water,for the destruction of the daughter of my people.⁴⁹Verse 49. My eye pours downand doesn’t cease,without any intermission,⁵⁰Verse 50. until Yahweh looks down,and sees from heaven.⁵¹Verse 51. My eye affects my soul,because of all the daughters of my city.⁵²Verse 52. They have chased me relentlessly like a bird,those who are my enemies without cause.⁵³Verse 53. They have cut off my life in the dungeon,and have cast a stone on me.⁵⁴Verse 54. Waters flowed over my head.I said, “I am cut off.”⁵⁵Verse 55. I called on your name, Yahweh,out of the lowest dungeon.⁵⁶Verse 56. You heard my voice:“Don’t hide your ear from my sighing,and my cry.”⁵⁷Verse 57. You came near in the day that I called on you.You said, “Don’t be afraid.”⁵⁸Verse 58. Lord, you have pleaded the causes of my soul.You have redeemed my life.⁵⁹Verse 59. Yahweh, you have seen my wrong.Judge my cause.⁶⁰Verse 60. You have seen all their vengeanceand all their plans against me.⁶¹Verse 61. You have heard their reproach, Yahweh,and all their plans against me,⁶²Verse 62. the lips of those that rose up against me,and their plots against me all day long.⁶³Verse 63. You see their sitting down and their rising up.I am their song.⁶⁴Verse 64. You will pay them back, Yahweh,according to the work of their hands.⁶⁵Verse 65. You will give them hardness of heart,your curse to them.⁶⁶Verse 66. You will pursue them in anger,and destroy them from under the heavens of Yahweh.