NASB95 Lamentations 3 Chapter
1 2 3 4 5
3:1
I am the man who has seen affliction Because of the rod of His wrath.
3:2
He has driven me and made me walk In darkness and not in light.
3:3
Surely against me He has turned His hand Repeatedly all the day.
3:4
He has caused my flesh and my skin to waste away, He has broken my bones.
3:5
He has besieged and encompassed me with bitterness and hardship.
3:6
In dark places He has made me dwell, Like those who have long been dead.
3:7
He has walled me in so that I cannot go out; He has made my chain heavy.
3:8
Even when I cry out and call for help, He shuts out my prayer.
3:9
He has blocked my ways with hewn stone; He has made my paths crooked.
3:10
He is to me like a bear lying in wait, Like a lion in secret places.
3:11
He has turned aside my ways and torn me to pieces; He has made me desolate.
3:12
He bent His bow And set me as a target for the arrow.
3:13
He made the arrows of His quiver To enter into my inward parts.
3:14
I have become a laughingstock to all my people, Their mocking song all the day.
3:15
He has filled me with bitterness, He has made me drunk with wormwood.
3:16
He has broken my teeth with gravel; He has made me cower in the dust.
3:17
My soul has been rejected from peace; I have forgotten happiness.
3:18
So I say, "My strength has perished, And so has my hope from the Lord."
3:19
Remember my affliction and my wandering, the wormwood and bitterness.
3:20
Surely my soul remembers And is bowed down within me.
3:21
This I recall to my mind, Therefore I have hope.
3:22
The Lord's lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, For His compassions never fail.
3:23
They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.
3:24
"The Lord is my portion," says my soul, "Therefore I have hope in Him."
3:25
The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, To the person who seeks Him.
3:26
It is good that he waits silently For the salvation of the Lord.
3:27
It is good for a man that he should bear The yoke in his youth.
3:28
Let him sit alone and be silent Since He has laid it on him.
3:29
Let him put his mouth in the dust, Perhaps there is hope.
3:30
Let him give his cheek to the smiter, Let him be filled with reproach.
3:31
For the Lord will not reject forever,
3:32
For if He causes grief, Then He will have compassion According to His abundant lovingkindness.
3:33
For He does not afflict willingly Or grieve the sons of men.
3:34
To crush under His feet All the prisoners of the land,
3:35
To deprive a man of justice In the presence of the Most High,
3:36
To defraud a man in his lawsuit-- Of these things the Lord does not approve.
3:37
Who is there who speaks and it comes to pass, Unless the Lord has commanded it?
3:38
Is it not from the mouth of the Most High That both good and ill go forth?
3:39
Why should any living mortal, or any man, Offer complaint in view of his sins?
3:40
Let us examine and probe our ways, And let us return to the Lord.
3:41
We lift up our heart and hands Toward God in heaven;
3:42
We have transgressed and rebelled, You have not pardoned.
3:43
You have covered Yourself with anger And pursued us; You have slain and have not spared.
3:44
You have covered Yourself with a cloud So that no prayer can pass through.
3:45
You have made us mere offscouring and refuse In the midst of the peoples.
3:46
All our enemies have opened their mouths against us.
3:47
Panic and pitfall have befallen us, Devastation and destruction;
3:48
My eyes run down with streams of water Because of the destruction of the daughter of my people.
3:49
My eyes pour down unceasingly, Without stopping,
3:50
Until the Lord looks down And sees from heaven.
3:51
My eyes bring pain to my soul Because of all the daughters of my city.
3:52
My enemies without cause Hunted me down like a bird;
3:53
They have silenced me in the pit And have placed a stone on me.
3:54
Waters flowed over my head; I said, "I am cut off!"
3:55
I called on Your name, O Lord, Out of the lowest pit.
3:56
You have heard my voice, "Do not hide Your ear from my prayer for relief, From my cry for help."
3:57
You drew near when I called on You; You said, "Do not fear!"
3:58
O Lord, You have pleaded my soul's cause; You have redeemed my life.
3:59
O Lord, You have seen my oppression; Judge my case.
3:60
You have seen all their vengeance, All their schemes against me.
3:61
You have heard their reproach, O Lord, All their schemes against me.
3:62
The lips of my assailants and their whispering Are against me all day long.
3:63
Look on their sitting and their rising; I am their mocking song.
3:64
You will recompense them, O Lord, According to the work of their hands.
3:65
You will give them hardness of heart, Your curse will be on them.
3:66
You will pursue them in anger and destroy them From under the heavens of the Lord!