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Listen to this chapter • 6:38

[1] I am the man that has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.

[2] He has led me and caused me to walk in darkness, and not in light.

[3] Surely against me he turns his hand again and again all the day.

[4] My flesh and my skin has he made old; he has broken my bones.

[5] He has built against me, and surrounded me with gall and travail.

[6] He has made me to dwell in dark places, as those that have been long dead.

[7] He has walled me about, that I can’t go out; he has made my chain heavy.

[8] Yes, when I cry, and call for help, he shuts out my prayer.

[9] He has walled up my ways with cut stone; he has made my paths crooked.

[10] He is to me as a bear lying in wait, as a lion in secret places.

[11] He has turned aside my ways, and pulled me in pieces; he has made me desolate.

[12] He has bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow.

[13] He has caused the shafts of his quiver to enter into my kidneys.

[14] I am become a derision to all my people, and their song all the day.

[15] He has filled me with bitterness, he has sated me with wormwood.

[16] He has also broken my teeth with gravel stones; he has covered me with ashes.

[17] You have removed my soul far off from peace; I forgot prosperity.

[18] I said, My strength is perished, and my expectation from Yahweh.

[19] Remember my affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall.

[20] My soul still remembers them, and is bowed down within me.

[21] This I recall to my mind; therefore have I hope.

[22] It is because of Yahweh’s loving kindnesses that we are not consumed, because his compassion doesn’t fail.

[23] They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

[24] Yahweh is my portion, says my soul; therefore will I hope in him.

[25] Yahweh is good to those who wait for him, to the soul that seeks him.

[26] It is good that a man should hope and quietly wait for the salvation of Yahweh.

[27] It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.

[28] Let him sit alone and keep silence, because he has laid it on him.

[29] Let him put his mouth in the dust, if so be there may be hope.

[30] Let him give his cheek to him who strikes him; let him be filled full with reproach.

[31] For the Lord will not cast off forever.

[32] For though he cause grief, yet he will have compassion according to the multitude of his loving kindnesses.

[33] For he does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men.

[34] To crush under foot all the prisoners of the earth,

[35] To turn aside the right of a man before the face of the Most High,

[36] To subvert a man in his cause, the Lord doesn’t approve.

[37] Who is he who says, and it comes to pass, when the Lord doesn’t command it?

[38] Doesn’t evil and good come out of the mouth of the Most High?

[39] Why does a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?

[40] Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to Yahweh.

[41] Let us lift up our heart with our hands to God in the heavens.

[42] We have transgressed and have rebelled; you have not pardoned.

[43] You have covered with anger and pursued us; you have killed, you have not pitied.

[44] You have covered yourself with a cloud, so that no prayer can pass through.

[45] You have made us an off-scouring and refuse in the middle of the peoples.

[46] All our enemies have opened their mouth wide against us.

[47] Fear and the pit have come on us, devastation and destruction.

[48] My eye runs down with streams of water, for the destruction of the daughter of my people.

[49] My eye pours down, and doesn’t cease, without any intermission,

[50] Until Yahweh look down, and see from heaven.

[51] My eye affects my soul, because of all the daughters of my city.

[52] They have chased me relentlessly like a bird, those who are my enemies without cause.

[53] They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and have cast a stone on me.

[54] Waters flowed over my head; I said, I am cut off.

[55] I called on your name, Yahweh, out of the lowest dungeon.

[56] You heard my voice; don’t hide your ear at my breathing, at my cry.

[57] You drew near in the day that I called on you; you said, Don’t be afraid.

[58] Lord, you have pleaded the causes of my soul; you have redeemed my life.

[59] Yahweh, you have seen my wrong. Judge my cause.

[60] You have seen all their vengeance and all their devices against me.

[61] You have heard their reproach, Yahweh, and all their devices against me,

[62] The lips of those that rose up against me, and their device against me all the day.

[63] You see their sitting down, and their rising up; I am their song.

[64] You will render to them a recompense, Yahweh, according to the work of their hands.

[65] You will give them hardness of heart, your curse to them.

[66] You will pursue them in anger, and destroy them from under the heavens of Yahweh.

Lamentations — Chapters