Lamentations

The Lamentations of Jeremiah, chapter 3, New English Translation and King James Version

Chapter 3 New English Translation

The Prophet Speaks:

   1 I am the man who has experienced affliction from the rod of his wrath.
   2 He drove me into captivity and made me walk in darkness and not light.
   3 He repeatedly attacks me, he turns his hand against me all day long.

   4 He has made my mortal skin waste away; he has broken my bones.
   5 He has besieged and surrounded me with bitter hardship.
   6 He has made me reside in deepest darkness like those who died long ago.

   7 He has walled me in so that I cannot get out; he has weighted me down with heavy prison chains.
   8 Also, when I cry out desperately for help, he has shut out my prayer.
   9 He has blocked every road I take with a wall of hewn stones; he has made every path impassable.

   10 To me he is like a bear lying in ambush, like a hidden lion stalking its prey.
   11 He has obstructed my paths and torn me to pieces; he has made me desolate.
   12 He drew his bow and made me the target for his arrow.

   13 He shot his arrows into my heart.
   14 I have become the laughingstock of all people, their mocking song all day long.
   15 He has given me my fill of bitter herbs and made me drunk with bitterness.

   16 He ground my teeth in gravel; he trampled me in the dust.
   17 I am deprived of peace; I have forgotten what happiness is.
   18 So I said, "My endurance has expired; I have lost all hope of deliverance from the LORD."

   19 Remember my impoverished and homeless condition, which is a bitter poison.
   20 I continually think about this, and I am depressed.
   21 But this I call to mind; therefore I have hope:

   22 The LORD's loyal kindness never ceases; his compassions never end.
   23 They are fresh every morning; your faithfulness is abundant!
   24 "My portion is the LORD, " I have said to myself, so I will put my hope in him.

   25 The LORD is good to those who trust in him, to the one who seeks him.
   26 It is good to wait patiently for deliverance from the LORD.
   27 It is good for a man to bear the yoke while he is young.

   28 Let a person sit alone in silence, when the LORD is disciplining him.
   29 Let him bury his face in the dust; perhaps there is hope.
   30 Let him offer his cheek to the one who hits him; let him have his fill of insults.

   31 For the LORD will not reject us forever.
   32 Though he causes us grief, he then has compassion on us according to the abundance of his loyal kindness.
   33 For he is not predisposed to afflict or to grieve people.

   34 To crush underfoot all the earth's prisoners,
   35 to deprive a person of his rights in the presence of the Most High,
   36 to defraud a person in a lawsuit - the LORD does not approve of such things!

   37 Whose command was ever fulfilled unless the LORD decreed it?
   38 Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that everything comes - both calamity and blessing?
   39 Why should any living person complain when punished for his sins?

   40 Let us carefully examine our ways, and let us return to the LORD.
   41 Let us lift up our hearts and our hands to God in heaven:
   42 "We have blatantly rebelled; you have not forgiven."

   43 You shrouded yourself with anger and then pursued us; you killed without mercy.
   44 You shrouded yourself with a cloud so that no prayer can get through.
   45 You make us like filthy scum in the estimation of the nations.

   46 All our enemies have gloated over us;
   47 Panic and pitfall have come upon us, devastation and destruction.
   48 Streams of tears flow from my eyes because my people are destroyed.

   49 Tears flow from my eyes and will not stop; there will be no break
   50 until the LORD looks down from heaven and sees what has happened.
   51 What my eyes see grieves me - all the suffering of the daughters in my city.

   52 For no good reason my enemies hunted me down like a bird.
   53 They shut me up in a pit and threw stones at me.
   54 The waters closed over my head; I thought I was about to die.

   55 I have called on your name, O LORD, from the deepest pit.
   56 You heard my plea: "Do not close your ears to my cry for relief!"
   57 You came near on the day I called to you; you said, "Do not fear!"

   58 O LORD, you championed my cause, you redeemed my life.
   59 You have seen the wrong done to me, O LORD; pronounce judgment on my behalf!
   60 You have seen all their vengeance, all their plots against me.

   61 You have heard their taunts, O LORD, all their plots against me.
   62 My assailants revile and conspire against me all day long.
   63 Watch them from morning to evening; I am the object of their mocking songs.

   64 Pay them back what they deserve, O LORD, according to what they have done.
   65 Give them a distraught heart; may your curse be on them!
   66 Pursue them in anger and eradicate them from under the LORD's heaven.

King James Version

   1 I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.
   2 He hath led me, and brought me into darkness, but not into light.
   3 Surely against me is he turned; he turneth his hand against me all the day.
   4 My flesh and my skin hath he made old; he hath broken my bones.
   5 He hath builded against me, and compassed me with gall and travail.
   6 He hath set me in dark places, as they that be dead of old.
   7 He hath hedged me about, that I cannot get out: he hath made my chain heavy.
   8 Also when I cry and shout, he shutteth out my prayer.
   9 He hath inclosed my ways with hewn stone, he hath made my paths crooked.
   10 He was unto me as a bear lying in wait, and as a lion in secret places.
   11 He hath turned aside my ways, and pulled me in pieces: he hath made me desolate.
   12 He hath bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow.
   13 He hath caused the arrows of his quiver to enter into my reins.
   14 I was a derision to all my people; and their song all the day.
   15 He hath filled me with bitterness, he hath made me drunken with wormwood.
   16 He hath also broken my teeth with gravel stones, he hath covered me with ashes.
   17 And thou hast removed my soul far off from peace: I forgat prosperity.
   18 And I said, My strength and my hope is perished from the LORD:
   19 Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall.
   20 My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me.
   21 This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope.
   22 ¶ It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.
   23 They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.
   24 The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him.
   25 The LORD is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him.
   26 It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD.
   27 It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.
   28 He sitteth alone and keepeth silence, because he hath borne it upon him.
   29 He putteth his mouth in the dust; if so be there may be hope.
   30 He giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him: he is filled full with reproach.
   31 For the Lord will not cast off for ever:
   32 But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies.
   33 For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men.
   34 To crush under his feet 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 approveth not.
   37 ¶ Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth it not?
   38 Out of the mouth of the most High proceedeth not evil and good?
   39 Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?
   40 Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the LORD.
   41 Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens.
   42 We have transgressed and have rebelled: thou hast not pardoned.
   43 Thou hast covered with anger, and persecuted us: thou hast slain, thou hast not pitied.
   44 Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud, that our prayer should not pass through.
   45 Thou hast made us as the offscouring and refuse in the midst of the people.
   46 All our enemies have opened their mouths against us.
   47 Fear and a snare is come upon us, desolation and destruction.
   48 Mine eye runneth down with rivers of water for the destruction of the daughter of my people.
   49 Mine eye trickleth down, and ceaseth not, without any intermission,
   50 Till the LORD look down, and behold from heaven.
   51 Mine eye affecteth mine heart because of all the daughters of my city.
   52 Mine enemies chased me sore, like a bird, without cause.
   53 They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and cast a stone upon me.
   54 Waters flowed over mine head; then I said, I am cut off.
   55 ¶ I called upon thy name, O LORD, out of the low dungeon.
   56 Thou hast heard my voice: hide not thine ear at my breathing, at my cry.
   57 Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee: thou saidst, Fear not.
   58 O Lord, thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul; thou hast redeemed my life.
   59 O LORD, thou hast seen my wrong: judge thou my cause.
   60 Thou hast seen all their vengeance and all their imaginations against me.
   61 Thou hast heard their reproach, O LORD, and all their imaginations against me;
   62 The lips of those that rose up against me, and their device against me all the day.
   63 Behold their sitting down, and their rising up; I am their musick.
   64 ¶ Render unto them a recompence, O LORD, according to the work of their hands.
   65 Give them sorrow of heart, thy curse unto them.
   66 Persecute and destroy them in anger from under the heavens of the LORD.