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Lamentations 3 - Amplified Bible, 2015 bible

Lamentations 3

¹I am [Jeremiah] the man who has seen affliction Because of the rod of His wrath.

²He has led me and made me walk In darkness and not in light.

³Surely He has turned His hand against me Repeatedly all the day.

⁴He has caused my flesh and my skin to waste away; He has shattered my bones.

⁵He has besieged and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship.

⁶He has made me live in dark places Like those who have long been dead.

⁷He walled me in so that I cannot get out; He has weighted down my chain.

⁸Even when I cry out and shout for help, He shuts out my prayer.

⁹He has blocked my ways with cut stone; He has made my paths crooked.

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

¹¹He has turned aside my ways and torn me in pieces; He has made me desolate.

¹²He has bent His bow And set me as a target for the arrow.

¹³He has caused the arrows of His quiver To enter my inner parts.

¹⁴I have become the [object of] ridicule to all my people, And [the subject of] their mocking song all the day.

¹⁵He has filled me with bitterness; He has made me drunk with wormwood (bitterness).

¹⁶He has broken my teeth with gravel; He has [covered me with ashes and] made me cower in the dust.

¹⁷My soul has been cast far away from peace; I have forgotten happiness.

¹⁸So I say, "My strength has perished And so has my hope and expectation from the LORD."

¹⁹Remember [O LORD] my affliction and my wandering, the wormwood and the gall (bitterness).

²⁰My soul continually remembers them And is bowed down within me.

²¹But this I call to mind, Therefore I have hope.

²²It is because of the Lord's lovingkindnesses that we are not consumed, Because His [tender] compassions never fail.

²³They are new every morning; Great and beyond measure is Your faithfulness.

²⁴"The LORD is my portion and my inheritance," says my soul; "Therefore I have hope in Him and wait expectantly for Him."

²⁵The LORD is good to those who wait [confidently] for Him, To those who seek Him [on the authority of God's word].

²⁶It is good that one waits quietly For the salvation of the LORD.

²⁷It is good for a man that he should bear The yoke [of godly discipline] in his youth.

²⁸Let him sit alone [in hope] and keep quiet, Because God has laid it on him [for his benefit].

²⁹Let him put his mouth in the dust [in recognition of his unworthiness]; There may yet be hope.

³⁰Let him give his cheek to the one who strikes him; Let him be filled with reproach.

³¹For the Lord will not reject forever,

³²For if He causes grief, Then He will have compassion According to His abundant lovingkindness and tender mercy.

³³For He does not afflict willingly and from His heart Or grieve the children of men.

³⁴To trample and crush under His feet All the prisoners of the land,

³⁵To deprive a man of justice In the presence of the Most High,

³⁶To defraud a man in his lawsuit— The Lord does not approve of these things.

³⁷Who is there who speaks and it comes to pass, Unless the Lord has authorized and commanded it?

³⁸Is it not from the mouth of the Most High That both adversity (misfortune) and good (prosperity, happiness) proceed?

³⁹Why should any living mortal, or any man, Complain [of punishment] in view of his sins?

⁴⁰Let us test and examine our ways, And let us return to the LORD.

⁴¹Let us lift up our hearts and our hands [in prayer] Toward God in heaven;

⁴²We have transgressed and rebelled, You have not pardoned.

⁴³You have covered Yourself with anger And pursued us; You have slain [without pity] and have not spared.

⁴⁴You have covered Yourself with a cloud So that no prayer can pass through.

⁴⁵You have made us scum and refuse Among the peoples (Gentile nations).

⁴⁶All our enemies have gaped at us.

⁴⁷Panic and pitfall (traps, danger) have come on us, Devastation and destruction.

⁴⁸My eyes overflow with streams of tears Because of the destruction of the daughter of my people (Jerusalem).

⁴⁹My eyes overflow unceasingly, Without stopping,

⁵⁰Until the LORD looks down And sees from heaven.

⁵¹My eyes [see things that] bring pain to my soul Because of all the daughters of my city.

⁵²Without cause my enemies Hunted me down like a bird;

⁵³They silenced me in the pit And placed a stone over me.

⁵⁴The waters ran down on my head; I said, "I am cut off (destroyed)!"

⁵⁵I called on Your name, O LORD, Out of the lowest pit.

⁵⁶You have heard my voice, "Do not hide Your ear from my prayer for relief, From my cry for help."

⁵⁷You drew near on the day I called to You; You said, "Do not fear."

⁵⁸O Lord, You have pleaded my soul's cause [You have guided my way and protected me]; You have rescued and redeemed my life.

⁵⁹O LORD, You have seen the wrong [done to me]; Judge my case.

⁶⁰You have seen all their vengeance, All their schemes against me.

⁶¹You have heard their reproach, O LORD, And all their schemes against me.

⁶²The lips and whispering of my assailants Are against me all day long.

⁶³Look at their sitting and their rising [their actions and secret counsels]; I am their mocking song [the subject of their ridicule].

⁶⁴You will repay them, O LORD, According to the work of their hands.

⁶⁵You will harden their hearts; Your curse will be upon them.

⁶⁶You will pursue them in anger and destroy them From under the heavens of the LORD.