Eikhah (Lam) 3
3
1I am the man who has seen affliction
under the rod of his fury,
2He has led me and made me walk
in darkness and not in light.
3Against me alone he turns his hand
again and again, all day.
4He has worn away my skin and flesh,
he has broken my bones.
5He has besieged and surrounded me
with bitterness and hardship.
6He has made me live in darkness,
like those who are long dead.
7He has walled me in, so I can’t escape;
he has weighed me down with chains.
8Even when I cry out, pleading for help,
he shuts out my prayer.
9He has barred my way with blocks of stone,
he has made my paths crooked.
10He lies in wait for me like a bear,
like a lion in hiding.
11He has forced me aside and torn me to pieces,
leaving me stunned.
12He has bent his bow and used me
as a target for his arrows.
13He has pierced my vital organs
with shafts from his quiver.
14I’m a laughingstock to all my people,
the butt of their taunts all day long.
15He has filled me with bitterness,
sated me with wormwood.
16He has broken my teeth with gravel
and pressed me down into ashes.
17I have been so deprived of peace,
I have so forgotten what happiness is,
18that I think, “My strength is gone,
and so is my hope in Adonai.”
19Remember my utter misery,
the wormwood and the gall.
20They are always on my mind;
this is why I am so depressed.
21But in my mind I keep returning to something,
something that gives me hope —
22that the grace of Adonai is not exhausted,
that his compassion has not ended.
23[On the contrary,] they are new every morning!
How great your faithfulness!
24“Adonai is all I have,” I say;
“therefore I will put my hope in him.
25Adonai is good to those waiting for him,
to those who are seeking him out.
26It is good to wait patiently
for the saving help of Adonai.
27It is good for a man
to bear the yoke from his youth.
28Let him sit alone in silence
when he has laid it on him.
29Let him submit absolutely;
there may yet be hope.
30Let him offer his cheek to the one who strikes it,
and receive his fill of insults.
31For rejection by Adonai
does not last forever.
32He may cause grief, but he will take pity,
in keeping with the greatness of his grace.
33For he does not arbitrarily torment
or punish human beings.
34When anyone tramples underfoot
any of the prisoners of the land;
35when anyone deprives a person of justice,
in defiance of the Most High;
36when someone is cheated of justice in court —
does Adonai not take note of such things?
37Who can say something and have it happen
without Adonai’s commanding it?
38Don’t both bad things and good proceed
from the mouth of the Most High?
39Why should anyone alive complain,
even a strong man, about the punishment for his sins?
40Let us examine and test our ways
and return to Adonai.
41Let us lift up our hearts and our hands
to God in heaven and say,
42“We, for our part, have transgressed and rebelled;
you, for your part, have not forgiven.
43“You have covered us with anger,
pursued and slaughtered us without pity.
44You have covered yourself with a cloud so thick
that no prayer can pass through.
45You have reduced us
to rubbish and filth among the peoples.
46“All our adversaries
open their mouths to jeer at us.
47Panic and pitfall have come upon us,
desolation and destruction.
48My eyes stream with rivers of water
over the destruction of the daughter of my people.”
49My eyes weep ceaselessly;
there is no respite,
50until Adonai looks down
and sees from heaven.
51My eyes make me so upset
at the fate of the women in my city.
52Those who are my enemies for no reason
hunted me down like a bird.
53They forced me alive into a pit
and threw stones on me.
54Water rose above my head;
I thought, “I am finished!”
55I called on your name, Adonai,
from the bottom of the pit.
56You heard my voice; don’t close your ear
at my sighs, at my cries.
57You came near when I called to you;
you said, “Don’t be afraid.”
58Adonai, you defended my cause;
you redeemed my life.
59Adonai, you see how I have been wronged;
give judgment in my favor!
60You have seen all their vindictiveness
and all their plots against me.
61You have heard their taunts, Adonai,
and all their plots against me,
62the whispered murmurings of my foes
against me all day long.
63See how, whether they sit or stand,
I am the butt of their taunts.
64Repay them, Adonai,
as their deeds deserve.
65Give them hardheartedness
as your curse on them.
66Pursue them in anger!
Destroy them from under your heavens!
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Eikhah (Lam) 3: CJB
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