Lamentations 3

¹The man that see my poverty in the rod of his indignation.

²He hath led me, and brought me into darkness and not into light.

³Only against me he hath turned and hath converted his hand all the day.

⁴He hath made my skin old and my flesh, he hath broken my bones.

⁵He hath built round about me, and he hath compassed me with gall and labour.

⁶In dark places he hath placed me as the everlasting dead.

⁷He hath built round about against me, that I go not forth: he hath aggravated my fetters.

⁸Yea and when I shall cry, and ask, he hath excluded my prayer.

⁹He hath shut up my ways with square stones, he hath subverted my paths.

¹⁰He is become unto me a bear lying in wait: a lion in secret places.

¹¹He hath subverted my paths, and hath broken me, he hath made me desolate.

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

¹³He hath shot in my reins the daughters of his quiver.

¹⁴I am made a derision to all my people, their song all the day.

¹⁵He hath replenished me with bitterness, he hath inebriated me with wormwood.

¹⁶And he hath broken my teeth by number, he hath fed me with ashes.

¹⁷And my soul is repelled from peace, I have forgotten good things.

¹⁸And I said: Mine end is perished, and mine hope from our Lord.

¹⁹Remember my poverty, and transgression, the wormwood, and the gall.

²⁰Remembering I will be mindful, and my soul shall languish in me.

²¹Recording this thing in my heart, therefore will I hope.

²²The mercies of our Lord that we are not consumed: because his commiserations have not failed.

²³New in the morning, great is thy fidelity.

²⁴Our Lord is my portion, said my soul: therefore will I expect him.

²⁵Our Lord is good to them that hope in him, to the soul that seeketh him.

²⁶It is good to wait with silence for the salvation of God.

²⁷It is good for a man, when he beareth the yoke from his youth.

²⁸He shall sit solitary, and hold his peace: because he hath lifted himself above himself.

²⁹He shall put his mouth in the dust, if perhaps there be hope.

³⁰He shall give the cheek to him that striketh him, he shall be filled with reproaches.

³¹Because our Lord will not reject for ever.

³²Because if he hath rejected, he will also have mercy, according to the multitude of his mercies.

³³For he hath not humbled from his heart, and cast off the children of men.

³⁴To stamp under his feet all the prisoners of the earth.

³⁵To avert the judgement of a man before the face of the Highest

³⁶To pervert a man in his judgement, our Lord hath not known.

³⁷Who is this, that hath commanded it to be done, our Lord not commanding it?

³⁸Out of the mouth of the Highest, there shall not proceed neither evil things, nor good.

³⁹What hath the living man murmured, man for his sins?

⁴⁰Let us search our ways, & seek, and return to our Lord.

⁴¹Let us lift up our hearts with our hands to our Lord into the heavens.

⁴²We have done wickedly, and provoked to wrath: therefore thou art inexorable.

⁴³Thou hast covered in fury, and hast strucken us: thou hast killed, and not spared.

⁴⁴Thou hast set a cloud before thee, that prayer may not pass.

⁴⁵Thou hast made me to be rooted out, and abject in the midst of the peoples.

⁴⁶All the enemies have opened their mouth upon us.

⁴⁷Prophecy is made unto us, fear, and snare, and destruction.

⁴⁸Mine eye hath shed streams of waters, in the destruction of the daughter of my people.

⁴⁹Mine eye is afflicted, neither hath it been quiet, because there was no rest:

⁵⁰Till our Lord regarded and looked from the heavens.

⁵¹Mine eye hath spoiled my soul for all the daughters of my city.

⁵²Mine enemies in hunting have caught me as a bird, without cause.

⁵³My life is fallen into the lake, and they have laid a stone upon me.

⁵⁴The waters have flowed over my head: I said: I am undone.

⁵⁵I have invocated thy name o Lord from the lowest lake.

⁵⁶Thou hast heard my voice: turn not away thine ear from my sobbings, and cries.

⁵⁷Thou didst approach in the day, when I invocated thee: thou hast said: Fear not.

⁵⁸Thou hast judged o Lord the cause of my soul, redeemer of my life.

⁵⁹Thou hast seen o Lord their iniquity against me: judge my judgement.

⁶⁰Thou hast seen all their fury, all their cogitations against me.

⁶¹Thou hast heard their reproach o Lord, all their cogitations against me.

⁶²The lips of them that rise up against me; and their cogitations against me all the day.

⁶³See their sitting down, and their rising up, I am their psalm.

⁶⁴Thou shalt render them a recompense o Lord, according to the works of their hands.

⁶⁵Thou shalt give them a shield of heart thy labour.

⁶⁶Thou shalt persecute in fury, and shalt destroy them from under the heavens o Lord.