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