Lamentations 3 — ULB

3Verse 1I am a man who has seen misery under the rod of Yahweh's fury.
^{Verse 2}He drove me away and caused me to walk in darkness rather than light.
^{Verse 3}Surely he turned his hand against me again and again, the whole day long.
^{Verse 4}He made my flesh and my skin waste away; he broke my bones.
^{Verse 5}He built up siege works against me, and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship.
^{Verse 6}He made me live in dark places, like those who died long ago.
^{Verse 7}He built a wall around me and I cannot escape. He made my chains heavy
^{Verse 8}and though I call out and cry for help, he shut out my prayer.
^{Verse 9}He blocked my path with a wall of hewn stone; he made my paths crooked.
^{Verse 10}He is like a bear waiting to ambush me, a lion in hiding;
^{Verse 11}he turned aside my paths, he has made me desolate.
^{Verse 12}He bent his bow and set me as a target for his arrow.
^{Verse 13}He pierced my kidneys with the arrows of his quiver.
^{Verse 14}I became a laughingstock to all my people, the object of their taunting all day long.
^{Verse 15}He filled me with bitterness and forced me to drink wormwood.
^{Verse 16}He has made my teeth grind with gravel, and he made me cower in the ashes.
^{Verse 17}My soul is deprived of peace; I have forgotten what happiness is.
^{Verse 18}So I say, “My endurance has perished and so has my hope in Yahweh.”
^{Verse 19}Remember my affliction and my wanderings, the wormwood and bitterness.
^{Verse 20}I continually remember it and I am bowed down within me.
^{Verse 21}But I call this to mind and therefore I have hope:
^{Verse 22}The steadfast love of Yahweh never ceases and his compassions never end,
^{Verse 23}they are new every morning; your faithfulness is great.
^{Verse 24}“Yahweh is my inheritance,” I said, therefore I will hope in him.
^{Verse 25}Yahweh is good to those who wait for him, to the one who seeks him.
^{Verse 26}It is good to wait silently for the salvation of Yahweh.
^{Verse 27}It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.
^{Verse 28}Let him sit alone in silence, when it is laid upon him.
^{Verse 29}Let him put his mouth in the dust—there may yet be hope.
^{Verse 30}Let him offer his cheek to the one who strikes him, and let him be filled to the full with reproach.
^{Verse 31}For the Lord will not reject us forever,
^{Verse 32}but though he causes grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love.
^{Verse 33}For he does not afflict from his heart or torment the children of mankind.
^{Verse 34}To crush underfoot all the prisoners of the earth,
^{Verse 35}to deny a man justice in the presence of the Most High,
^{Verse 36}to deny justice to a person—the Lord would not approve such things!
^{Verse 37}Who has spoken and it came to pass, unless the Lord decreed it?
^{Verse 38}Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that both calamities and the good come?
^{Verse 39}How can any person alive complain? How can a person complain about the punishment for his sins?
^{Verse 40}Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to Yahweh.
^{Verse 41}Let us lift up our hearts and our hands to God in the heavens:
^{Verse 42}“We have transgressed and rebelled, and you have not forgiven.
^{Verse 43}You have covered yourself with anger and pursued us, you have killed and you have not spared.
^{Verse 44}You have covered yourself with a cloud so that no prayer can pass through.
^{Verse 45}You have made us like filthy scum and refuse among the nations.
^{Verse 46}All our enemies curse us,
^{Verse 47}panic and pitfall have come upon us, ruin and destruction.
^{Verse 48}My eyes flow with streams of tears because my people are destroyed.
^{Verse 49}My eyes will shed tears without ceasing, without relief,
^{Verse 50}until Yahweh from heaven looks down and sees.
^{Verse 51}My eyes cause me grief because of all the daughters of my city.
^{Verse 52}I have been hunted like a bird by those who were my enemies; they hunted me without a reason.
^{Verse 53}They cast me into a pit and they threw a stone on me,
^{Verse 54}and they caused waters to overflow, covering my head. I said, 'I have been cut off!'
^{Verse 55}I called on your name, Yahweh, from the depths of the pit.
^{Verse 56}You heard my voice when I said, 'Do not close your ear to my cry for help.'
^{Verse 57}You came near on the day I called on you; you said, 'Do not fear.'
^{Verse 58}Lord, you defended my case, you saved my life!
^{Verse 59}Yahweh, you have seen the wrong they have done to me; judge my case.
^{Verse 60}You have seen their insults, all their plots against me—
^{Verse 61}You have heard their scorn, Yahweh, and all their plans regarding me.
^{Verse 62}The lips and the accusations of my enemies come against me all the day.
^{Verse 63}Look at how they sit and then rise up; they mock me with their songs.
^{Verse 64}Pay back to them, Yahweh, according to what they have done.
^{Verse 65}You will let their hearts be shameless! May your condemnation be upon them!
^{Verse 66}You pursue them in anger and destroy them from under the heavens, Yahweh!”