Lamentations 3-5

Lamentations 3

¹I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.

²Me hath he led, and brought into darkness, and not into light.

³Surely against me hath he turned again and again his hand all the day.

⁴My flesh and my skin hath he wasted away, he hath broken my bones.

⁵He hath built against me, and encompassed me with gall and toil.

⁶He hath made me to dwell in dark places as those that have been long dead.

⁷He hath hedged me about that I cannot get out: he hath made my chain heavy.

⁸Even when I cry and shout, he shutteth out my prayer.

⁹He hath inclosed my ways with hewn stone, he hath made my paths crooked.

¹⁰He is unto me as a bear lying in wait, a lion in secret places.

¹¹He hath turned aside my ways, and pulled me in pieces; he hath made me desolate.

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

¹³He hath caused the arrows of his quiver to enter into my reins.

¹⁴I am become a derision to all my people; their song all the day.

¹⁵He hath sated me with bitterness, he hath made me drunk with wormwood.

¹⁶He hath also broken my teeth with gravel stones, he hath covered me with ashes.

¹⁷And thou hast removed my soul far off from peace: I have forgotten prosperity.

¹⁸And I said, My strength is perished, and my hope in Jehovah.

¹⁹Remember thou mine affliction and my wandering, the wormwood and the gall.

²⁰My soul hath them constantly in remembrance, and is humbled in me.

²¹-- This I recall to heart, therefore have I hope.

²²It is of Jehovah's loving-kindness we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not;

²³they are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.

²⁴Jehovah is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him.

²⁵Jehovah is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him.

²⁶It is good that one should both wait, and that in silence, for the salvation of Jehovah.

²⁷It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth:

²⁸He sitteth solitary and keepeth silence, because he hath laid it upon him;

²⁹he putteth his mouth in the dust, if so be there may be hope;

³⁰he giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him; he is filled full with reproach.

³¹For the Lord will not cast off for ever;

³²but if he have caused grief, he will have compassion according to the multitude of his loving-kindnesses:

³³for he doth not willingly afflict or grieve the children of men.

³⁴To crush under foot all the prisoners of the earth,

³⁵to turn aside the right of a man before the face of the Most High,

³⁶to wrong a man in his cause, -- will not the Lord see it?

³⁷Who is he that saith, and there cometh to pass, what the Lord hath not commanded?

³⁸Out of the mouth of the Most High doth not there proceed evil and good?

³⁹Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?

⁴⁰Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to Jehovah.

⁴¹Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens.

⁴²We have transgressed and have rebelled: thou hast not pardoned.

⁴³Thou hast covered thyself with anger, and pursued us; thou hast slain, thou hast not spared.

⁴⁴Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud, that prayer should not pass through.

⁴⁵Thou hast made us the offscouring and refuse in the midst of the peoples.

⁴⁶All our enemies have opened their mouth against us.

⁴⁷Fear and the pit are come upon us, devastation and ruin.

⁴⁸Mine eye runneth down with streams of water for the ruin of the daughter of my people.

⁴⁹Mine eye poureth down, and ceaseth not, without any intermission,

⁵⁰till Jehovah look down and behold from the heavens.

⁵¹Mine eye affecteth my soul, because of all the daughters of my city.

⁵²They that are mine enemies without cause have chased me sore like a bird.

⁵³They have cut off my life in a pit, and cast a stone upon me.

⁵⁴Waters streamed over my head; I said, I am cut off.

⁵⁵I called upon thy name, Jehovah, out of the lowest pit.

⁵⁶Thou hast heard my voice: hide not thine ear at my sighing, at my cry.

⁵⁷Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee; thou saidst, Fear not.

⁵⁸Lord, thou hast pleaded the cause of my soul, thou hast redeemed my life.

⁵⁹Jehovah, thou hast seen my wrong: judge thou my cause.

⁶⁰Thou hast seen all their vengeance, all their imaginations against me.

⁶¹Thou hast heard their reproach, O Jehovah, all their imaginations against me;

⁶²the lips of those that rise up against me and their meditation against me all the day.

⁶³Behold thou their sitting down and their rising up: I am their song.

⁶⁴Render unto them a recompence, O Jehovah, according to the work of their hands;

⁶⁵give them obduracy of heart, thy curse unto them;

⁶⁶pursue them in anger, and destroy them from under the heavens of Jehovah.

Lamentations 4

¹How is the gold become dim! the most pure gold changed! the stones of the sanctuary poured out at the top of all the streets!

²The sons of Zion, so precious, comparable to fine gold, how are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter!

³Even the jackals offer the breast, they give suck to their young; the daughter of my people is become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness.

⁴The tongue of the sucking child cleaveth to the roof of his mouth for thirst; the young children ask bread, no man breaketh it unto them.

⁵They that fed delicately are desolate in the streets; they that were brought up in scarlet embrace dung-hills.

⁶And the punishment of the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the reward of the sin of Sodom, which was overthrown as in a moment, and no hands were violently laid upon her.

⁷Her Nazarites were purer than snow, whiter than milk; they were more ruddy in body than rubies, their figure was as sapphire.

⁸Their visage is darker than blackness, they are not known in the streets; their skin cleaveth to their bones, it is withered, it is become like a stick.

⁹The slain with the sword are happier than the slain with hunger; for these pine away, stricken through for want of the fruits of the field.

¹⁰The hands of pitiful women have boiled their own children: they were their meat in the ruin of the daughter of my people.

¹¹Jehovah hath accomplished his fury; he hath poured out his fierce anger, and hath kindled a fire in Zion, which hath consumed the foundations thereof.

¹²The kings of the earth, and all the inhabitants of the world, would not have believed that the adversary and the enemy should enter into the gates of Jerusalem.

¹³It is for the sins of her prophets, and the iniquities of her priests, who have shed the blood of the righteous in the midst of her.

¹⁴They wandered about blind in the streets; they were polluted with blood, so that men could not touch their garments.

¹⁵They cried unto them, Depart! Unclean! Depart! depart, touch not! When they fled away, and wandered about, it was said among the nations, They shall no more sojourn there.

¹⁶The face of Jehovah hath divided them; he will no more regard them. They respected not the persons of the priests, they favoured not the aged.

¹⁷Our eyes still failed for our vain help; in our watching, we have watched for a nation that did not save.

¹⁸They hunted our steps, that we could not go in our streets: our end is near, our days are fulfilled; for our end is come.

¹⁹Our pursuers were swifter than the eagles of the heavens; they chased us hotly upon the mountains, they laid wait for us in the wilderness.

²⁰The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of Jehovah, was taken in their pits; of whom we said, Under his shadow we shall live among the nations.

²¹Rejoice and be glad, daughter of Edom, that dwellest in the land of Uz: the cup shall pass also unto thee; thou shalt be drunken, and make thyself naked.

²²The punishment of thine iniquity is accomplished, O daughter of Zion; he will no more carry thee away into captivity. He will visit thine iniquity, O daughter of Edom; he will discover thy sins.

Lamentations 5

¹Remember, O Jehovah, what is come upon us; consider, and see our reproach.

²Our inheritance is turned to strangers, our houses to aliens.

³We are orphans and fatherless, our mothers are as widows.

⁴Our water have we to drink for money, our wood cometh unto us for a price.

⁵Our pursuers are on our necks: we are weary, we have no rest.

⁶We have given the hand to Egypt, and to Asshur, to be satisfied with bread.

⁷Our fathers have sinned, and they are not; and we bear their iniquities.

⁸Bondmen rule over us: there is no deliverer out of their hand.

⁹We have to get our bread at the risk of our lives, because of the sword of the wilderness.

¹⁰Our skin gloweth like an oven, because of the burning heat of the famine.

¹¹They have ravished the women in Zion, the maids in the cities of Judah.

¹²Princes were hanged up by their hand; the faces of elders were not honoured.

¹³The young men have borne the mill, and the youths have stumbled under the wood.

¹⁴The elders have ceased from the gate, the young men from their music.

¹⁵The joy of our heart hath ceased; our dance is turned into mourning.

¹⁶The crown is fallen from our head: woe unto us, for we have sinned!

¹⁷For this our heart is faint; for these things our eyes have grown dim,

¹⁸Because of the mountain of Zion, which is desolate: foxes walk over it.

¹⁹Thou, Jehovah, dwellest for ever; thy throne is from generation to generation.

²⁰Wherefore dost thou forget us for ever, dost thou forsake us so long time?

²¹Turn thou us unto thee, Jehovah, and we shall be turned; renew our days as of old.

²²Or is it that thou hast utterly rejected us? Wouldest thou be exceeding wroth against us?