Lamentations, 3

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

1. I am a man who has known calamity from the rod of his wrath;

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

2. he has driven and brought me into darkness, not into the light.

3. Surely against me is he turned; he turneth his hand [against me] all the day.

3. He turns his hand against me alone, all the day long, again and again.

4. My flesh and my skin hath he made old; he hath broken my bones.

4. He has worn away my flesh and skin; he has broken all my bones.

5. He hath builded against me, and compassed [me] with gall and travail.

5. He assails me and surrounds me with tribulation and bitterness.

6. He hath set me in dark places, as [they that be] dead of old.

6. He leaves me to dwell in darkness, like those who have long been dead.

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

7. He has walled me in without escape; he has weighed me down with chains.

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

8. I could not even cry for help, for he has stopped my prayer.

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

9. He bars my way with stones and left me helplessly alone.

10. He [was] unto me [as] a bear lying in wait, [and as] a lion in secret places.

10. Like a bear lying in ambush, like a lion waiting for its prey,

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

11. he lunged at me, tore me to pieces, and left me alone and helpless.

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

12. Then he drew his bow and aimed his arrow at me.

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

13. He pierced my sides with arrows from his quiver.

14. I was a derision to all my people; [and] their song all the day.

14. I have become a laughingstock, a topic of songs for all the peoples.

15. He hath filled me with bitterness, he hath made me drunken with wormwood.

15. He has sated me with bitter food; he has made me drunk with wormwood.

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

16. He has broken my teeth with gravel and thrown me down in the ashes.

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

17. He has deprived my soul of peace, till I have forgotten happiness.

18. And I said, My strength and my hope is perished from the LORD:

18. Now I say, "Gone are my hopes and all my confidence in the Lord."

19. Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall.

19. Recalling my affliction and homelessness is wormwood and gall.

20. My soul hath [them] still in remembrance, and is humbled in me.

20. Thinking it over and over makes my soul downcast.

21. This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope.

21. But this, when I ponder, is what gives me hope:

22. [It is of] the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.

22. Yahweh's love abides unceasingly. His compassion is never consumed;

23. [They are] new every morning: great [is] thy faithfulness.

23. every morning it is renewed. And his love remains ever faithful.

24. The LORD [is] my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him.

24. "My portion is Yahweh," says my soul. "On him shall I rely."

25. The LORD [is] good unto them that wait for him, to the soul [that] seeketh him.

25. Yahweh is good to those who hope in him, to souls who search for him.

26. [It is] good that [a man] should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD.

26. It is rewarding to wait in silence for the Lord's salvation.

27. [It is] good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.

27. It is good for man to bear the yoke from his youth.

28. He sitteth alone and keepeth silence, because he hath borne [it] upon him.

28. Let him sit alone in silence when Yahweh fastens the yoke on him.

29. He putteth his mouth in the dust; if so be there may be hope.

29. Let him put his lips to the dust there may still be hope.

30. He giveth [his] cheek to him that smiteth him: he is filled full with reproach.

30. Let him offer his cheek to be struck; let him be overwhelmed with insult.

31. For the Lord will not cast off for ever:

31. For it is not forever that the Lord rejects man.

32. But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies.

32. In the abundance of his love he punishes, but has compassion.

33. For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men.

33. For he does not willingly abase or afflict the human race.

34. To crush under his feet all the prisoners of the earth,

34. To trample underfoot the prisoners of the land,

35. To turn aside the right of a man before the face of the most High,

35. to deny a man his rights in the presence of the Most High,

36. To subvert a man in his cause, the Lord approveth not.

36. to deprive people of justice - the Lord does not approve of this.

37. Who [is] he [that] saith, and it cometh to pass, [when] the Lord commandeth [it] not?

37. Who can command and execute what the Lord has not willed?

38. Out of the mouth of the most High proceedeth not evil and good?

38. From the mouth of the Most High come all things, good or bad.

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

39. Why should then mortals complain when punished for their sin?

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

40. Let us search and examine our ways and return to the Lord.

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

41. Let us lift up our hearts and hands to God in heaven, and say:

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

42. "We have sinned and rebelled, and you have not forgiven us.

43. Thou hast covered with anger, and persecuted us: thou hast slain, thou hast not pitied.

43. Clothed in anger you have pursued us without mercy.

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

44. You have wrapped yourself in clouds so that no prayer can reach you.

45. Thou hast made us [as] the offscouring and refuse in the midst of the people.

45. You have reduced us to dust and refuse among the nations.

46. All our enemies have opened their mouths against us.

46. Our foes have opened wide their mouths against us.

47. Fear and a snare is come upon us, desolation and destruction.

47. Terror is our lot: pitfall, ruin and desolation.

48. Mine eye runneth down with rivers of water for the destruction of the daughter of my people.

48. Great is my grief over the downfall of the daughter of my people.

49. Mine eye trickleth down, and ceaseth not, without any intermission,

49. No respite, no relief, as my tears flow ceaselessly,

50. Till the LORD look down, and behold from heaven.

50. till the Lord looks down from heaven and sees.

51. Mine eye affecteth mine heart because of all the daughters of my city.

51. My soul will grieve in torment for the women of my city.

52. Mine enemies chased me sore, like a bird, without cause.

52. Like a bird I have been hunted by my foes without cause.

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

53. They flung me alive into a pit and cast stones at me.

54. Waters flowed over mine head; [then] I said, I am cut off.

54. As the waters closed over my head, I thought I would never again live.

55. I called upon thy name, O LORD, out of the low dungeon.

55. Out of the depths I called on your name, O Yahweh.

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

56. You heard; you have not been deaf to my cry for relief.

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

57. When I called, you even came near and told me not to fear.

58. O Lord, thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul; thou hast redeemed my life.

58. O Lord, you took up my case and redeemed my life.

59. O LORD, thou hast seen my wrong: judge thou my cause.

59. You have seen the wrong they did me, uphold my cause!

60. Thou hast seen all their vengeance [and] all their imaginations against me.

60. You have seen how resentfully they plotted to destroy my life.

61. Thou hast heard their reproach, O LORD, [and] all their imaginations against me;

61. O Yahweh, you have heard the insults hurled at me, their insidious plots;

62. The lips of those that rose up against me, and their device against me all the day.

62. You have been aware of their thoughts, their muttering against me all day long.

63. Behold their sitting down, and their rising up; I [am] their musick.

63. Look at them - sitting or standing - mocking me in their song!

64. Render unto them a recompence, O LORD, according to the work of their hands.

64. Repay them as they deserve, according to their deeds, O Yahweh.

65. Give them sorrow of heart, thy curse unto them.

65. Harden their hearts; hold them under your curse.

66. Persecute and destroy them in anger from under the heavens of the LORD.

66. Pursue and destroy them in fury from under the heavens, O Yahweh.