Lamentations, 3

1. I am the man familiar with misery under the rod of his fury.

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

2. He has led and guided me into darkness, not light.

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

3. Against none but me does he turn his hand, again and again, all day.

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

4. He has wasted my flesh and skin away, has broken my bones.

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

5. He has besieged me and made hardship a circlet round my head.

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

6. He has forced me to dwell where all is dark, like those long-dead in their everlasting home.

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

7. He has walled me in so that I cannot escape; he has weighed me down with chains;

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

8. even when I shout for help, he shuts out my prayer.

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

9. He has closed my way with blocks of stone, he has obstructed my paths.

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

10. For me he is a lurking bear, a lion in hiding.

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

11. Heading me off, he has torn me apart, leaving me shattered.

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

12. He has bent his bow and used me as a target for his arrows.

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

13. He has shot deep into me with shafts from his quiver.

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

14. I have become a joke to all my own people, their refrain all day long.

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

15. He has given me my fill of bitterness, he has made me drunk with wormwood.

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

16. He has broken my teeth with gravel, he has fed me on ashes.

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

17. I have been deprived of peace, I have forgotten what happiness is

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

18. and thought, 'My lasting hope in Yahweh is lost.'

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

19. Bring to mind my misery and anguish; it is wormwood and gall!

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

20. My heart dwells on this continually and sinks within me.

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

21. This is what I shall keep in mind and so regain some hope:

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

22. Surely Yahweh's mercies are not over, his deeds of faithful love not exhausted;

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

23. every morning they are renewed; great is his faithfulness!

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

24. 'Yahweh is all I have,' I say to myself, 'and so I shall put my hope in him.'

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

25. Yahweh is good to those who trust him, to all who search for him.

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

26. It is good to wait in silence for Yahweh to save.

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

27. It is good for someone to bear the yoke from a young age,

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

28. to sit in solitude and silence when it weighs heavy,

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

29. to lay one's head in the dust -- maybe there is hope-

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

30. to offer one's cheek to the striker, to have one's fill of disgrace!

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

31. For the Lord will not reject anyone for ever.

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

32. If he brings grief, he will have pity out of the fullness of his faithful love,

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

33. for it is not for his own pleasure that he torments and grieves the human race.

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

34. When all the prisoners in a country are crushed underfoot,

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

35. when human rights are overridden in defiance of the Most High,

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

36. when someone is cheated of justice, does not the Lord see it?

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

37. Who has only to speak and it is so done? Who commands, if not the Lord?

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

38. From where, if not from the mouth of the Most High, do evil and good come?

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

39. Why then should anyone complain? Better to be bold against one's sins.

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

40. Let us examine our path, let us ponder it and return to Yahweh.

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

41. Let us raise our hearts and hands to God in heaven.

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

42. We are the ones who have sinned, who have rebelled, and you have not forgiven.

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

43. You have enveloped us in anger, pursuing us, slaughtering without pity.

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

44. You have wrapped yourself in a cloud too thick for prayer to pierce.

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

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

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

46. Our enemies open their mouths in chorus against us.

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

47. Terror and pitfall have been our lot, ravage and ruin.

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

48. My eyes dissolve in torrents of tears at the ruin of my beloved people.

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

49. My eyes will weep ceaselessly, without relief,

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

50. until Yahweh looks down and sees from heaven.

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

51. My eyes have grown sore over all the daughters of my city.

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

52. Unprovoked, my enemies hunted me down like a bird.

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

53. They shut me finally in a pit, they closed me in with a stone.

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

54. The waters rose over my head; I thought, 'I am lost!'

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

55. Yahweh, I called on your name from the deep pit.

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

56. You heard my voice, do not close your ear to my prayer, to my cry.

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

57. You are near when I call to you. You said, 'Do not be afraid!'

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

58. Lord, you defended my cause, you have redeemed my life.

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

59. Yahweh, you have seen the wrong done to me, grant me redress.

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

60. You have seen their vindictiveness, all their plots against me.

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

61. You have heard their insults, Yahweh, all their plots against me,

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

62. the whispering and murmuring of my enemies against me all day long.

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

63. Look, whether they sit or stand, I am their refrain.

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

64. Yahweh, repay them as their deeds deserve.

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

65. Lay hardness of heart as your curse on them.

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

66. Angrily pursue them, root them out from under your heavens!

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