Old Testament · BSB
Lamentations 3
Berean Standard Bible · 66 verses
- I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of God’s wrath.
- He has driven me away and made me walk in darkness instead of light.
- Indeed, He keeps turning His hand against me all day long.
- He has worn away my flesh and skin; He has shattered my bones.
- He has besieged me and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship.
- He has made me dwell in darkness like those dead for ages.
- He has walled me in so I cannot escape; He has weighed me down with chains.
- Even when I cry out and plead for help, He shuts out my prayer.
- He has barred my ways with cut stones; He has made my paths crooked.
- He is a bear lying in wait, a lion hiding in ambush.
- He forced me off my path and tore me to pieces; He left me without help.
- He bent His bow and set me as the target for His arrow.
- He pierced my kidneys with His arrows.
- I am a laughingstock to all my people; they mock me in song all day long.
- He has filled me with bitterness; He has intoxicated me with wormwood.
- He has ground my teeth with gravel and trampled me in the dust.
- My soul has been deprived of peace; I have forgotten what prosperity is.
- So I say, “My strength has perished, along with my hope from the LORD.”
- Remember my affliction and wandering, the wormwood and the gall.
- Surely my soul remembers and is humbled within me.
- Yet I call this to mind, and therefore I have hope:
- Because of the loving devotion of the LORD we are not consumed, for His mercies never fail.
- They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness!
- “The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in Him.”
- The LORD is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him.
- It is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.
- It is good for a man to bear the yoke while he is still young.
- Let him sit alone in silence, for God has disciplined him.
- Let him bury his face in the dust—perhaps there is still hope.
- Let him offer his cheek to the one who would strike him; let him be filled with reproach.
- For the Lord will not cast us off forever.
- Even if He causes grief, He will show compassion according to His abundant loving devotion.
- For He does not willingly afflict or grieve the sons of men.
- To crush underfoot all the prisoners of the land,
- to deny a man justice before the Most High,
- to subvert a man in his lawsuit—of these the Lord does not approve.
- Who has spoken and it came to pass, unless the Lord has ordained it?
- Do not both adversity and good come from the mouth of the Most High?
- Why should any mortal man complain, in view of his sins?
- Let us examine and test our ways, and turn back to the LORD.
- Let us lift up our hearts and hands to God in heaven:
- “We have sinned and rebelled; You have not forgiven.”
- You have covered Yourself in anger and pursued us; You have killed without pity.
- You have covered Yourself with a cloud that no prayer can pass through.
- You have made us scum and refuse among the nations.
- All our enemies open their mouths against us.
- Panic and pitfall have come upon us—devastation and destruction.
- Streams of tears flow from my eyes over the destruction of the daughter of my people.
- My eyes overflow unceasingly, without relief,
- until the LORD looks down from heaven and sees.
- My eyes bring grief to my soul because of all the daughters of my city.
- Without cause my enemies hunted me like a bird.
- They dropped me alive into a pit and cast stones upon me.
- The waters flowed over my head, and I thought I was going to die.
- I called on Your name, O LORD, out of the depths of the Pit.
- You heard my plea: “Do not ignore my cry for relief.”
- You drew near when I called on You; You said, “Do not be afraid.”
- You defend my cause, O Lord; You redeem my life.
- You have seen, O LORD, the wrong done to me; vindicate my cause!
- You have seen all their malice, all their plots against me.
- O LORD, You have heard their insults, all their plots against me—
- the slander and murmuring of my assailants against me all day long.
- When they sit and when they rise, see how they mock me in song.
- You will pay them back what they deserve, O LORD, according to the work of their hands.
- Put a veil of anguish over their hearts; may Your curse be upon them!
- You will pursue them in anger and exterminate them from under Your heavens, O LORD.