Lamentations Chapter 3 (ESV)
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I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of his wrath;
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he has driven and brought me into darkness without any light;
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surely against me he turns his hand again and again the whole day long.
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He has made my flesh and my skin waste away; he has broken my bones;
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he has besieged and enveloped me with bitterness and tribulation;
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he has made me dwell in darkness like the dead of long ago.
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He has walled me about so that I cannot escape; he has made my chains heavy;
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though I call and cry for help, he shuts out my prayer;
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he has blocked my ways with blocks of stones; he has made my paths crooked.
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He is a bear lying in wait for me, a lion in hiding;
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he turned aside my steps and tore me to pieces; he has made me desolate;
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he bent his bow and set me as a target for his arrow.
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He drove into my kidneys the arrows of his quiver;
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I have become the laughingstock of all peoples, the object of their taunts all day long.
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He has filled me with bitterness; he has sated me with wormwood.
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He has made my teeth grind on gravel, and made me cower in ashes;
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my soul is bereft of peace; I have forgotten what happiness is;
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so I say, “My endurance has perished; so has my hope from the LORD.”
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Remember my affliction and my wanderings, the wormwood and the gall!
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My soul continually remembers it and is bowed down within me.
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But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope:
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The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end;
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they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
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“The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.”
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The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.
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It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.
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It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.
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Let him sit alone in silence when it is laid on him;
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let him put his mouth in the dust — there may yet be hope;
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let him give his cheek to the one who strikes, and let him be filled with insults.
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For the Lord will not cast off forever,
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but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love;
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for he does not afflict from his heart or grieve the children of men.
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To crush underfoot all the prisoners of the earth,
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to deny a man justice in the presence of the Most High,
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to subvert a man in his lawsuit, the Lord does not approve.
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Who has spoken and it came to pass, unless the Lord has commanded it?
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Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and bad come?
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Why should a living man complain, a man, about the punishment of his sins?
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Let us test and examine our ways, and return to the LORD!
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Let us lift up our hearts and hands to God in heaven:
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“We have transgressed and rebelled, and you have not forgiven.
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“You have wrapped yourself with anger and pursued us, killing without pity;
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you have wrapped yourself with a cloud so that no prayer can pass through.
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You have made us scum and garbage among the peoples.
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“All our enemies open their mouths against us;
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panic and pitfall have come upon us, devastation and destruction;
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my eyes flow with rivers of tears because of the destruction of the daughter of my people.
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“My eyes will flow without ceasing, without respite,
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until the LORD from heaven looks down and sees;
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my eyes cause me grief at the fate of all the daughters of my city.
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“I have been hunted like a bird by those who were my enemies without cause;
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they flung me alive into the pit and cast stones on me;
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water closed over my head; I said, ‘I am lost.’
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“I called on your name, O LORD, from the depths of the pit;
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you heard my plea, ‘Do not close your ear to my cry for help!’
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You came near when I called on you; you said, ‘Do not fear!’
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“You have taken up my cause, O Lord; you have redeemed my life.
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You have seen the wrong done to me, O LORD; judge my cause.
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You have seen all their vengeance, all their plots against me.
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“You have heard their taunts, O LORD, all their plots against me.
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The lips and thoughts of my assailants are against me all the day long.
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Behold their sitting and their rising; I am the object of their taunts.
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“You will repay them, O LORD, according to the work of their hands.
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You will give them dullness of heart; your curse will be on them.
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You will pursue them in anger and destroy them from under your heavens, O LORD.”
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