Lamentations 3

NSB(i) 14 I have become the laughingstock of all the peoples. I am their mocking song all the day. 15 He has made my life nothing but pain. He gives me bitterness in full measure. 16 He broke my teeth with crushed stones. I am bent low in the dust. 17 Peace has been removed far away from me. I do not remember what good is. 18 I said: »My strength is cut off, and my hope from Jehovah.« 19 Remember my trouble and my wandering, the bitterroot and the poison. 20 Remember and bow (bend) (come down to my level) down deep within me. 21 I remember this and I have hope. 22 We have not come to destruction because of Jehovah’s loving kindness. His mercies are without end. 23 They are new every morning. Your faithfulness is abundant. 24 I said to myself, »Jehovah is my heritage. For this reason I will hope in him.« 25 Jehovah is good to those who are waiting for him, to the person seeking him. 26 It is good to go on hoping and quietly waiting for the salvation of Jehovah. 27 It is good for a man to carry the yoke when he is young. 28 Let him sit by himself and keep silent because he has laid it on him. 29 Let him put his mouth in the dust for perhaps there exists hope. 30 Let his face be turned to him who gives him blows; let him be full of shame. 31 Jehovah does not give a man up for a very long time. 32 For though he sends grief, still he will have pity in the full measure of his love. 33 He takes no pleasure in troubling and causing grief to the children of men, it is not within his heart. 34 A man crushes under his feet all the prisoners of the earth. 35 He turns away the judgment of a man before the face of the Most High. 36 Jehovah would not seek to deprive a man of justice. 37 Who is able to say something should occur if Jehovah has not ordered it. 38 Do not calamities and good things come from the mouth of the Most High? 39 What protest may a living man make? Can a man protest about the punishment for his sin? 40 Let us search and put our ways to the test. Let us turn again to Jehovah. 41 Let us lift up our hearts along with our hands to God in heaven. 42 For we have done wrong. We have rebelled against your law. We have not received your forgiveness. 43 You blocked our approach to you with anger. You have slain us without compassion. 44 You covered yourself with a cloud, so that prayer may not pass through. 45 You made us like waste and that for which there is no use, among the peoples. 46 The mouths of all our enemies are open wide against us. 47 Fear and deep waters have come on us with devastation and destruction. 48 Rivers of water run down from my eyes because pf the destruction of the daughter of my people. 49 My eyes stream without stopping. They have no rest. 50 Jehovah looks down and sees from heaven. 51 My eyes bring me pain because of all the daughters of my town. 52 My enemies hunt for me just as if I was a bird. 53 They sentence my life to prison and keep hurling stones at me. 54 Waters were flowing over my head; I said: »I am cut off.« 55 I called out your name in prayer, O Jehovah, out of the lowest prison. 56 My voice came to you, »Do not shut your ear to my relief, to my cry!« 57 You came near in the day when I offered my prayer to you. You said: »Have no fear.« 58 O Jehovah, you have taken up my cause. You made my life safe. 59 O Jehovah, you saw the wrong done to me. Do conduct the judgment for me! 60 You saw all the evil they did to me and all their designs against me. 61 Their bitter words have come to your ears, O Jehovah, and all their designs against me. 62 You saw the lips of those who came up against me, and their thoughts against me all the day. 63 Take note of them when they are seated and when they get up. I am their mockery of song. 64 You will give them their reward, O Jehovah. Answer the work of their hands. 65 You will cover their hearts with your curse on them. 66 You will go after them in anger and annihilate them from under the heavens of Jehovah. 1 I am the man who has seen trouble by the rod of his fury. 2 By him I have been made to go in the dark and not in the light. 3 Truly against me his hand has been turned again and again all day long. 4 My flesh and my skin have been used up by him and my bones broken. 5 He built a wall against me, shutting me in with hardship and bitter sorrow. 6 He kept me in dark places, like those who have been dead a long time. 7 He built a wall around me so that I am unable to go out. He made a heavy chain for me. 8 Even when I send up a cry for help, he shuts out my prayer. 9 He blocked my way with cut stones. He twisted my roadways. 10 He is like a bear waiting for me, like a lion in secret places. 11 He has turned me on one side. I have been pulled to bits and lay desolate. 12 With his bow bent, he made me the target for his arrows. 13 He has let fly his arrows into the inmost parts of my body.