Lamentations 3
His Mercies Are New Every Morning
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I Am the Man Who Sees Poverty
3:1I am the man who sees poverty under the rod of His fury against me.
3:2He took me and led me away into darkness, not light.
3:3Indeed, against me He turned His hand all day.
3:4He made my flesh and my skin old; He shattered my bones.
3:5He built against me, surrounded my head and toiled.
3:6He made me dwell in dark places like the dead of ages.
3:7He built against me, and I will not go out; He made my bronze heavy.
3:8Even though I will cry and call out, He blocked my prayer.
3:9He built up my roads, blocked my paths and troubled them.
3:10He is a bear lying in wait for me, a lion in hidden places.
3:11He pursued me when I turned away and brought me to a stop; He made me destroyed.
3:12He drew His bow and fixed me as a target for a missile.
3:13He drove the arrows of His quiver into my kidneys.
3:14I became a laughingstock to all my people, their psalm all day.
3:15He filled me with bitterness and made me drunk with gall.
3:16He knocked out my teeth with a pebble and fed me ashes.
3:17He drove my soul away from peace; I forgot good things.
3:18I said, My victory has perished, and my hope from the Lord.
3:19I remembered, from my poverty and my persecution, my bitterness and gall.
3:20My soul will remember and brood over me.
3:21This I will set in my heart; therefore I will endure.
The Lord Is Good to Those Who Wait for Him
3:25The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul that will seek Him as good
3:26and will endure and be quiet for the Lord’s salvation.
3:27It is good for a man when he takes up a yoke in his youth.
3:28He will sit alone and be silent, because he has taken it upon himself.
3:30He will give his cheek to the one striking him; he will be filled with reproaches.
3:31For the Lord will not reject forever.
3:32For the One who humbled will have compassion according to His abundant mercy.
3:33For He did not answer from His heart, and He humbled human beings.
3:34To humble under one’s feet all the prisoners of the earth,
3:35to turn aside a man’s judgment before the face of the Most High,
3:36to condemn a person when he is judged—the Lord did not say to do this.
Do Calamities and Good Not Come from the Most High?
3:37Who spoke in this way and it came to be? The Lord did not command,
3:38do not calamities and good come from the mouth of the Most High?
3:39Why should a living person grumble, a man concerning his sin?
Let Us Return to the Lord
3:40Our way was searched and examined; let us return to the Lord.
3:41Let us lift our hearts upon our hands to the Exalted One in heaven.
3:42We have sinned and acted ungodly, and You were not propitiated.
3:43You covered Yourself with fury and drove us away; You killed without sparing.
3:44You spread a cloud over Yourself because of prayer,
3:45to close my eyes; You placed us to be rejected among the peoples.
3:46All our enemies opened their mouths against us.
3:47Fear and fury have come upon us, exaltation and crushing.
3:48My eye will bring down outpourings of water at the shattering of the daughter of my people.
3:49My eye was swallowed up, and I will not be silent, for there is no recovery,
3:50until the Lord bends down and sees from heaven.
3:51My eye will glean my soul beyond all the daughters of a city.
I Called upon Your Name from the Lowest Pit
3:52My enemies hunted me like a sparrow without cause.
3:53They put my life to death in a pit and laid a stone upon me.
3:54Water overflowed my head; I said, I have been rejected.
3:55I called upon Your name, Lord, from the lowest pit.
3:56You heard my voice: Do not hide Your ears from my supplication.
3:57You drew near to help me on the day I called You; You said to me, Do not fear.
3:58You judged the cases of my soul, Lord; You redeemed my life.
3:59You saw my troubles, Lord; You judged my case.
3:60You saw all their vengeance in all their reasonings against me.
3:61You heard their reproach, all their reasonings against me,
3:62the lips of those rising against me and their meditations against me all day,
3:63their sitting and their rising; look upon their eyes.
You Will Repay Them a Recompense
3:64You will repay them a recompense, Lord, according to the works of their hands.
3:65You will give them a shielding of heart, Your toil for them.
3:66You will pursue in anger and consume them from beneath heaven, Lord.
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Saints Translation · Liturgical reading edition · V1 · working draft awaiting specialist review.