the First Week of Advent
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Legacy Standard Bible
Lamentations 3
Jeremiah's Heavy Chain
1 I am the man who has (C1)seen affliction
Because of the rod of His wrath.
2 He has driven me and made me walk
In (C1)darkness and not in light.
3 Surely against me He has (C1)turned His hand
Repeatedly all the day.
4 He has caused my (C1)flesh and my skin to waste away;
He has (C2)broken my bones.
5 He has (C1)besieged and encompassed me with (C2)gall and hardship.
6 (C1)Dark places He has made me inhabit,
Like those who have long been dead.
7 He has (C1)walled me in so that I cannot go out;
He has made my (F1)(C2)chain heavy.
8 Even when I cry out and call for help,
He (C1)shuts out my prayer.
9 He has (C1)blocked my ways with cut stone;
He has made my paths crooked.
10 He is to me like a bear lying in wait,
Like a lion in secret places.
11 He has turned aside my ways and (C1)torn me to pieces;
He has made me desolate.
12 He (C1)bent His bow
And (C2)set me as a target for the arrow.
13 He made the (F1)arrows of His (C1)quiver
To enter into my (F2)inward parts.
14 I have become a (C1)laughingstock to all my people,
Their (C2)music of mockery all the day.
15 He has (C1)saturated me with bitterness;
He has sated me with wormwood.
16 He has (C1)broken my teeth with (C2)gravel;
He has made me cower in the (C3)dust.
17 My soul has been rejected (C1)from peace;
I have forgotten goodness.
18 So I say, "My strength has perished,
As well as my (C1)hopeful waiting which comes from Yahweh."
The Lord Will Not Reject Forever
19 Remember my affliction and my (F1)homelessness, the (C1)wormwood and gall.
20 Surely (C1)my soul remembers
And is (C2)bowed down within me.
21 This I will return to my heart;
Therefore I will (C1)wait in hope.
22 The (C1)lovingkindnesses of Yahweh (F1)indeed never cease,
(C2)For His compassions never fail.
23 They are new (C1)every morning;
Great is (C2)Your faithfulness.
24 "Yahweh is my (C1)portion," says my soul,
"Therefore I (C2)wait for Him."
25 Yahweh is good to those who (C1)hope in Him,
To the soul who (C2)seeks Him.
26 It is good that he (C1)waits silently
For the salvation of Yahweh.
27 It is good for a man that he should bear
The yoke in his youth.
28 Let him (C1)sit alone and be silent
Since He has laid it on him.
29 Let him (F1)put his mouth in the (C1)dust;
Perhaps there is (C2)hope.
30 Let him give his (C1)cheek to the one who strikes him;
Let him be saturated with reproach.
31 For the Lord will (C1)not reject forever,
32 For if He causes grief,
Then He will have (C1)compassion
According to His abundant lovingkindness.
33 For He (C1)does not afflict from His heart
Or grieve the sons of men.
34 To crush under His feet
All the prisoners of the (F1)land,
35 To (F1)deprive a man of (C1)justice
In the presence of the Most High,
36 To (F1)(C1)defraud a man in his legal case—
These things the Lord does not see with approval.
37 Who is (F1)there who speaks and it (C1)happens,
Unless the Lord has commanded it?
38 Is it not from the mouth of the Most High
That (C1)both calamities and (F1)good go forth?
39 Why should any living (F1)person or any man
(C1)Complain because of his sins?
40 Let us (C1)search out and examine our ways,
And let us return to Yahweh.
41 We (C1)lift up our heart to our hands
Toward God in heaven;
42 We have (C1)transgressed and rebelled;
You have (C2)not pardoned.
43 You have covered Yourself with (C1)anger
And (C2)pursued us;
You have killed and (C3)have not spared.
44 You have (C1)covered Yourself with a cloud
So that (C2)no prayer can pass through.
45 You have made us mere (C1)scum and refuse
In the midst of the peoples.
46 All our enemies have (C1)opened their mouths against us.
47 (C1)Panic and pitfall have befallen us,
Devastation and destruction;
48 My (F1)(C1)eyes run down with streams of water
Because of the destruction of the daughter of my people.
49 My eyes pour down (C1)unceasingly,
Without stopping,
50 Until Yahweh (C1)looks down
And sees from heaven.
51 My eyes deal severely with my soul
Because of all the daughters of my city.
52 My enemies (C1)without cause
Hunted me down (C2)like a bird;
53 They have silenced my life (C1)in the pit
And have (F1)(C2)placed a stone on me.
54 Waters flowed (C1)over my head;
I said, "I am cut off!"
55 I (C1)called on Your name, O Yahweh,
Out of the lowest pit.
56 You have (C1)heard my voice,
"(C2)Do not hide Your ear from my prayer for relief,
From my cry for help."
57 You (C1)drew near when I called on You;
You said, "(C2)Do not fear!"
58 O Lord, You (C1)have pleaded my soul's cause;
You have (C2)redeemed my life.
59 O Yahweh, You have (C1)seen my oppression;
(C2)Judge my case.
60 You have seen all their vengeance,
All their (C1)purposes against me.
61 You have heard their (C1)reproach, O Yahweh,
All their purposes against me.
62 The (C1)lips of those who rise against me and their whispering
Are against me all day long.
63 Look on their (C1)sitting and their rising;
(C2)I am their mocking song.
64 You will (C1)recompense them, O Yahweh,
According to the work of their hands.
65 You will give them (F1)(C1)dullness of heart;
Your curse will be on them.
66 You will (C1)pursue them in anger and destroy them
From under the (C2)heavens of Yahweh!
