Lamentations

I, the man, have seen affliction by the rod of His wrath.

He led me and made [me] go in darkness and not light.

Surely He turned against me; He turns His hand all the day.

He has wasted my flesh and my skin. He has shattered my bones.

He built against me and has put around [me] bitterness and hardship.

He has made me live in dark places like the dead of old.

He walled around me and I cannot go out; He has made heavy my bronze [chain].

Also, when I cry out and shout for help, He shuts out my prayer.

He walled up my ways with cut stone; my paths are crooked.

He [was] a bear lying in wait for me, a lion in secret places.

He has deflected my ways and torn me to pieces; He made me desolate.

He has trod His bow and set me up as a mark for the arrow.

He caused the sons of His quiver to enter into my inward parts.

I was a mockery to all my people, their song all the day.

He has filled me with bitterness [and] made me drunk [with] wormwood.

And He broke my teeth with gravel; He has covered me in the ashes.

And You cast off my soul from peace; I have forgotten goodness.

And I said, My strength and my hope [are] gone from Jehovah.

Remember my affliction and my roaming, [as] wormwood and bitterness.

My soul vividly remembers and bows down on me.

I bring back this to my heart. On account of this I hope.

[It is by] the kindnesses of Jehovah that we are not consumed, for His mercies are not ended.

[They are] new by mornings; great [is] Your faithfulness.

Jehovah [is] my portion, says my soul. On account of this I shall hope to Him.

Jehovah [is] good to those waiting on Him, to the soul seeking Him.

[It is] good that a man hopes for the salvation of Jehovah, even in silence.

[It is] good for a man that he bear a yoke in his youth.

He sits alone and is silent, for He laid [it] on him.

He puts his mouth in the dust, if perhaps there is hope.

He gives [his] cheek to Him who strikes him; he is filled with reproach.

For the Lord will not cast off forever.

For though He causes grief, He will have pity according to His many kindnesses.

to crush all the prisoners of earth under His feet,

to turn aside the justice of a man before the face of the Most High,

to wrong a man in his cause. [This,] the Lord does not see.

Who [is] this speaking, and it happens [when] the Lord does not command it?

[Both] the evil and the good do not go out from the mouth of the Most High.

What? Should mankind complain, living man because of his sins?

Let us search and examine our ways, and turn again to Jehovah.

Let us lift up our heart [and] palms to God in Heaven.

We have transgressed and rebelled; You, You have not forgiven.

You have wrapped Yourself with anger and pursued us; You have slain; You have not pitied.

You have covered with a cloud for You, from [any] prayer passing through.

You have made us sweepings and garbage in the midst of the peoples.

All our enemies have opened their mouths against us.

Dread and a pit is ours, devastation and ruin.

Streams of water go out of my eye for the ruin of the daughter of my people.

My eye flows out and does not cease, from there not being [any] relaxing,

until Jehovah shall look down and see from Heaven.

My eye deals severely with my soul, from all the daughters of my city.

My haters have hunted me like a bird without cause.

They have cut off my life in the pit, and [they] threw a stone at me.

Waters flowed over on my head; I said, I am cut off.

I called on Your name, O Jehovah, from the lowest pit.

You have heard my voice; do not hide Your ear at my relief, at my cry for help.

You came near in the day I called You; you said, Do not fear!

O Lord, You contended for the causes of my soul; You redeemed my life.

You have seen my wrong, O Jehovah; judge my cause.

You have seen all their vengeance, all their plots against me.

You have heard their reproach, O Jehovah, all their plots against me,

the lips of those rising up against me, and their scheming against me all the day.

Look at their sitting and their rising up. I [am] their song.

You will give back a recompense to them, O Jehovah, according to the work of their hands.

You will give them an insolent heart as Your curse to them.

Pursue and destroy them in anger from under the heavens of Jehovah.