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The Blue Letter Bible

Lamentations 3 :: English Standard Version (ESV)

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Great Is Your Faithfulness

Unchecked Copy BoxLam 3:1 - I am the man who has seen affliction
under the rod of his wrath;
Unchecked Copy BoxLam 3:2 - he has driven and brought me
into darkness without any light;
Unchecked Copy BoxLam 3:3 - surely against me he turns his hand
again and again the whole day long.
Unchecked Copy BoxLam 3:4 - He has made my flesh and my skin waste away;
he has broken my bones;
Unchecked Copy BoxLam 3:5 - he has besieged and enveloped me
with bitterness and tribulation;
Unchecked Copy BoxLam 3:6 - he has made me dwell in darkness
like the dead of long ago.
Unchecked Copy BoxLam 3:7 - He has walled me about so that I cannot escape;
he has made my chains heavy;
Unchecked Copy BoxLam 3:8 - though I call and cry for help,
he shuts out my prayer;
Unchecked Copy BoxLam 3:9 - he has blocked my ways with blocks of stones;
he has made my paths crooked.
Unchecked Copy BoxLam 3:10 - He is a bear lying in wait for me,
a lion in hiding;
Unchecked Copy BoxLam 3:11 - he turned aside my steps and tore me to pieces;
he has made me desolate;
Unchecked Copy BoxLam 3:12 - he bent his bow and set me
as a target for his arrow.
Unchecked Copy BoxLam 3:13 - He drove into my kidneys
the arrows of his quiver;
Unchecked Copy BoxLam 3:14 - I have become the laughingstock of all peoples,
the object of their taunts all day long.
Unchecked Copy BoxLam 3:15 - He has filled me with bitterness;
he has sated me with wormwood.
Unchecked Copy BoxLam 3:16 - He has made my teeth grind on gravel,
and made me cower in ashes;
Unchecked Copy BoxLam 3:17 - my soul is bereft of peace;
I have forgotten what happiness[fn] is;
Unchecked Copy BoxLam 3:18 - so I say, “My endurance has perished;
so has my hope from the LORD.”
Unchecked Copy BoxLam 3:19 - Remember my affliction and my wanderings,
the wormwood and the gall!
Unchecked Copy BoxLam 3:20 - My soul continually remembers it
and is bowed down within me.
Unchecked Copy BoxLam 3:21 - But this I call to mind,
and therefore I have hope:
Unchecked Copy BoxLam 3:22 - The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases;[fn]
his mercies never come to an end;
Unchecked Copy BoxLam 3:23 - they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
Unchecked Copy BoxLam 3:24 - “The LORD is my portion,” says my soul,
“therefore I will hope in him.”
Unchecked Copy BoxLam 3:25 - The LORD is good to those who wait for him,
to the soul who seeks him.
Unchecked Copy BoxLam 3:26 - It is good that one should wait quietly
for the salvation of the LORD.
Unchecked Copy BoxLam 3:27 - It is good for a man that he bear
the yoke in his youth.
Unchecked Copy BoxLam 3:28 - Let him sit alone in silence
when it is laid on him;
Unchecked Copy BoxLam 3:29 - let him put his mouth in the dust—
there may yet be hope;
Unchecked Copy BoxLam 3:30 - let him give his cheek to the one who strikes,
and let him be filled with insults.
Unchecked Copy BoxLam 3:31 - For the Lord will not
cast off forever,
Unchecked Copy BoxLam 3:32 - but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion
according to the abundance of his steadfast love;
Unchecked Copy BoxLam 3:33 - for he does not afflict from his heart
or grieve the children of men.
Unchecked Copy BoxLam 3:34 - To crush underfoot
all the prisoners of the earth,
Unchecked Copy BoxLam 3:35 - to deny a man justice
in the presence of the Most High,
Unchecked Copy BoxLam 3:36 - to subvert a man in his lawsuit,
the Lord does not approve.
Unchecked Copy BoxLam 3:37 - Who has spoken and it came to pass,
unless the Lord has commanded it?
Unchecked Copy BoxLam 3:38 - Is it not from the mouth of the Most High
that good and bad come?
Unchecked Copy BoxLam 3:39 - Why should a living man complain,
a man, about the punishment of his sins?
Unchecked Copy BoxLam 3:40 - Let us test and examine our ways,
and return to the LORD!
Unchecked Copy BoxLam 3:41 - Let us lift up our hearts and hands
to God in heaven:
Unchecked Copy BoxLam 3:42 - “We have transgressed and rebelled,
and you have not forgiven.
Unchecked Copy BoxLam 3:43 - “You have wrapped yourself with anger and pursued us,
killing without pity;
Unchecked Copy BoxLam 3:44 - you have wrapped yourself with a cloud
so that no prayer can pass through.
Unchecked Copy BoxLam 3:45 - You have made us scum and garbage
among the peoples.
Unchecked Copy BoxLam 3:46 - “All our enemies
open their mouths against us;
Unchecked Copy BoxLam 3:47 - panic and pitfall have come upon us,
devastation and destruction;
Unchecked Copy BoxLam 3:48 - my eyes flow with rivers of tears
because of the destruction of the daughter of my people.
Unchecked Copy BoxLam 3:49 - “My eyes will flow without ceasing,
without respite,
Unchecked Copy BoxLam 3:50 - until the LORD from heaven
looks down and sees;
Unchecked Copy BoxLam 3:51 - my eyes cause me grief
at the fate of all the daughters of my city.
Unchecked Copy BoxLam 3:52 - “I have been hunted like a bird
by those who were my enemies without cause;
Unchecked Copy BoxLam 3:53 - they flung me alive into the pit
and cast stones on me;
Unchecked Copy BoxLam 3:54 - water closed over my head;
I said, ‘I am lost.’
Unchecked Copy BoxLam 3:55 - “I called on your name, O LORD,
from the depths of the pit;
Unchecked Copy BoxLam 3:56 - you heard my plea, ‘Do not close
your ear to my cry for help!’
Unchecked Copy BoxLam 3:57 - You came near when I called on you;
you said, ‘Do not fear!’
Unchecked Copy BoxLam 3:58 - “You have taken up my cause, O Lord;
you have redeemed my life.
Unchecked Copy BoxLam 3:59 - You have seen the wrong done to me, O LORD;
judge my cause.
Unchecked Copy BoxLam 3:60 - You have seen all their vengeance,
all their plots against me.
Unchecked Copy BoxLam 3:61 - “You have heard their taunts, O LORD,
all their plots against me.
Unchecked Copy BoxLam 3:62 - The lips and thoughts of my assailants
are against me all the day long.
Unchecked Copy BoxLam 3:63 - Behold their sitting and their rising;
I am the object of their taunts.
Unchecked Copy BoxLam 3:64 - “You will repay them,[fn] O LORD,
according to the work of their hands.
Unchecked Copy BoxLam 3:65 - You will give them[fn] dullness of heart;
your curse will be[fn] on them.
Unchecked Copy BoxLam 3:66 - You will pursue them[fn] in anger and destroy them
from under your heavens, O LORD.”[fn]
ESV Footnotes
Hebrew good
Syriac, Targum; Hebrew Because of the steadfast love of the LORD, we are not cut off
Or Repay them
Or Give them
Or place your curse
Or Pursue them
Syriac (compare Septuagint, Vulgate); Hebrew the heavens of the LORD
ESV

The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001, 2007, 2011, 2016 by Crossway Books and Bibles, a Publishing Ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

See detailed copyright information.

For more information on this translation, see the ESV Preface.

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Lamentations Chapter 3 — Additional Translations: