Previous Chapter

Full Page

Next Chapter

Lamentations 3 :: New American Standard Bible 1995 (NASB95)

Jeremiah Shares Israel's Affliction

¶

Lam 3:1I am the man who has seen affliction
Because of the rod of His wrath.

Lam 3:2He has driven me and made me walk
In darkness and not in light.

Lam 3:3Surely against me He has turned His hand
Repeatedly all the day.

Lam 3:4He has caused my flesh and my skin to waste away,
He has broken my bones.

Lam 3:5He has besieged and encompassed me with bitterness and hardship.

Lam 3:6In dark places He has made me dwell,
Like those who have long been dead.

Lam 3:7He has walled me in so that I cannot go out;
He has made my [fn]chain heavy.

Lam 3:8Even when I cry out and call for help,
He shuts out my prayer.

Lam 3:9He has blocked my ways with hewn stone;
He has made my paths crooked.

Lam 3:10He is to me like a bear lying in wait,
Like a lion in secret places.

Lam 3:11He has turned aside my ways and torn me to pieces;
He has made me desolate.

Lam 3:12He bent His bow
And set me as a target for the arrow.

Lam 3:13He made the [fn]arrows of His quiver
To enter into my [fn]inward parts.

Lam 3:14I have become a laughingstock to all my people,
Their mocking song all the day.

Lam 3:15He has filled me with bitterness,
He has made me drunk with wormwood.

Lam 3:16He has broken my teeth with gravel;
He has made me cower in the dust.

Lam 3:17My soul has been rejected from peace;
I have forgotten [fn]happiness.

Lam 3:18So I say, “My strength has perished,
And so has my hope from the LORD.”

Hope of Relief in God's Mercy

¶

Lam 3:19Remember my affliction and my [fn]wandering, the wormwood and bitterness.

Lam 3:20Surely my soul remembers
And is bowed down within me.

Lam 3:21This I recall to my mind,
Therefore I have hope.

Lam 3:22The LORD’S lovingkindnesses [fn]indeed never cease,
For His compassions never fail.

Lam 3:23They are new every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness.

Lam 3:24“The LORD is my portion,” says my soul,
“Therefore I have hope in Him.”

Lam 3:25The LORD is good to those who wait for Him,
To the [fn]person who seeks Him.

Lam 3:26It is good that he waits silently
For the salvation of the LORD.

Lam 3:27It is good for a man that he should bear
The yoke in his youth.

Lam 3:28Let him sit alone and be silent
Since He has laid it on him.

Lam 3:29Let him [fn]put his mouth in the dust,
Perhaps there is hope.

Lam 3:30Let him give his cheek to [fn]the smiter,
Let him be filled with reproach.

Lam 3:31For the Lord will not reject forever,

Lam 3:32For if He causes grief,
Then He will have compassion
According to His abundant lovingkindness.

Lam 3:33For He does not afflict [fn]willingly
Or grieve the sons of men.

Lam 3:34To crush under His feet
All the prisoners of the [fn]land,

Lam 3:35To [fn]deprive a man of justice
In the presence of the Most High,

Lam 3:36To [fn]defraud a man in his lawsuit—
Of these things the Lord does not [fn]approve.

Lam 3:37Who is [fn]there who speaks and it comes to pass,
Unless the Lord has commanded it?

Lam 3:38Is it not from the mouth of the Most High
That [fn]both good and ill go forth?

¶

Lam 3:39Why should any living [fn]mortal, or any man,
Offer complaint [fn]in view of his sins?

Lam 3:40Let us examine and probe our ways,
And let us return to the LORD.

Lam 3:41We lift up our heart [fn]and hands
Toward God in heaven;

Lam 3:42We have transgressed and rebelled,
You have not pardoned.

Lam 3:43You have covered Yourself with anger
And pursued us;
You have slain and have not spared.

Lam 3:44You have covered Yourself with a cloud
So that no prayer can pass through.

Lam 3:45You have made^H7760 us mere offscouring and refuse
In the midst of the peoples.

Lam 3:46All our enemies have opened their mouths against us.

Lam 3:47Panic and pitfall have befallen us,
Devastation and destruction;

Lam 3:48My [fn]eyes run down with streams of water
Because of the destruction of the daughter of my people.

Lam 3:49My eyes pour down unceasingly,
Without stopping,

Lam 3:50Until the LORD looks down
And sees from heaven.

Lam 3:51My eyes bring pain to my soul
Because of all the daughters of my city.

Lam 3:52My enemies without cause
Hunted me down like a bird;

Lam 3:53They have silenced [fn]me in the pit
And have [fn]placed a stone on me.

Lam 3:54Waters flowed over my head;
I said, “I am cut off!”

Lam 3:55I called on Your name, O LORD,
Out of the lowest pit.

Lam 3:56You have heard my voice,
“Do not hide Your ear from my prayer for relief,
From my cry for help.”

Lam 3:57You drew near when I called on You;
You said, “Do not fear!”

Lam 3:58O Lord, You have pleaded my soul’s cause;
You have redeemed my life.

Lam 3:59O LORD, You have seen my oppression;
Judge my case.

Lam 3:60You have seen all their vengeance,
All their schemes against me.

Lam 3:61You have heard their reproach, O LORD,
All their schemes against me.

Lam 3:62The lips of my assailants and their whispering
Are against me all day long.

Lam 3:63Look on their sitting and their rising;
I am their mocking song.

Lam 3:64You will recompense them, O LORD,
According to the work of their hands.

Lam 3:65You will give them [fn]hardness of heart,
Your curse will be on them.

Lam 3:66You will pursue them in anger and destroy them
From under the heavens of the LORD!

See the NASB95 Preface (Especially for Parenthesis, Brackets, & Asterisks).

NASB95 Footnotes

Literally: bronze piece

Literally: sons

Literally: kidneys

Literally: good

Or, bitterness

Or, that we are not consumed

Literally: soul

Literally: give

Literally: his

Literally: from His heart

Or, earth

Or, turn aside a man's case

Literally: make crooked

Literally: see

Literally: this

Literally: the evil things and the good

Or, human being

Or, on the basis of

Literally: toward our

Literally: eye brings

Literally: my life

Or, cast stones

Or, insolence

New American Standard Bible 1995
Copyright (c) 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995
by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, Calif.
All rights reserved
https://www.lockman.org/new-american-standard-bible-nasb/

The "NASB," "NAS," "New American Standard Bible," and "New American Standard" trademarks are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by The Lockman Foundation. Use of these trademarks requires the permission of The Lockman Foundation.

For Permission To Quote visit http://www.lockman.org

For more information on this translation, see the NASB95 Preface.