The Holy Bible
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Lamentations 3 : 1 - 66
Chapter 3
| 1 | I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of His wrath.
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| 2 | He has led me and made me walk In darkness and not in light.
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| 3 | Surely He has turned His hand against me Time and time again throughout the day.
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| 4 | He has aged my flesh and my skin, And broken my bones.
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| 5 | He has besieged me And surrounded me with bitterness and woe.
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| 6 | He has set me in dark places Like the dead of long ago.
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| 7 | He has hedged me in so that I cannot get out; He has made my chain heavy.
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| 8 | Even when I cry and shout, He shuts out my prayer.
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| 9 | He has blocked my ways with hewn stone; He has made my paths crooked.
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| 10 | He has been to me a bear lying in wait, Like a lion in ambush.
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| 11 | He has turned aside my ways and torn me in pieces; He has made me desolate.
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| 12 | He has bent His bow And set me up as a target for the arrow.
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| 13 | He has caused the arrows of His quiver To pierce my loins.
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| 14 | I have become the ridicule of all my people--Their taunting song all the day.
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| 15 | He has filled me with bitterness, He has made me drink wormwood.
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| 16 | He has also broken my teeth with gravel, And covered me with ashes.
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| 17 | You have moved my soul far from peace; I have forgotten prosperity.
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| 18 | And I said, "My strength and my hope Have perished from the LORD."
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| 19 | Remember my affliction and roaming, The wormwood and the gall.
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| 20 | My soul still remembers And sinks within me.
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| 21 | This I recall to my mind, Therefore I have hope.
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| 22 | Through the LORD's mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not.
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| 23 | They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.
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| 24 | "The LORD is my portion," says my soul, "Therefore I hope in Him!"
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| 25 | The LORD is good to those who wait for Him, To the soul who seeks Him.
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| 26 | It is good that one should hope and wait quietly For the salvation of the LORD.
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| 27 | It is good for a man to bear The yoke in his youth.
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| 28 | Let him sit alone and keep silent, Because God has laid it on him;
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| 29 | Let him put his mouth in the dust--There may yet be hope.
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| 30 | Let him give his cheek to the one who strikes him, And be full of reproach.
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| 31 | For the Lord will not cast off forever.
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| 32 | Though He causes grief, Yet He will show compassion According to the multitude of His mercies.
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| 33 | For He does not afflict willingly, Nor grieve the children of men.
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| 34 | To crush under one's feet All the prisoners of the earth,
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| 35 | To turn aside the justice due a man Before the face of the Most High,
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| 36 | Or subvert a man in his cause--The Lord does not approve.
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| 37 | Who is he who speaks and it comes to pass, When the Lord has not commanded it?
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| 38 | Is it not from the mouth of the Most High That woe and well-being proceed?
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| 39 | Why should a living man complain, A man for the punishment of his sins?
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| 40 | Let us search out and examine our ways, And turn back to the LORD;
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| 41 | Let us lift our hearts and hands To God in heaven.
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| 42 | We have transgressed and rebelled; You have not pardoned.
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| 43 | You have covered Yourself with anger And pursued us; You have slain and not pitied.
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| 44 | You have covered Yourself with a cloud, That prayer should not pass through.
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| 45 | You have made us an offscouring and refuse In the midst of the peoples.
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| 46 | All our enemies Have opened their mouths against us.
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| 47 | Fear and a snare have come upon us, Desolation and destruction.
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| 48 | My eyes overflow with rivers of water For the destruction of the daughter of my people.
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| 49 | My eyes flow and do not cease, Without interruption,
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| 50 | Till the LORD from heaven Looks down and sees.
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| 51 | My eyes bring suffering to my soul Because of all the daughters of my city.
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| 52 | My enemies without cause Hunted me down like a bird.
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| 53 | They silenced my life in the pit And threw stones at me.
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| 54 | The waters flowed over my head; I said, "I am cut off!"
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| 55 | I called on Your name, O LORD, From the lowest pit.
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| 56 | You have heard my voice: "Do not hide Your ear From my sighing, from my cry for help."
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| 57 | You drew near on the day I called on You, And said, "Do not fear!"
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| 58 | O Lord, You have pleaded the case for my soul; You have redeemed my life.
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| 59 | O LORD, You have seen how I am wronged; Judge my case.
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| 60 | You have seen all their vengeance, All their schemes against me.
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| 61 | You have heard their reproach, O LORD, All their schemes against me,
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| 62 | The lips of my enemies And their whispering against me all the day.
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| 63 | Look at their sitting down and their rising up; I am their taunting song.
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| 64 | Repay them, O LORD, According to the work of their hands.
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| 65 | Give them a veiled heart; Your curse be upon them!
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| 66 | In Your anger, Pursue and destroy them From under the heavens of the LORD.
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Acknowledgement
Opening page