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