God’s Anger with Jerusalem

How the Lord has covered the daughter of Zion
With a (A)cloud in His anger!
(B)He cast down from heaven to the earth
(C)The beauty of Israel,
And did not remember (D)His footstool
In the day of His anger.

The Lord has swallowed up and has (E)not pitied
All the dwelling places of Jacob.
He has thrown down in His wrath
The strongholds of the daughter of Judah;
He has brought them down to the ground;
(F)He has profaned the kingdom and its princes.

He has cut off in fierce anger
Every [a]horn of Israel;
(G)He has drawn back His right hand
From before the enemy.
(H)He has blazed against Jacob like a flaming fire
Devouring all around.

(I)Standing like an enemy, He has bent His bow;
With His right hand, like an adversary,
He has slain (J)all who were pleasing to His eye;
On the tent of the daughter of Zion,
He has poured out His fury like fire.

(K)The Lord was like an enemy.
He has swallowed up Israel,
He has swallowed up all her palaces;
(L)He has destroyed her strongholds,
And has increased mourning and lamentation
In the daughter of Judah.

He has done violence (M)to His [b]tabernacle,
(N)As if it were a garden;
He has destroyed His place of assembly;
The Lord has caused
The appointed feasts and Sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion.
In His burning indignation He has (O)spurned the king and the priest.

The Lord has spurned His altar,
He has (P)abandoned His sanctuary;
He has [c]given up the walls of her palaces
Into the hand of the enemy.
(Q)They have made a noise in the house of the Lord
As on the day of a set feast.

The Lord has [d]purposed to destroy
The (R)wall of the daughter of Zion.
(S)He has stretched out a line;
He has not withdrawn His hand from destroying;
Therefore He has caused the rampart and wall to lament;
They languished together.

Her gates have sunk into the ground;
He has destroyed and (T)broken her bars.
(U)Her king and her princes are among the [e]nations;
(V)The Law is no more,
And her (W)prophets find no [f]vision from the Lord.

10 The elders of the daughter of Zion
(X)Sit on the ground and keep silence;
[g]They (Y)throw dust on their heads
And (Z)gird themselves with sackcloth.
The virgins of Jerusalem
Bow their heads to the ground.

11 (AA)My eyes fail with tears,
My [h]heart is troubled;
(AB)My [i]bile is poured on the ground
Because of the destruction of the daughter of my people,
Because (AC)the children and the infants
Faint in the streets of the city.

12 They say to their mothers,
“Where is grain and wine?”
As they swoon like the wounded
In the streets of the city,
As their life is poured out
In their mothers’ bosom.

13 How shall I (AD)console[j] you?
To what shall I liken you,
O daughter of Jerusalem?
What shall I compare with you, that I may comfort you,
O virgin daughter of Zion?
For your ruin is spread wide as the sea;
Who can heal you?

14 Your (AE)prophets have seen for you
False and deceptive visions;
They have not (AF)uncovered your iniquity,
To bring back your captives,
But have envisioned for you false (AG)prophecies and delusions.

15 All who [k]pass by (AH)clap their hands at you;
They hiss (AI)and shake their heads
At the daughter of Jerusalem:
Is this the city that is called
(AJ)‘The perfection of beauty,
The joy of the whole earth’?”

16 (AK)All your enemies have opened their mouth against you;
They hiss and gnash their teeth.
They say, (AL)“We have swallowed her up!
Surely this is the (AM)day we have waited for;
We have found it, (AN)we have seen it!

17 The Lord has done what He (AO)purposed;
He has fulfilled His word
Which He commanded in days of old.
He has thrown down and has not pitied,
And He has caused an enemy to (AP)rejoice over you;
He has exalted the [l]horn of your adversaries.

18 Their heart cried out to the Lord,
“O wall of the daughter of Zion,
(AQ)Let tears run down like a river day and night;
Give yourself no relief;
Give [m]your eyes no rest.

19 “Arise, (AR)cry out in the night,
At the beginning of the watches;
(AS)Pour out your heart like water before the face of the Lord.
Lift your hands toward Him
For the life of your young children,
Who faint from hunger (AT)at the head of every street.”

20 “See, O Lord, and consider!
To whom have You done this?
(AU)Should the women eat their offspring,
The children [n]they have cuddled?
Should the priest and prophet be slain
In the sanctuary of the Lord?

21 “Young(AV) and old lie
On the ground in the streets;
My virgins and my young men
Have fallen by the (AW)sword;
You have slain them in the day of Your anger,
You have slaughtered and not pitied.

22 “You have invited as to a feast day
(AX)The terrors that surround me.
In the day of the Lord’s anger
There was no refugee or survivor.
(AY)Those whom I have borne and brought up
My enemies have (AZ)destroyed.”

The Prophet’s Anguish and Hope

I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of His wrath.
He has led me and made me walk
In darkness and not in light.
Surely He has turned His hand against me
Time and time again throughout the day.

He has aged (BA)my flesh and my skin,
And (BB)broken my bones.
He has besieged me
And surrounded me with bitterness and [o]woe.
(BC)He has set me in dark places
Like the dead of long ago.

(BD)He has hedged me in so that I cannot get out;
He has made my chain heavy.
Even (BE)when I cry and shout,
He shuts out my prayer.
He has blocked my ways with hewn stone;
He has made my paths crooked.

10 (BF)He has been to me a bear lying in wait,
Like a lion in [p]ambush.
11 He has turned aside my ways and (BG)torn me in pieces;
He has made me desolate.
12 He has bent His bow
And (BH)set me up as a target for the arrow.

13 He has caused (BI)the [q]arrows of His quiver
To pierce my [r]loins.
14 I have become the (BJ)ridicule of all my people—
(BK)Their taunting song all the day.
15 (BL)He has filled me with bitterness,
He has made me drink wormwood.

16 He has also broken my teeth (BM)with gravel,
And [s]covered me with ashes.
17 You have moved my soul far from peace;
I have forgotten [t]prosperity.
18 (BN)And I said, “My strength and my hope
Have perished from the Lord.”

19 Remember my affliction and roaming,
(BO)The wormwood and the [u]gall.
20 My soul still remembers
And [v]sinks within me.
21 This I recall to my mind,
Therefore I have (BP)hope.

22 (BQ)Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed,
Because His compassions (BR)fail not.
23 They are new (BS)every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness.
24 “The Lord is my (BT)portion,” says my soul,
“Therefore I (BU)hope in Him!”

25 The Lord is good to those who (BV)wait for Him,
To the soul who seeks Him.
26 It is good that one should (BW)hope (BX)and wait quietly
For the salvation of the Lord.
27 (BY)It is good for a man to bear
The yoke in his youth.

28 (BZ)Let him sit alone and keep silent,
Because God has laid it on him;
29 (CA)Let him put his mouth in the dust—
There may yet be hope.
30 (CB)Let him give his cheek to the one who strikes him,
And be full of reproach.

31 (CC)For the Lord will not cast off forever.
32 Though He causes grief,
Yet He will show compassion
According to the multitude of His mercies.
33 For (CD)He does not afflict [w]willingly,
Nor grieve the children of men.

34 To crush under one’s feet
All the prisoners of the earth,
35 To turn aside the justice due a man
Before the face of the Most High,
36 Or subvert a man in his cause—
(CE)The Lord does not approve.

37 Who is he (CF)who speaks and it comes to pass,
When the Lord has not commanded it?
38 Is it not from the mouth of the Most High
That (CG)woe and well-being proceed?
39 (CH)Why should a living man [x]complain,
(CI)A man for the punishment of his sins?

40 Let us search out and examine our ways,
And turn back to the Lord;
41 (CJ)Let us lift our hearts and hands
To God in heaven.
42 (CK)We have transgressed and rebelled;
You have not pardoned.

43 You have covered Yourself with anger
And pursued us;
You have slain and not pitied.
44 You have covered Yourself with a cloud,
That prayer should not pass through.
45 You have made us an (CL)offscouring and refuse
In the midst of the peoples.

46 (CM)All our enemies
Have opened their mouths against us.
47 (CN)Fear and a snare have come upon us,
(CO)Desolation and destruction.
48 (CP)My eyes overflow with rivers of water
For the destruction of the daughter of my people.

49 (CQ)My eyes flow and do not cease,
Without interruption,
50 Till the Lord from heaven
(CR)Looks down and sees.
51 My eyes bring suffering to my soul
Because of all the daughters of my city.

52 My enemies (CS)without cause
Hunted me down like a bird.
53 They [y]silenced my life (CT)in the pit
And (CU)threw [z]stones at me.
54 (CV)The waters flowed over my head;
(CW)I said, “I am cut off!”

55 (CX)I called on Your name, O Lord,
From the lowest (CY)pit.
56 (CZ)You have heard my voice:
“Do not hide Your ear
From my sighing, from my cry for help.”
57 You (DA)drew near on the day I called on You,
And said, (DB)“Do not fear!”

58 O Lord, You have (DC)pleaded the case for my soul;
(DD)You have redeemed my life.
59 O Lord, You have seen [aa]how I am wronged;
(DE)Judge my case.
60 You have seen all their vengeance,
All their (DF)schemes against me.

61 You have heard their reproach, O Lord,
All their schemes against me,
62 The lips of my enemies
And their whispering against me all the day.
63 Look at their (DG)sitting down and their rising up;
I am their taunting song.

64 (DH)Repay them, O Lord,
According to the work of their hands.
65 Give them [ab]a veiled heart;
Your curse be upon them!
66 In Your anger,
Pursue and destroy them
(DI)From under the heavens of the (DJ)Lord.

Footnotes

  1. Lamentations 2:3 Strength
  2. Lamentations 2:6 Lit. booth
  3. Lamentations 2:7 delivered
  4. Lamentations 2:8 determined
  5. Lamentations 2:9 Gentiles
  6. Lamentations 2:9 Prophetic revelation
  7. Lamentations 2:10 A sign of mourning
  8. Lamentations 2:11 Lit. inward parts
  9. Lamentations 2:11 Lit. liver
  10. Lamentations 2:13 Or bear witness to
  11. Lamentations 2:15 Lit. pass by this way
  12. Lamentations 2:17 Strength
  13. Lamentations 2:18 Lit. the daughter of your eye
  14. Lamentations 2:20 Vg. a span long
  15. Lamentations 3:5 hardship or weariness
  16. Lamentations 3:10 Lit. secret places
  17. Lamentations 3:13 Lit. sons of
  18. Lamentations 3:13 Lit. kidneys
  19. Lamentations 3:16 Lit. bent me down in
  20. Lamentations 3:17 Lit. good
  21. Lamentations 3:19 bitterness
  22. Lamentations 3:20 Lit. bowed down
  23. Lamentations 3:33 Lit. from His heart
  24. Lamentations 3:39 Or murmur
  25. Lamentations 3:53 LXX put to death
  26. Lamentations 3:53 Lit. a stone on
  27. Lamentations 3:59 Lit. my wrong
  28. Lamentations 3:65 A Jewish tradition sorrow of

[a]How the Lord has covered Daughter Zion
    with the cloud of his anger[b]!(A)
He has hurled down the splendor of Israel
    from heaven to earth;
he has not remembered his footstool(B)
    in the day of his anger.(C)

Without pity(D) the Lord has swallowed(E) up
    all the dwellings of Jacob;
in his wrath he has torn down
    the strongholds(F) of Daughter Judah.
He has brought her kingdom and its princes
    down to the ground(G) in dishonor.

In fierce anger he has cut off
    every horn[c][d](H) of Israel.
He has withdrawn his right hand(I)
    at the approach of the enemy.
He has burned in Jacob like a flaming fire
    that consumes everything around it.(J)

Like an enemy he has strung his bow;(K)
    his right hand is ready.
Like a foe he has slain
    all who were pleasing to the eye;(L)
he has poured out his wrath(M) like fire(N)
    on the tent(O) of Daughter Zion.

The Lord is like an enemy;(P)
    he has swallowed up Israel.
He has swallowed up all her palaces
    and destroyed her strongholds.(Q)
He has multiplied mourning and lamentation(R)
    for Daughter Judah.(S)

He has laid waste his dwelling like a garden;
    he has destroyed(T) his place of meeting.(U)
The Lord has made Zion forget
    her appointed festivals and her Sabbaths;(V)
in his fierce anger he has spurned
    both king and priest.(W)

The Lord has rejected his altar
    and abandoned his sanctuary.(X)
He has given the walls of her palaces(Y)
    into the hands of the enemy;
they have raised a shout in the house of the Lord
    as on the day of an appointed festival.(Z)

The Lord determined to tear down
    the wall around Daughter Zion.(AA)
He stretched out a measuring line(AB)
    and did not withhold his hand from destroying.
He made ramparts(AC) and walls lament;
    together they wasted away.(AD)

Her gates(AE) have sunk into the ground;
    their bars(AF) he has broken and destroyed.
Her king and her princes are exiled(AG) among the nations,
    the law(AH) is no more,
and her prophets(AI) no longer find
    visions(AJ) from the Lord.

10 The elders of Daughter Zion
    sit on the ground in silence;(AK)
they have sprinkled dust(AL) on their heads(AM)
    and put on sackcloth.(AN)
The young women of Jerusalem
    have bowed their heads to the ground.(AO)

11 My eyes fail from weeping,(AP)
    I am in torment within(AQ);
my heart(AR) is poured out(AS) on the ground
    because my people are destroyed,(AT)
because children and infants faint(AU)
    in the streets of the city.

12 They say to their mothers,
    “Where is bread and wine?”(AV)
as they faint like the wounded
    in the streets of the city,
as their lives ebb away(AW)
    in their mothers’ arms.(AX)

13 What can I say for you?(AY)
    With what can I compare you,
    Daughter(AZ) Jerusalem?
To what can I liken you,
    that I may comfort you,
    Virgin Daughter Zion?(BA)
Your wound is as deep as the sea.(BB)
    Who can heal you?

14 The visions of your prophets
    were false(BC) and worthless;
they did not expose your sin
    to ward off your captivity.(BD)
The prophecies they gave you
    were false and misleading.(BE)

15 All who pass your way
    clap their hands at you;(BF)
they scoff(BG) and shake their heads(BH)
    at Daughter Jerusalem:(BI)
“Is this the city that was called
    the perfection of beauty,(BJ)
    the joy of the whole earth?”(BK)

16 All your enemies open their mouths
    wide against you;(BL)
they scoff and gnash their teeth(BM)
    and say, “We have swallowed her up.(BN)
This is the day we have waited for;
    we have lived to see it.”(BO)

17 The Lord has done what he planned;
    he has fulfilled(BP) his word,
    which he decreed long ago.(BQ)
He has overthrown you without pity,(BR)
    he has let the enemy gloat over you,(BS)
    he has exalted the horn[e] of your foes.(BT)

18 The hearts of the people
    cry out to the Lord.(BU)
You walls of Daughter Zion,(BV)
    let your tears(BW) flow like a river
    day and night;(BX)
give yourself no relief,
    your eyes no rest.(BY)

19 Arise, cry out in the night,
    as the watches of the night begin;
pour out your heart(BZ) like water
    in the presence of the Lord.(CA)
Lift up your hands(CB) to him
    for the lives of your children,
who faint(CC) from hunger
    at every street corner.

20 “Look, Lord, and consider:
    Whom have you ever treated like this?
Should women eat their offspring,(CD)
    the children they have cared for?(CE)
Should priest and prophet be killed(CF)
    in the sanctuary of the Lord?(CG)

21 “Young and old lie together
    in the dust of the streets;
my young men and young women
    have fallen by the sword.(CH)
You have slain them in the day of your anger;
    you have slaughtered them without pity.(CI)

22 “As you summon to a feast day,
    so you summoned against me terrors(CJ) on every side.
In the day of the Lord’s anger
    no one escaped(CK) or survived;
those I cared for and reared(CL)
    my enemy has destroyed.”

[f]I am the man who has seen affliction(CM)
    by the rod of the Lord’s wrath.(CN)
He has driven me away and made me walk
    in darkness(CO) rather than light;
indeed, he has turned his hand against me(CP)
    again and again, all day long.

He has made my skin and my flesh grow old(CQ)
    and has broken my bones.(CR)
He has besieged me and surrounded me
    with bitterness(CS) and hardship.(CT)
He has made me dwell in darkness
    like those long dead.(CU)

He has walled me in so I cannot escape;(CV)
    he has weighed me down with chains.(CW)
Even when I call out or cry for help,(CX)
    he shuts out my prayer.(CY)
He has barred(CZ) my way with blocks of stone;
    he has made my paths crooked.(DA)

10 Like a bear lying in wait,
    like a lion(DB) in hiding,(DC)
11 he dragged me from the path and mangled(DD) me
    and left me without help.
12 He drew his bow(DE)
    and made me the target(DF) for his arrows.(DG)

13 He pierced(DH) my heart
    with arrows from his quiver.(DI)
14 I became the laughingstock(DJ) of all my people;(DK)
    they mock me in song(DL) all day long.
15 He has filled me with bitter herbs
    and given me gall to drink.(DM)

16 He has broken my teeth with gravel;(DN)
    he has trampled me in the dust.(DO)
17 I have been deprived of peace;
    I have forgotten what prosperity is.
18 So I say, “My splendor is gone
    and all that I had hoped from the Lord.”(DP)

19 I remember my affliction and my wandering,
    the bitterness(DQ) and the gall.(DR)
20 I well remember them,
    and my soul is downcast(DS) within me.(DT)
21 Yet this I call to mind
    and therefore I have hope:

22 Because of the Lord’s great love(DU) we are not consumed,(DV)
    for his compassions never fail.(DW)
23 They are new every morning;
    great is your faithfulness.(DX)
24 I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion;(DY)
    therefore I will wait for him.”

25 The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him,
    to the one who seeks him;(DZ)
26 it is good to wait quietly(EA)
    for the salvation of the Lord.(EB)
27 It is good for a man to bear the yoke
    while he is young.

28 Let him sit alone in silence,(EC)
    for the Lord has laid it on him.
29 Let him bury his face in the dust(ED)
    there may yet be hope.(EE)
30 Let him offer his cheek to one who would strike him,(EF)
    and let him be filled with disgrace.(EG)

31 For no one is cast off
    by the Lord forever.(EH)
32 Though he brings grief, he will show compassion,
    so great is his unfailing love.(EI)
33 For he does not willingly bring affliction
    or grief to anyone.(EJ)

34 To crush underfoot
    all prisoners in the land,
35 to deny people their rights
    before the Most High,(EK)
36 to deprive them of justice—
    would not the Lord see such things?(EL)

37 Who can speak and have it happen
    if the Lord has not decreed it?(EM)
38 Is it not from the mouth of the Most High
    that both calamities and good things come?(EN)
39 Why should the living complain
    when punished for their sins?(EO)

40 Let us examine our ways and test them,(EP)
    and let us return to the Lord.(EQ)
41 Let us lift up our hearts and our hands
    to God in heaven,(ER) and say:
42 “We have sinned and rebelled(ES)
    and you have not forgiven.(ET)

43 “You have covered yourself with anger and pursued(EU) us;
    you have slain without pity.(EV)
44 You have covered yourself with a cloud(EW)
    so that no prayer(EX) can get through.(EY)
45 You have made us scum(EZ) and refuse
    among the nations.

46 “All our enemies have opened their mouths
    wide(FA) against us.(FB)
47 We have suffered terror and pitfalls,(FC)
    ruin and destruction.(FD)
48 Streams of tears(FE) flow from my eyes(FF)
    because my people are destroyed.(FG)

49 My eyes will flow unceasingly,
    without relief,(FH)
50 until the Lord looks down
    from heaven and sees.(FI)
51 What I see brings grief to my soul
    because of all the women of my city.

52 Those who were my enemies without cause
    hunted me like a bird.(FJ)
53 They tried to end my life in a pit(FK)
    and threw stones at me;
54 the waters closed over my head,(FL)
    and I thought I was about to perish.(FM)

55 I called on your name, Lord,
    from the depths(FN) of the pit.(FO)
56 You heard my plea:(FP) “Do not close your ears
    to my cry for relief.”
57 You came near(FQ) when I called you,
    and you said, “Do not fear.”(FR)

58 You, Lord, took up my case;(FS)
    you redeemed my life.(FT)
59 Lord, you have seen the wrong done to me.(FU)
    Uphold my cause!(FV)
60 You have seen the depth of their vengeance,
    all their plots against me.(FW)

61 Lord, you have heard their insults,(FX)
    all their plots against me—
62 what my enemies whisper and mutter
    against me all day long.(FY)
63 Look at them! Sitting or standing,
    they mock me in their songs.(FZ)

64 Pay them back what they deserve, Lord,
    for what their hands have done.(GA)
65 Put a veil over their hearts,(GB)
    and may your curse be on them!
66 Pursue(GC) them in anger and destroy them
    from under the heavens of the Lord.

Footnotes

  1. Lamentations 2:1 This chapter is an acrostic poem, the verses of which begin with the successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet.
  2. Lamentations 2:1 Or How the Lord in his anger / has treated Daughter Zion with contempt
  3. Lamentations 2:3 Or off / all the strength; or every king
  4. Lamentations 2:3 Horn here symbolizes strength.
  5. Lamentations 2:17 Horn here symbolizes strength.
  6. Lamentations 3:1 This chapter is an acrostic poem; the verses of each stanza begin with the successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet, and the verses within each stanza begin with the same letter.

How hath the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger, and cast down from heaven unto the earth the beauty of Israel, and remembered not his footstool in the day of his anger!

The Lord hath swallowed up all the habitations of Jacob, and hath not pitied: he hath thrown down in his wrath the strong holds of the daughter of Judah; he hath brought them down to the ground: he hath polluted the kingdom and the princes thereof.

He hath cut off in his fierce anger all the horn of Israel: he hath drawn back his right hand from before the enemy, and he burned against Jacob like a flaming fire, which devoureth round about.

He hath bent his bow like an enemy: he stood with his right hand as an adversary, and slew all that were pleasant to the eye in the tabernacle of the daughter of Zion: he poured out his fury like fire.

The Lord was as an enemy: he hath swallowed up Israel, he hath swallowed up all her palaces: he hath destroyed his strong holds, and hath increased in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation.

And he hath violently taken away his tabernacle, as if it were of a garden: he hath destroyed his places of the assembly: the Lord hath caused the solemn feasts and sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion, and hath despised in the indignation of his anger the king and the priest.

The Lord hath cast off his altar, he hath abhorred his sanctuary, he hath given up into the hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces; they have made a noise in the house of the Lord, as in the day of a solemn feast.

The Lord hath purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion: he hath stretched out a line, he hath not withdrawn his hand from destroying: therefore he made the rampart and the wall to lament; they languished together.

Her gates are sunk into the ground; he hath destroyed and broken her bars: her king and her princes are among the Gentiles: the law is no more; her prophets also find no vision from the Lord.

10 The elders of the daughter of Zion sit upon the ground, and keep silence: they have cast up dust upon their heads; they have girded themselves with sackcloth: the virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground.

11 Mine eyes do fail with tears, my bowels are troubled, my liver is poured upon the earth, for the destruction of the daughter of my people; because the children and the sucklings swoon in the streets of the city.

12 They say to their mothers, Where is corn and wine? when they swooned as the wounded in the streets of the city, when their soul was poured out into their mothers' bosom.

13 What thing shall I take to witness for thee? what thing shall I liken to thee, O daughter of Jerusalem? what shall I equal to thee, that I may comfort thee, O virgin daughter of Zion? for thy breach is great like the sea: who can heal thee?

14 Thy prophets have seen vain and foolish things for thee: and they have not discovered thine iniquity, to turn away thy captivity; but have seen for thee false burdens and causes of banishment.

15 All that pass by clap their hands at thee; they hiss and wag their head at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying, Is this the city that men call The perfection of beauty, The joy of the whole earth?

16 All thine enemies have opened their mouth against thee: they hiss and gnash the teeth: they say, We have swallowed her up: certainly this is the day that we looked for; we have found, we have seen it.

17 The Lord hath done that which he had devised; he hath fulfilled his word that he had commanded in the days of old: he hath thrown down, and hath not pitied: and he hath caused thine enemy to rejoice over thee, he hath set up the horn of thine adversaries.

18 Their heart cried unto the Lord, O wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears run down like a river day and night: give thyself no rest; let not the apple of thine eye cease.

19 Arise, cry out in the night: in the beginning of the watches pour out thine heart like water before the face of the Lord: lift up thy hands toward him for the life of thy young children, that faint for hunger in the top of every street.

20 Behold, O Lord, and consider to whom thou hast done this. Shall the women eat their fruit, and children of a span long? shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord?

21 The young and the old lie on the ground in the streets: my virgins and my young men are fallen by the sword; thou hast slain them in the day of thine anger; thou hast killed, and not pitied.

22 Thou hast called as in a solemn day my terrors round about, so that in the day of the Lord's anger none escaped nor remained: those that I have swaddled and brought up hath mine enemy consumed.

I Am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.

He hath led me, and brought me into darkness, but not into light.

Surely against me is he turned; he turneth his hand against me all the day.

My flesh and my skin hath he made old; he hath broken my bones.

He hath builded against me, and compassed me with gall and travail.

He hath set me in dark places, as they that be dead of old.

He hath hedged me about, that I cannot get out: he hath made my chain heavy.

Also when I cry and shout, he shutteth out my prayer.

He hath inclosed my ways with hewn stone, he hath made my paths crooked.

10 He was unto me as a bear lying in wait, and as a lion in secret places.

11 He hath turned aside my ways, and pulled me in pieces: he hath made me desolate.

12 He hath bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow.

13 He hath caused the arrows of his quiver to enter into my reins.

14 I was a derision to all my people; and their song all the day.

15 He hath filled me with bitterness, he hath made me drunken with wormwood.

16 He hath also broken my teeth with gravel stones, he hath covered me with ashes.

17 And thou hast removed my soul far off from peace: I forgat prosperity.

18 And I said, My strength and my hope is perished from the Lord:

19 Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall.

20 My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me.

21 This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope.

22 It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.

23 They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.

24 The Lord is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him.

25 The Lord is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him.

26 It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord.

27 It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.

28 He sitteth alone and keepeth silence, because he hath borne it upon him.

29 He putteth his mouth in the dust; if so be there may be hope.

30 He giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him: he is filled full with reproach.

31 For the Lord will not cast off for ever:

32 But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies.

33 For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men.

34 To crush under his feet all the prisoners of the earth.

35 To turn aside the right of a man before the face of the most High,

36 To subvert a man in his cause, the Lord approveth not.

37 Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth it not?

38 Out of the mouth of the most High proceedeth not evil and good?

39 Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?

40 Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the Lord.

41 Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens.

42 We have transgressed and have rebelled: thou hast not pardoned.

43 Thou hast covered with anger, and persecuted us: thou hast slain, thou hast not pitied.

44 Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud, that our prayer should not pass through.

45 Thou hast made us as the offscouring and refuse in the midst of the people.

46 All our enemies have opened their mouths against us.

47 Fear and a snare is come upon us, desolation and destruction.

48 Mine eye runneth down with rivers of water for the destruction of the daughter of my people.

49 Mine eye trickleth down, and ceaseth not, without any intermission.

50 Till the Lord look down, and behold from heaven.

51 Mine eye affecteth mine heart because of all the daughters of my city.

52 Mine enemies chased me sore, like a bird, without cause.

53 They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and cast a stone upon me.

54 Waters flowed over mine head; then I said, I am cut off.

55 I called upon thy name, O Lord, out of the low dungeon.

56 Thou hast heard my voice: hide not thine ear at my breathing, at my cry.

57 Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee: thou saidst, Fear not.

58 O Lord, thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul; thou hast redeemed my life.

59 O Lord, thou hast seen my wrong: judge thou my cause.

60 Thou hast seen all their vengeance and all their imaginations against me.

61 Thou hast heard their reproach, O Lord, and all their imaginations against me;

62 The lips of those that rose up against me, and their device against me all the day.

63 Behold their sitting down, and their rising up; I am their musick.

64 Render unto them a recompence, O Lord, according to the work of their hands.

65 Give them sorrow of heart, thy curse unto them.

66 Persecute and destroy them in anger from under the heavens of the Lord.