Lamentations 3:19-30

Contemporary English Version

¹⁹Just thinking of my troubles
and my lonely wandering
    makes me miserable.
²⁰That's all I ever think about,
    and I am depressed.^[a]
²¹Then I remember something
    that fills me with hope.
²²The Lord's kindness never fails!
If he had not been merciful,
    we would have been destroyed.^[b]
²³The Lord can always be trusted
    to show mercy each morning.
²⁴Deep in my heart I say,
“The Lord is all I need;
    I can depend on him!”

²⁵The Lord is kind to everyone
    who trusts and obeys him.
²⁶It is good to wait patiently
    for the Lord to save us.
²⁷When we are young,
    it is good to struggle hard
²⁸and to sit silently alone,
if this is what
    the Lord intends.
²⁹Being rubbed in the dirt
    can teach us a lesson;^[c]
³⁰we can also learn from insults
    and hard knocks.

Read full chapter

Footnotes

3.20 I am depressed: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
3.22 destroyed: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text of verse 22.
3.29 lesson: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text of verse 29.