Lamentations 3:1-42
Authorized (King James) Version
3 I am the man that hath seen affliction
by the rod of his wrath.
2 He hath led me, and brought me into darkness,
but not into light.
3 Surely against me is he turned;
he turneth his hand against me all the day.
4 My flesh and my skin hath he made old;
he hath broken my bones.
5 He hath builded against me,
and compassed me with gall and travail.
6 He hath set me in dark places,
as they that be dead of old.
7 He hath hedged me about, that I cannot get out:
he hath made my chain heavy.
8 Also when I cry and shout,
he shutteth out my prayer.
9 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.
KJV reproduced by permission of Cambridge University Press, the Crown’s patentee in the UK.