Lamentations 3:1-18

New King James Version

The Prophet’s Anguish and Hope

3 I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of His wrath.
²He has led me and made me walk
In darkness and not in light.
³Surely He has turned His hand against me
Time and time again throughout the day.

⁴He has aged ^(A)my flesh and my skin,
And ^(B)broken my bones.
⁵He has besieged me
And surrounded me with bitterness and ^[a]woe.
⁶^(C)He has set me in dark places
Like the dead of long ago.

⁷^(D)He has hedged me in so that I cannot get out;
He has made my chain heavy.
⁸Even ^(E)when I cry and shout,
He shuts out my prayer.
⁹He has blocked my ways with hewn stone;
He has made my paths crooked.

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

¹³He has caused ^(I)the ^[c]arrows of His quiver
To pierce my ^[d]loins.
¹⁴I have become the ^(J)ridicule of all my people—
^(K)Their taunting song all the day.
¹⁵^(L)He has filled me with bitterness,
He has made me drink wormwood.

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