Wednesday of Holy Week: Lamentations 3

I am one who has seen affliction

    under the rod of God’s wrath;

² he has driven and brought me

    into darkness without any light;

³ against me alone he turns his hand,

    again and again, all day long.

⁴ He has made my flesh and my skin waste away,

    and broken my bones;

⁵ he has besieged and enveloped me

    with bitterness and tribulation;

⁶ he has made me sit in darkness

    like the dead of long ago.

⁷ He has walled me about so that I cannot escape;

    he has put heavy chains on me;

⁸ though I call and cry for help,

    he shuts out my prayer;

⁹ he has blocked my ways with hewn stones,

    he has made my paths crooked.

¹⁰ He is a bear lying in wait for me,

    a lion in hiding;

¹¹ he led me off my way and tore me to pieces;

    he has made me desolate;

¹² he bent his bow and set me

    as a mark for his arrow.

¹³ He shot into my vitals

    the arrows of his quiver;

¹⁴ I have become the laughingstock of all my people,

    the object of their taunt-songs all day long.

¹⁵ He has filled me with bitterness,

    he has sated me with wormwood.

¹⁶ He has made my teeth grind on gravel,

    and made me cower in ashes;

¹⁷ my soul is bereft of peace;

    I have forgotten what happiness is;

¹⁸ so I say, “Gone is my glory,

    and all that I had hoped for from the Lord.”

¹⁹ The thought of my affliction and my homelessness

    is wormwood and gall!

²⁰ My soul continually thinks of it

    and is bowed down within me.

²¹ But this I call to mind,

    and therefore I have hope:

²² The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases,

    his mercies never come to an end;

²³ they are new every morning;

    great is your faithfulness.

²⁴ “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,

    “therefore I will hope in him.”

²⁵ The Lord is good to those who wait for him,

    to the soul that seeks him.

²⁶ It is good that one should wait quietly

    for the salvation of the Lord.

²⁷ It is good for one to bear

    the yoke in youth,

²⁸ to sit alone in silence

    when the Lord has imposed it,

²⁹ to put one’s mouth to the dust

    (there may yet be hope),

³⁰ to give one’s cheek to the smiter,

    and be filled with insults.

³¹ For the Lord will not

    reject forever.

³² Although he causes grief, he will have compassion

    according to the abundance of his steadfast love;

³³ for he does not willingly afflict

    or grieve anyone.

³⁴ When all the prisoners of the land

    are crushed under foot,

³⁵ when human rights are perverted

    in the presence of the Most High,

³⁶ when one’s case is subverted

    —does the Lord not see it?

³⁷ Who can command and have it done,

    if the Lord has not ordained it?

³⁸ Is it not from the mouth of the Most High

    that good and bad come?

³⁹ Why should any who draw breath complain

    about the punishment of their sins?

⁴⁰ Let us test and examine our ways,

    and return to the Lord.

⁴¹ Let us lift up our hearts as well as our hands

    to God in heaven.

⁴² We have transgressed and rebelled,

    and you have not forgiven.

⁴³ You have wrapped yourself with anger and pursued us,

    killing without pity;

⁴⁴ you have wrapped yourself with a cloud

    so that no prayer can pass through.

⁴⁵ You have made us filth and rubbish

    among the peoples.

⁴⁶ All our enemies

    have opened their mouths against us;

⁴⁷ panic and pitfall have come upon us,

    devastation and destruction.

⁴⁸ My eyes flow with rivers of tears

    because of the destruction of my people.

⁴⁹ My eyes will flow without ceasing,

    without respite,

⁵⁰ until the Lord from heaven

    looks down and sees.

⁵¹ My eyes cause me grief

    at the fate of all the young women in my city.

⁵² Those who were my enemies without cause

    have hunted me like a bird;

⁵³ they flung me alive into a pit

    and hurled stones on me;

⁵⁴ water closed over my head;

    I said, “I am lost.”

⁵⁵ I called on your name, O Lord,

    from the depths of the pit;

⁵⁶ you heard my plea, “Do not close your ear

    to my cry for help, but give me relief!”

⁵⁷ You came near when I called on you;

    you said, “Do not fear!”

⁵⁸ You have taken up my cause, O Lord,

    you have redeemed my life.

⁵⁹ You have seen the wrong done to me, O Lord;

    judge my cause.

⁶⁰ You have seen all their malice,

    all their plots against me.

⁶¹ You have heard their taunts, O Lord,

    all their plots against me.

⁶² The whispers and murmurs of my assailants

    are against me all day long.

⁶³ Whether they sit or rise—see,

    I am the object of their taunt-songs.

⁶⁴ Pay them back for their deeds, O Lord,

    according to the work of their hands!

⁶⁵ Give them anguish of heart;

    your curse be on them!

⁶⁶ Pursue them in anger and destroy them

    from under the Lord’s heavens.