# Lamentations 3 
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1. I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of his wrath; 
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2. he has driven and brought me into darkness without any light; 
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3. surely against me he turns his hand again and again the whole day long. 
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4. He has made my flesh and my skin waste away; he has broken my bones; 
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5. he has besieged and enveloped me with bitterness and tribulation; 
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6. he has made me dwell in darkness like the dead of long ago. 
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7. He has walled me about so that I cannot escape; he has made my chains heavy; 
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8. though I call and cry for help, he shuts out my prayer; 
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9. he has blocked my ways with blocks of stones; he has made my paths crooked. 
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10. He is a bear lying in wait for me, a lion in hiding; 
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11. he turned aside my steps and tore me to pieces; he has made me desolate; 
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12. he bent his bow and set me as a target for his arrow. 
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13. He drove into my kidneys the arrows of his quiver; 
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14. I have become the laughingstock of all peoples, the object of their taunts all day long. 
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15. He has filled me with bitterness; he has sated me with wormwood. 
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16. He has made my teeth grind on gravel, and made me cower in ashes; 
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17. my soul is bereft of peace; I have forgotten what happiness is; 
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18. so I say, “My endurance has perished; so has my hope from the LORD.” 
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19. Remember my affliction and my wanderings, the wormwood and the gall! 
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20. My soul continually remembers it and is bowed down within me. 
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21. But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: 
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22. The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; 
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23. they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. 
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24. “The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.” 
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25. The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. 
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26. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD. 
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27. It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. 
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28. Let him sit alone in silence when it is laid on him; 
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29. let him put his mouth in the dust— there may yet be hope; 
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30. let him give his cheek to the one who strikes, and let him be filled with insults. 
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31. For the Lord will not cast off forever, 
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32. but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love; 
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33. for he does not afflict from his heart or grieve the children of men. 
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34. To crush underfoot all the prisoners of the earth, 
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35. to deny a man justice in the presence of the Most High, 
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36. to subvert a man in his lawsuit, the Lord does not approve. 
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37. Who has spoken and it came to pass, unless the Lord has commanded it? 
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38. Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and bad come? 
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39. Why should a living man complain, a man, about the punishment of his sins? 
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40. Let us test and examine our ways, and return to the LORD! 
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41. Let us lift up our hearts and hands to God in heaven: 
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42. “We have transgressed and rebelled, and you have not forgiven. 
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43. “You have wrapped yourself with anger and pursued us, killing without pity; 
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44. you have wrapped yourself with a cloud so that no prayer can pass through. 
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45. You have made us scum and garbage among the peoples. 
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46. “All our enemies open their mouths against us; 
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47. panic and pitfall have come upon us, devastation and destruction; 
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48. my eyes flow with rivers of tears because of the destruction of the daughter of my people. 
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49. “My eyes will flow without ceasing, without respite, 
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50. until the LORD from heaven looks down and sees; 
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51. my eyes cause me grief at the fate of all the daughters of my city. 
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52. “I have been hunted like a bird by those who were my enemies without cause; 
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53. they flung me alive into the pit and cast stones on me; 
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54. water closed over my head; I said, ‘I am lost.’ 
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55. “I called on your name, O LORD, from the depths of the pit; 
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56. you heard my plea, ‘Do not close your ear to my cry for help!’ 
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57. You came near when I called on you; you said, ‘Do not fear!’ 
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58. “You have taken up my cause, O Lord; you have redeemed my life. 
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59. You have seen the wrong done to me, O LORD; judge my cause. 
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60. You have seen all their vengeance, all their plots against me. 
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61. “You have heard their taunts, O LORD, all their plots against me. 
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62. The lips and thoughts of my assailants are against me all the day long. 
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63. Behold their sitting and their rising; I am the object of their taunts. 
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64. “You will repay them, O LORD, according to the work of their hands. 
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65. You will give them dullness of heart; your curse will be on them. 
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66. You will pursue them in anger and destroy them from under your heavens, O LORD.” 

(ESV)