Lamentations 3:4–7

¹³I reckoned till morning, that, as a lion, so will he break all my bones: from day even to night wilt thou make an end of me.

⁸Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.

¹⁷¶ Israel is a scattered sheep; the lions have driven him away: first the king of Assyria hath devoured him; and last this Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon hath broken his bones.

⁹Have mercy upon me, O Lord, for I am in trouble: mine eye is consumed with grief, yea, my soul and my belly.

¹⁰For my life is spent with grief, and my years with sighing: my strength faileth because of mine iniquity, and my bones are consumed.

²For thine arrows stick fast in me, and thy hand presseth me sore.

³There is no soundness in my flesh because of thine anger; neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sin.

⁴For mine iniquities are gone over mine head: as an heavy burden they are too heavy for me.

⁵My wounds stink and are corrupt because of my foolishness.

⁶I am troubled; I am bowed down greatly; I go mourning all the day long.

⁷For my loins are filled with a loathsome disease: and there is no soundness in my flesh.

⁸I am feeble and sore broken: I have roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart.

³For my days are consumed like smoke, and my bones are burned as an hearth.

⁴My heart is smitten, and withered like grass; so that I forget to eat my bread.

⁵By reason of the voice of my groaning my bones cleave to my skin.

⁸And thou hast filled me with wrinkles, which is a witness against me: and my leanness rising up in me beareth witness to my face.

⁹He teareth me in his wrath, who hateth me: he gnasheth upon me with his teeth; mine enemy sharpeneth his eyes upon me.

¹⁴I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels.

³When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long.

¹⁹Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall.

¹⁵Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts concerning the prophets; Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, and make them drink the water of gall: for from the prophets of Jerusalem is profaneness gone forth into all the land.

⁸He hath fenced up my way that I cannot pass, and he hath set darkness in my paths.

¹⁴Why do we sit still? assemble yourselves, and let us enter into the defenced cities, and let us be silent there: for the Lord our God hath put us to silence, and given us water of gall to drink, because we have sinned against the Lord.

¹⁵Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink.

⁷He hath hedged me about, that I cannot get out: he hath made my chain heavy.

⁸Also when I cry and shout, he shutteth out my prayer.

⁹He hath inclosed my ways with hewn stone, he hath made my paths crooked.

²¹They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.

⁵Free among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, whom thou rememberest no more: and they are cut off from thy hand.

⁶Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps.

³For the enemy hath persecuted my soul; he hath smitten my life down to the ground; he hath made me to dwell in darkness, as those that have been long dead.

⁷Hear me speedily, O Lord: my spirit faileth: hide not thy face from me, lest I be like unto them that go down into the pit.

⁸He hath fenced up my way that I cannot pass, and he hath set darkness in my paths.

²³Why is light given to a man whose way is hid, and whom God hath hedged in?

⁶¶ Therefore, behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and make a wall, that she shall not find her paths.

⁶Then took they Jeremiah, and cast him into the dungeon of Malchiah the son of Hammelech, that was in the court of the prison: and they let down Jeremiah with cords. And in the dungeon there was no water, but mire: so Jeremiah sunk in the mire.

⁴And now, behold, I loose thee this day from the chains which were upon thine hand. If it seem good unto thee to come with me into Babylon, come; and I will look well unto thee: but if it seem ill unto thee to come with me into Babylon, forbear: behold, all the land is before thee: whither it seemeth good and convenient for thee to go, thither go.

¹⁴The yoke of my transgressions is bound by his hand: they are wreathed, and come up upon my neck: he hath made my strength to fall, the Lord hath delivered me into their hands, from whom I am not able to rise up.

⁸Thou hast put away mine acquaintance far from me; thou hast made me an abomination unto them: I am shut up, and I cannot come forth.

¹²And he hath confirmed his words, which he spake against us, and against our judges that judged us, by bringing upon us a great evil: for under the whole heaven hath not been done as hath been done upon Jerusalem.

⁹He hath inclosed my ways with hewn stone, he hath made my paths crooked.

⁵Our necks are under persecution: we labour, and have no rest.