1 I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of God’s wrath. 2 He has driven me away and made me walk in darkness instead of light. 3 Indeed, He keeps turning His hand against me all day long. 4 He has worn away my flesh and skin; He has shattered my bones. 5 He has besieged me and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship. 6 He has made me dwell in darkness like those dead for ages. 7 He has walled me in so I cannot escape; He has weighed me down with chains. 8 Even when I cry out and plead for help, He shuts out my prayer. 9 He has barred my ways with cut stones; He has made my paths crooked. 10 He is a bear lying in wait, a lion hiding in ambush. 11 He forced me off my path and tore me to pieces; He left me without help. 12 He bent His bow and set me as the target for His arrow. 13 He pierced my kidneys with His arrows. 14 I am a laughingstock to all my people; they mock me in song all day long. 15 He has filled me with bitterness; He has intoxicated me with wormwood. 16 He has ground my teeth with gravel and trampled me in the dust. 17 My soul has been deprived of peace; I have forgotten what prosperity is. 18 So I say, “My strength has perished, along with my hope from the LORD.” 19 Remember my affliction and wandering, the wormwood and the gall. 20 Surely my soul remembers and is humbled within me. 21 Yet I call this to mind, and therefore I have hope: 22 Because of the loving devotion of the LORD we are not consumed, for His mercies never fail. 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 who seeks Him. 26 It is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD. 27 It is good for a man to bear the yoke while he is still young. 28 Let him sit alone in silence, for God has disciplined him. 29 Let him bury his face in the dust— perhaps there is still hope. 30 Let him offer his cheek to the one who would strike him; let him be filled with reproach. 31 For the Lord will not cast us off forever. 32 Even if He causes grief, He will show compassion according to His abundant loving devotion. 33 For He does not willingly afflict or grieve the sons of men. 34 To crush underfoot all the prisoners of the land, 35 to deny a man justice before the Most High, 36 to subvert a man in his lawsuit— of these the Lord does not approve. 37 Who has spoken and it came to pass, unless the Lord has ordained it? 38 Do not both adversity and good come from the mouth of the Most High? 39 Why should any mortal man complain, in view of his sins? 40 Let us examine and test our ways, and turn back to the LORD. 41 Let us lift up our hearts and hands to God in heaven: 42 “We have s…
Lamentations 3:1–66
Semantically similar passages
Psalms 88:15–17
15 From my youth I was afflicted and near death. I have borne Your terrors; I am in despair. 16 Your wrath has swept over me; Your terrors have destroyed me. 17 All day long they engulf me like water; they enclose me on every side.
Job 30:15–17
15 Terrors are turned loose against me; they drive away my dignity as by the wind, and my prosperity has passed like a cloud. 16 And now my soul is poured out within me; days of affliction grip me. 17 Night pierces my bones, and my gnawing pains never rest.
Job 9:16–18
16 If I summoned Him and He answered me, I do not believe He would listen to my voice. 17 For He would crush me with a tempest and multiply my wounds without cause. 18 He does not let me catch my breath, but overwhelms me with bitterness.
Psalms 88:6–8
6 You have laid me in the lowest Pit, in the darkest of the depths. 7 Your wrath weighs heavily upon me; all Your waves have submerged me. Selah 8 You have removed my friends from me; You have made me repulsive to them; I am confined and cannot escape.
Psalms 89:38–40
38 Now, however, You have spurned and rejected him; You are enraged by Your anointed one. 39 You have renounced the covenant with Your servant and sullied his crown in the dust. 40 You have broken down all his walls; You have reduced his strongholds to rubble.
Psalms 118:17–19
17 I will not die, but I will live and proclaim what the LORD has done. 18 The LORD disciplined me severely, but He has not given me over to death. 19 Open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter and give thanks to the LORD.
Job 33:9–11
9 ‘I am pure, without transgression; I am clean, with no iniquity in me. 10 Yet God finds occasions against me; He counts me as His enemy. 11 He puts my feet in the stocks; He watches over all my paths.’
Psalms 38:1–3
1 A Psalm of David, for remembrance. O LORD, do not rebuke me in Your anger or discipline me in Your wrath. 2 For Your arrows have pierced me deeply, and Your hand has pressed down on me. 3 There is no soundness in my body because of Your anger; there is no rest in m…
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