Klagelieder 3 | New International Reader’s Version

1 I am a man who has suffered greatly. The LORD has used the Babylonians to punish my people. 2 He has driven me away. He has made me walk in darkness instead of light. 3 He has turned his powerful hand against me. He has done it again and again, all day long. 4 He has worn out my body. He has broken my bones. 5 He has surrounded me and attacked me. He has made me suffer bitterly. He has made things hard for me. 6 He has made me live in darkness like those who are dead and gone. 7 He has built walls around me, so I can’t escape. He has put heavy chains on me. 8 I call out and cry for help. But he won’t listen to me when I pray. 9 He has put up a stone wall to block my way. He has made my paths crooked. 10 He has been like a bear waiting to attack me. He has been like a lion hiding in the bushes. 11 He has dragged me off the path. He has torn me to pieces. And he has left me helpless. 12 He has got his bow ready to use. He has shot his arrows at me. 13 The arrows from his bag have gone through my heart. 14 My people laugh at me all the time. They sing and make fun of me all day long. 15 The LORD has made my life bitter. He has made me suffer bitterly. 16 He made me chew stones that broke my teeth. He has walked all over me in the dust. 17 I have lost all hope of ever having any peace. I’ve forgotten what good times are like. 18 So I say, ‘My glory has faded away. My hope in the LORD is gone.’ 19 I remember how I suffered and wandered. I remember how bitter my life was. 20 I remember it very well. My spirit is very sad deep down inside me. 21 But here is something else I remember. And it gives me hope. 22 The LORD loves us very much. So we haven’t been completely destroyed. His loving concern never fails. 23 His great love is new every morning. LORD, how faithful you are! 24 I say to myself, ‘The LORD is everything I will ever need. So I will put my hope in him.’ 25 The LORD is good to those who put their hope in him. He is good to those who look to him. 26 It is good when people wait quietly for the LORD to save them. 27 It is good for a man to carry a heavy load of suffering while he is young. 28 Let him sit alone and not say anything. The LORD has placed that load on him. 29 Let him bury his face in the dust. There might still be hope for him. 30 Let him turn his cheek towards those who would slap him. Let him be filled with shame. 31 The Lord doesn’t turn his back on people for ever. 32 He might bring suffering. But he will also show loving concern. How great his faithful love is! 33 He doesn’t want to bring pain or suffering to anyone. 34 Every time people crush prisoners under their feet, the Lord knows all about it. 35 When people refuse to give someone what they should, the Most High God knows it. 36 When people don’t treat someone fairly, the Lord knows it. 37 Suppose people order something to happen. It won’t happen unless the Lord has planned it. 38 Troubles and good things alike come to people because the Most High God has commanded them to come. 39 A person who is still alive shouldn’t blame God when God punishes them for their sins. 40 Let’s take a good look at the way we’re living. Let’s return to the LORD. 41 Let’s lift up our hands to God in heaven. Let’s pray to him with all our hearts. 42 Let’s say, ‘We have sinned. We’ve refused to obey you. And you haven’t forgiven us. 43 ‘You have covered yourself with the cloud of your anger. You have chased us. You have killed us without pity. 44 You have covered yourself with the cloud of your anger. Our prayers can’t get through to you. 45 You have made us become like trash and garbage among the nations. 46 ‘All our enemies have opened their mouths wide to swallow us up. 47 We are terrified and trapped. We are broken and destroyed.’ 48 Streams of tears flow from my eyes. That’s because my people are destroyed. 49 Tears will never stop flowing from my eyes. My eyes can’t get any rest. 50 I’ll weep until the LORD looks down from heaven. I’ll cry until he notices my tears. 51 What I see brings pain to my spirit. All the women of my city are mourning. 52 Those who were my enemies for no reason at all hunted me down as if I were a bird. 53 They tried to end my life by throwing me into a deep pit. They threw stones down at me. 54 The water rose and covered my head. I thought I was going to die. 55 LORD, I called out to you. I called out from the bottom of the pit. 56 I prayed, ‘Please don’t close your ears to my cry for help.’ And you heard my appeal. 57 You came near when I called out to you. You said, ‘Do not be afraid.’ 58 Lord, you stood up for me in court. You saved my life and set me free. 59 LORD, you have seen the wrong things people have done to me. Stand up for me again! 60 You have seen how my enemies have tried to get even with me. You know all about their plans against me. 61 LORD, you have heard them laugh at me. You know all about their plans against me. 62 You have heard my enemies whispering among themselves. They speak against me all day long. 63 Just look at them sitting and standing there! They sing and make fun of me. 64 LORD, pay them back. Punish them for what their hands have done. 65 Cover their minds with a veil. Put a curse on them! 66 LORD, get angry with them and hunt them down. Wipe them off the face of the earth.

English Standard Version

Great Is Your Faithfulness

1 I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of his wrath; 2 he has driven and brought me into darkness without any light; 3 surely against me he turns his hand again and again the whole day long. 4 He has made my flesh and my skin waste away; he has broken my bones; 5 he has besieged and enveloped me with bitterness and tribulation; 6 he has made me dwell in darkness like the dead of long ago. 7 He has walled me about so that I cannot escape; he has made my chains heavy; 8 though I call and cry for help, he shuts out my prayer; 9 he has blocked my ways with blocks of stones; he has made my paths crooked. 10 He is a bear lying in wait for me, a lion in hiding; 11 he turned aside my steps and tore me to pieces; he has made me desolate; 12 he bent his bow and set me as a target for his arrow. 13 He drove into my kidneys the arrows of his quiver; 14 I have become the laughingstock of all peoples, the object of their taunts 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, “My endurance has perished; so has my hope from the Lord.” 19 Remember my affliction and my wanderings, the wormwood and the gall! 20 My soul continually remembers 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 who seeks him. 26 It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. 27 It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. 28 Let him sit alone in silence when it is laid on him; 29 let him put his mouth in the dust— there may yet be hope; 30 let him give his cheek to the one who strikes, and let him be filled with insults. 31 For the Lord will not cast off forever, 32 but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love; 33 for he does not afflict from his heart or grieve the children of men. 34 To crush underfoot all the prisoners of the earth, 35 to deny a man justice in the presence of the Most High, 36 to subvert a man in his lawsuit, the Lord does not approve. 37 Who has spoken and it came to pass, unless the Lord has commanded it? 38 Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and bad come? 39 Why should a living man complain, a man, about the punishment of his sins? 40 Let us test and examine our ways, and return to the Lord! 41 Let us lift up our hearts and 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 scum and garbage among the peoples. 46 “All our enemies open 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 the daughter 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 daughters of my city. 52 “I have been hunted like a bird by those who were my enemies without cause; 53 they flung me alive into the pit and cast 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!’ 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 vengeance, all their plots against me. 61 “You have heard their taunts, O Lord, all their plots against me. 62 The lips and thoughts of my assailants are against me all the day long. 63 Behold their sitting and their rising; I am the object of their taunts. 64 “You will repay them,* O Lord, according to the work of their hands. 65 You will give them* dullness of heart; your curse will be* on them. 66 You will pursue them* in anger and destroy them from under your heavens, O Lord.”*

Klagelieder 3 | New International Reader’s Version English Standard Version

Great Is Your Faithfulness