Lamentations 3, side by side

¹I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of God’s wrath.

¹I AM the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.

²He has driven me away and made me walk in darkness instead of light.

²He hath led me, and brought me into darkness, but not into light.

³Indeed, He keeps turning His hand against me all day long.

³Surely against me is he turned; he turneth his hand against me all the day.

⁴He has worn away my flesh and skin; He has shattered my bones.

⁴My flesh and my skin hath he made old; he hath broken my bones.

⁵He has besieged me and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship.

⁵He hath builded against me, and compassed me with gall and travail.

⁶He has made me dwell in darkness like those dead for ages.

⁶He hath set me in dark places, as they that be dead of old.

⁷He has walled me in so I cannot escape; He has weighed me down with chains.

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

⁸Even when I cry out and plead for help, He shuts out my prayer.

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

⁹He has barred my ways with cut stones; He has made my paths crooked.

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

¹⁰He is a bear lying in wait, a lion hiding in ambush.

¹⁰He was unto me as a bear lying in wait, and as a lion in secret places.

¹¹He forced me off my path and tore me to pieces; He left me without help.

¹¹He hath turned aside my ways, and pulled me in pieces: he hath made me desolate.

¹²He bent His bow and set me as the target for His arrow.

¹²He hath bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow.

¹³He pierced my kidneys with His arrows.

¹³He hath caused the arrows of his quiver to enter into my reins.

¹⁴I am a laughingstock to all my people; they mock me in song all day long.

¹⁴I was a derision to all my people; and their song all the day.

¹⁵He has filled me with bitterness; He has intoxicated me with wormwood.

¹⁵He hath filled me with bitterness, he hath made me drunken with wormwood.

¹⁶He has ground my teeth with gravel and trampled me in the dust.

¹⁶He hath also broken my teeth with gravel stones, he hath covered me with ashes.

¹⁷My soul has been deprived of peace; I have forgotten what prosperity is.

¹⁷And thou hast removed my soul far off from peace: I forgat prosperity.

¹⁸So I say, “My strength has perished, along with my hope from the LORD.”

¹⁸And I said, My strength and my hope is perished from the LORD:

¹⁹Remember my affliction and wandering, the wormwood and the gall.

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

²⁰Surely my soul remembers and is humbled within me.

²⁰My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me.

²¹Yet I call this to mind, and therefore I have hope:

²¹This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope.

²²Because of the loving devotion of the LORD we are not consumed, for His mercies never fail.

²²It is of the LORD’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.

²³They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness!

²³They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.

²⁴“The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in Him.”

²⁴The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him.

²⁵The LORD is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him.

²⁵The LORD is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him.

²⁶It is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.

²⁶It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD.

²⁷It is good for a man to bear the yoke while he is still young.

²⁷It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.

²⁸Let him sit alone in silence, for God has disciplined him.

²⁸He sitteth alone and keepeth silence, because he hath borne it upon him.

²⁹Let him bury his face in the dust— perhaps there is still hope.

²⁹He putteth his mouth in the dust; if so be there may be hope.

³⁰Let him offer his cheek to the one who would strike him; let him be filled with reproach.

³⁰He giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him: he is filled full with reproach.

³¹For the Lord will not cast us off forever.

³¹For the LORD will not cast off for ever:

³²Even if He causes grief, He will show compassion according to His abundant loving devotion.

³²But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies.

³³For He does not willingly afflict or grieve the sons of men.

³³For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men.

³⁴To crush underfoot all the prisoners of the land,

³⁴To crush under his feet all the prisoners of the earth,

³⁵to deny a man justice before the Most High,

³⁵To turn aside the right of a man before the face of the most High,

³⁶to subvert a man in his lawsuit— of these the Lord does not approve.

³⁶To subvert a man in his cause, the LORD approveth not.

³⁷Who has spoken and it came to pass, unless the Lord has ordained it?

³⁷Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth it not?

³⁸Do not both adversity and good come from the mouth of the Most High?

³⁸Out of the mouth of the most High proceedeth not evil and good?

³⁹Why should any mortal man complain, in view of his sins?

³⁹Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?

⁴⁰Let us examine and test our ways, and turn back to the LORD.

⁴⁰Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the LORD.

⁴¹Let us lift up our hearts and hands to God in heaven:

⁴¹Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens.

⁴²“We have sinned and rebelled; You have not forgiven.”

⁴²We have transgressed and have rebelled: thou hast not pardoned.

⁴³You have covered Yourself in anger and pursued us; You have killed without pity.

⁴³Thou hast covered with anger, and persecuted us: thou hast slain, thou hast not pitied.

⁴⁴You have covered Yourself with a cloud that no prayer can pass through.

⁴⁴Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud, that our prayer should not pass through.

⁴⁵You have made us scum and refuse among the nations.

⁴⁵Thou hast made us as the offscouring and refuse in the midst of the people.

⁴⁶All our enemies open their mouths against us.

⁴⁶All our enemies have opened their mouths against us.

⁴⁷Panic and pitfall have come upon us— devastation and destruction.

⁴⁷Fear and a snare is come upon us, desolation and destruction.

⁴⁸Streams of tears flow from my eyes over the destruction of the daughter of my people.

⁴⁸Mine eye runneth down with rivers of water for the destruction of the daughter of my people.

⁴⁹My eyes overflow unceasingly, without relief,

⁴⁹Mine eye trickleth down, and ceaseth not, without any intermission,

⁵⁰until the LORD looks down from heaven and sees.

⁵⁰Till the LORD look down, and behold from heaven.

⁵¹My eyes bring grief to my soul because of all the daughters of my city.

⁵¹Mine eye affecteth mine heart because of all the daughters of my city.

⁵²Without cause my enemies hunted me like a bird.

⁵²Mine enemies chased me sore, like a bird, without cause.

⁵³They dropped me alive into a pit and cast stones upon me.

⁵³They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and cast a stone upon me.

⁵⁴The waters flowed over my head, and I thought I was going to die.

⁵⁴Waters flowed over mine head; then I said, I am cut off.

⁵⁵I called on Your name, O LORD, out of the depths of the Pit.

⁵⁵I called upon thy name, O LORD, out of the low dungeon.

⁵⁶You heard my plea: “Do not ignore my cry for relief.”

⁵⁶Thou hast heard my voice: hide not thine ear at my breathing, at my cry.

⁵⁷You drew near when I called on You; You said, “Do not be afraid.”

⁵⁷Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee: thou saidst, Fear not.

⁵⁸You defend my cause, O Lord; You redeem my life.

⁵⁸O LORD, thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul; thou hast redeemed my life.

⁵⁹You have seen, O LORD, the wrong done to me; vindicate my cause!

⁵⁹O LORD, thou hast seen my wrong: judge thou my cause.

⁶⁰You have seen all their malice, all their plots against me.

⁶⁰Thou hast seen all their vengeance and all their imaginations against me.

⁶¹O LORD, You have heard their insults, all their plots against me—

⁶¹Thou hast heard their reproach, O LORD, and all their imaginations against me;

⁶²the slander and murmuring of my assailants against me all day long.

⁶²The lips of those that rose up against me, and their device against me all the day.

⁶³When they sit and when they rise, see how they mock me in song.

⁶³Behold their sitting down, and their rising up; I am their musick.

⁶⁴You will pay them back what they deserve, O LORD, according to the work of their hands.

⁶⁴Render unto them a recompence, O LORD, according to the work of their hands.

⁶⁵Put a veil of anguish over their hearts; may Your curse be upon them!

⁶⁵Give them sorrow of heart, thy curse unto them.

⁶⁶You will pursue them in anger and exterminate them from under Your heavens, O LORD.

⁶⁶Persecute and destroy them in anger from under the heavens of the LORD.