KJV - Lamentations Chapter 3 to 5

3 ¹I AM the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath. ²He hath led me, and brought me into darkness, but not into light. ³Surely against me is he turned; he turneth his hand against me all the day. ⁴My flesh and my skin hath he made old; he hath broken my bones. ⁵He hath builded against me, and compassed me with gall and travail. ⁶He hath set me in dark places, as they that be dead of old. 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. ¹⁰He was unto me as a bear lying in wait, and as a lion in secret places. ¹¹He hath turned aside my ways, and pulled me in pieces: he hath made me desolate. ¹²He hath bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow. ¹³He hath caused the arrows of his quiver to enter into my reins. ¹⁴I was a derision to all my people; and their song all the day. ¹⁵He hath filled me with bitterness, he hath made me drunken with wormwood. ¹⁶He hath also broken my teeth with gravel stones, he hath covered me with ashes. ¹⁷And thou hast removed my soul far off from peace: I forgat prosperity. ¹⁸And I said, My strength and my hope is perished from the LORD: ¹⁹Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall. ²⁰My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me. ²¹This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope.

²²It is of the LORD's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. ²³They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. ²⁴The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him. ²⁵The LORD is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. ²⁶It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD. ²⁷It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. ²⁸He sitteth alone and keepeth silence, because he hath borne it upon him. ²⁹He putteth his mouth in the dust; if so be there may be hope. ³⁰He giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him: he is filled full with reproach. ³¹For the LORD will not cast off for ever: ³²But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies. ³³For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men. ³⁴To crush under his feet all the prisoners of the earth. ³⁵To turn aside the right of a man before the face of the most High, ³⁶To subvert a man in his cause, the LORD approveth not.

³⁷Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth it not? ³⁸Out of the mouth of the most High proceedeth not evil and good? ³⁹Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins? ⁴⁰Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the LORD. ⁴¹Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens. ⁴²We have transgressed and have rebelled: thou hast not pardoned. ⁴³Thou hast covered with anger, and persecuted us: thou hast slain, thou hast not pitied. ⁴⁴Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud, that our prayer should not pass through. ⁴⁵Thou hast made us as the offscouring and refuse in the midst of the people. ⁴⁶All our enemies have opened their mouths against us. ⁴⁷Fear and a snare is come upon us, desolation and destruction. ⁴⁸Mine eye runneth down with rivers of water for the destruction of the daughter of my people. ⁴⁹Mine eye trickleth down, and ceaseth not, without any intermission. ⁵⁰Till the LORD look down, and behold from heaven. ⁵¹Mine eye affecteth mine heart because of all the daughters of my city. ⁵²Mine enemies chased me sore, like a bird, without cause. ⁵³They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and cast a stone upon me. ⁵⁴Waters flowed over mine head; then I said, I am cut off.

⁵⁵I called upon thy name, O LORD, out of the low dungeon. ⁵⁶Thou hast heard my voice: hide not thine ear at my breathing, at my cry. ⁵⁷Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee: thou saidst, Fear not. ⁵⁸O LORD, thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul; thou hast redeemed my life. ⁵⁹O LORD, thou hast seen my wrong: judge thou my cause. ⁶⁰Thou hast seen all their vengeance and all their imaginations against me. ⁶¹Thou hast heard their reproach, O LORD, and all their imaginations against me; ⁶²The lips of those that rose up against me, and their device against me all the day. ⁶³Behold their sitting down, and their rising up; I am their musick.

⁶⁴Render unto them a recompence, O LORD, according to the work of their hands. ⁶⁵Give them sorrow of heart, thy curse unto them. ⁶⁶Persecute and destroy them in anger from under the heavens of the LORD.

4 ¹How is the gold become dim! how is the most fine gold changed! the stones of the sanctuary are poured out in the top of every street. ²The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, how are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter! ³Even the sea monsters draw out the breast, they give suck to their young ones: the daughter of my people is become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness. ⁴The tongue of the sucking child cleaveth to the roof of his mouth for thirst: the young children ask bread, and no man breaketh it unto them. ⁵They that did feed delicately are desolate in the streets: they that were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghills. ⁶For the punishment of the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the punishment of the sin of Sodom, that was overthrown as in a moment, and no hands stayed on her. ⁷Her Nazarites were purer than snow, they were whiter than milk, they were more ruddy in body than rubies, their polishing was of sapphire: ⁸Their visage is blacker than a coal; they are not known in the streets: their skin cleaveth to their bones; it is withered, it is become like a stick. ⁹They that be slain with the sword are better than they that be slain with hunger: for these pine away, stricken through for want of the fruits of the field. ¹⁰The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children: they were their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people. ¹¹The LORD hath accomplished his fury; he hath poured out his fierce anger, and hath kindled a fire in Zion, and it hath devoured the foundations thereof. ¹²The kings of the earth, and all the inhabitants of the world, would not have believed that the adversary and the enemy should have entered into the gates of Jerusalem.

¹³For the sins of her prophets, and the iniquities of her priests, that have shed the blood of the just in the midst of her, ¹⁴They have wandered as blind men in the streets, they have polluted themselves with blood, so that men could not touch their garments. ¹⁵They cried unto them, Depart ye; it is unclean; depart, depart, touch not: when they fled away and wandered, they said among the heathen, They shall no more sojourn there. ¹⁶The anger of the LORD hath divided them; he will no more regard them: they respected not the persons of the priests, they favoured not the elders. ¹⁷As for us, our eyes as yet failed for our vain help: in our watching we have watched for a nation that could not save us. ¹⁸They hunt our steps, that we cannot go in our streets: our end is near, our days are fulfilled; for our end is come. ¹⁹Our persecutors are swifter than the eagles of the heaven: they pursued us upon the mountains, they laid wait for us in the wilderness. ²⁰The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the LORD, was taken in their pits, of whom we said, Under his shadow we shall live among the heathen.

²¹Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, that dwellest in the land of Uz; the cup also shall pass through unto thee: thou shalt be drunken, and shalt make thyself naked.

²²The punishment of thine iniquity is accomplished, O daughter of Zion; he will no more carry thee away into captivity: he will visit thine iniquity, O daughter of Edom; he will discover thy sins.

5 ¹Remember, O LORD, what is come upon us: consider, and behold our reproach. ²Our inheritance is turned to strangers, our houses to aliens. ³We are orphans and fatherless, our mothers are as widows. ⁴We have drunken our water for money; our wood is sold unto us. ⁵Our necks are under persecution: we labour, and have no rest. ⁶We have given the hand to the Egyptians, and to the Assyrians, to be satisfied with bread. ⁷Our fathers have sinned, and are not; and we have borne their iniquities. ⁸Servants have ruled over us: there is none that doth deliver us out of their hand. ⁹We gat our bread with the peril of our lives because of the sword of the wilderness. ¹⁰Our skin was black like an oven because of the terrible famine. ¹¹They ravished the women in Zion, and the maids in the cities of Judah. ¹²Princes are hanged up by their hand: the faces of elders were not honoured. ¹³They took the young men to grind, and the children fell under the wood. ¹⁴The elders have ceased from the gate, the young men from their musick. ¹⁵The joy of our heart is ceased; our dance is turned into mourning. ¹⁶The crown is fallen from our head: woe unto us, that we have sinned! ¹⁷For this our heart is faint; for these things our eyes are dim. ¹⁸Because of the mountain of Zion, which is desolate, the foxes walk upon it. ¹⁹Thou, O LORD, remainest for ever; thy throne from generation to generation. ²⁰Wherefore dost thou forget us for ever, and forsake us so long time? ²¹Turn thou us unto thee, O LORD, and we shall be turned; renew our days as of old. ²²But thou hast utterly rejected us; thou art very wroth against us.