Lamentations 3:21-66

This I recall to my mind, Therefore have I hope. It is of the LORD's mercies that we are not consumed, Because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: Great is thy faithfulness. The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; Therefore will I hope in him. The LORD is good unto them that wait for him, To the soul that seeketh him. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly Wait for the salvation of the LORD. It is good for a man that he bear The yoke in his youth. He sitteth alone and keepeth silence, Because he hath borne it upon him. He putteth his mouth in the dust; If so be there may be hope. He giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him: He is filled full with reproach. For the Lord will not Cast off for ever: But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion According to the multitude of his mercies. For he doth not afflict willingly Nor grieve the children of men. To crush under his feet All the prisoners of the earth, To turn aside the right of a man Before the face of the Most High, To subvert a man in his cause, The Lord approveth not. Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, When the Lord commandeth it not? Out of the mouth of the Most High Proceedeth not evil and good? Wherefore doth a living man complain, A man for the punishment of his sins? Let us search and try our ways, And turn again to the LORD. Let us lift up our heart with our hands Unto God in the heavens. We have transgressed and have rebelled: Thou hast not pardoned. Thou hast covered with anger, and persecuted us: Thou hast slain, thou hast not pitied. Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud, That our prayer should not pass through. Thou hast made us as the offscouring and refuse In the midst of the people. All our enemies Have opened their mouths against us. Fear and a snare is come upon us, Desolation and destruction. Mine eye runneth down with rivers of water For the destruction of the daughter of my people. Mine eye trickleth down, and ceaseth not, Without any intermission, Till the LORD look down, And behold from heaven. Mine eye affecteth mine heart Because of all the daughters of my city. Mine enemies chased me sore, like a bird, Without cause. They have cut off my life in the dungeon, And cast a stone upon me. Waters flowed over mine head; Then I said, I am cut off. I called upon thy name, O LORD, Out of the low dungeon. Thou hast heard my voice: Hide not thine ear at my breathing, at my cry. Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee: Thou saidst, Fear not. O Lord, thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul; Thou hast redeemed my life. O LORD, thou hast seen my wrong: Judge thou my cause. Thou hast seen all their vengeance And all their imaginations against me. Thou hast heard their reproach, O LORD, And all their imaginations against me; The lips of those that rose up against me, And their device against me all the day. Behold their sitting down, and their rising up; I am their musick. Render unto them a recompence, O LORD, According to the work of their hands. Give them sorrow of heart, Thy curse unto them. Persecute and destroy them in anger From under the heavens of the LORD.