Lamentations 3 - The Passion Translation(TPT)

The Suffering of Man

1 I am the man acquainted with misery

by the rod of his anger.

2He has shepherded me

into dark places with no light.

3He laid a heavy hand on me,

every day, over and over.

4He has made my skin and my flesh waste away;

he has broken my bones.

5He has besieged and encircled me with a wall

of hardship and bitterness.

6He has made me sit in darkness

like those long dead.

7He has walled me in with no way out

and weighed me down with heavy chains.

8Even when I cry for help,

he closes his ear to my prayer.

9He has made my paths a maze

and obstructed my ways.

10He has become to me like a bear ready to pounce

or a lion lying in wait.

11He dragged me away, tore me to pieces,

and then left me stunned and helpless.

12He has drawn back his bowstring

and used me as a target for his arrows.

13He shot his arrows deep into my heart,

sons from his quiver.

14Everyone has made me an object of ridicule;

they mock me all day long with their songs.

15He has given me my fill of bitterness

and made me drunk with wormwood.

16He has ground my teeth with gravel

and crushed me down to the dust.

17You have snatched peace from my soul;

I have entirely forgotten your goodness.

18I thought to myself, “My endurance has evaporated;

Yahweh has stamped out my hope for the future.”

God’s Mercy Gives Hope

19I remember wandering around in misery,

drinking the poison of bitterness.

20Whenever I ponder this,

my soul fades away within me.

21Yet there is one ray of hope

when I remember this:

22Yahweh’s tender mercies have no end,

and the kindness of his endless love is never exhausted.

23New, fresh mercies greet me with every sunrise.

So wonderfully great is your faithfulness!

24I tell my soul, “Yahweh is my abundant portion. I need nothing more.

So, I will put all my hope in him.”

Yahweh

Is Good

25Yahweh is always good to all who trust in him,

to the soul who searches for him.

26It is always good to hope,

quietly waiting for Yahweh’s deliverance.

27It is always good to learn patience and humility

from a young age.

28If your burden is heavy and hard to bear,

endure it quietly.

29Bow low in humble submission,

for there may still be hope.

30Offer a cheek to the one who would strike you,

and learn to endure insults.

31For the Lord will not

reject you forever.

32If he causes grief, he will show compassion

from the cascading overflow of his endless love.

33The Lord takes no delight

in afflicting anyone with suffering.

34To trample underfoot

all the earth’s prisoners,

35to violate human rights

in the presence of the Most High,

36to cheat someone of justice—

these things the Lord does not approve.

37Who can make anything happen

unless the Lord is willing?

38Is it not from the decree of the Most High

that both calamities and good things come?

39Why, then, should anyone complain

over the punishment of their sins?

Confession and Lament

40Let us examine our path, ponder our ways,

and return to Yahweh’s heart.

41Let us pray, offering up our hearts in our hands

to our God above.

42“We have sinned and rebelled,

and you have not yet pardoned us.

43“You have blanketed us with your anger and then pursued us,

slaughtering without pity.

44You shrouded yourself in a cloud

too thick for prayer to pierce.

45You have reduced us to rubbish;

we are the lowest scum among the nations.

46“Our enemies are a choir

of scoffers and scolders.

47Panic and pitfall have been our portion;

calamity and collapse have come upon us.”

48My eyes stream with torrents of tears

as I weep over the ruin of my beloved people.

49My eyes will weep without stopping,

with no relief in sight

50until Yahweh looks down from heaven

and sees how much we suffer.

51My heart is so grieved

over Jerusalem, the daughter of my people.

52My enemies, who hate me for no reason,

have trapped me like a bird.

53They buried me alive in a pit

and covered it with stones.

54Water rose over my head;

I thought, “I’m going to die!”

Confidence in Yahweh

’s Justice

55I called on your name, Yahweh,

from the bottom of the pit.

56You have heard me cry out to you:

“Do not close your ears to my sighs and to my cries.”

57You drew near when I called to you.

You told me, “Do not be afraid!”

58Lord, like a lawyer you contended for my cause;

you liberated my life, my Redeemer.

59Yahweh, you have seen the wrong done to me;

judge in my favor.

60You have seen their malice

and all their hateful plots against me.

61You have heard their mockery, Yahweh,

all their horrible schemes against me.

62They murmur and whisper against me

all day long.

63See, from morning to night,

I am the butt of their jokes.

64Yahweh, repay them!

Give them what their deeds deserve.

65Give them dullness of heart

as you place your curse upon them.

66Pursue them with anger and destroy them

from under your heavens!