Jeremiah’s Afflictions
1 I am the man who has seen affliction
by the rod of God’s wrath.
2 He has led me and caused me to walk in darkness
and not in light.
3 Surely he turns his hand against me
again and again all day long.
4 He has made my flesh and my skin old.
He has broken my bones.
5 He has besieged me
and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship.
6 He has made me dwell in dark places,
like those who have been long dead.
7 He has walled me in
so that I cannot get out.
He has made my chains heavy.
8 Yes, when I cry and call for help,
he shuts out my prayer.
9 He has enclosed my ways with cut stone.
He has made my paths crooked.
10 He is to me like a bear lying in wait,
like a lion in secret places.
11 He has turned me from my way
and pulled me in pieces.
He has made me desolate.
12 He has bent his bow
and set me as a mark for the arrow.
13 He has caused the shafts of his quiver to pierce my heart.
14 I have become an object of ridicule to all my people
and their mocking song all day long.
15 He has filled me with bitterness.
He has filled me with a bitter drink.
16 He has also broken my teeth with gravel.
He has covered me with ashes.
17 You have removed peace from my soul.
I have forgotten happiness.
18 I said, “My strength has perished,
along with my expectations of the Lord.”
19 Remember my suffering and my homelessness,
the bitter drink–the poison.
20 My soul still remembers them
and is bowed down within me.
21 This I recall to mind:
the reason for my hope.
22 It is because of the Lord’s loving kindness
that we are not consumed,
because his compassion does not fail.
23 His compassion is 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 one who seeks him.
26 It is good that a man should hope
and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord.
27 It is good for a man to bear the yoke in his youth.
28 Let him sit alone and remain silent,
because God has laid it on him.
29 Let him put his mouth in the dust,
that there may still be hope.
30 Let him give his cheek to the one who strikes him.
Let him be filled full of reproach.
31 For the Lord’s rejection is not forever.
32 For though he causes grief,
yet he will have compassion
according to the abundance of his loving kindness.
33 For he does not willingly cause suffering
or grief to mankind.
34 To crush underfoot all the prisoners of the earth,
35 to deny the rights of man before the face of the Most High,
36 to ruin a man in a lawsuit,
the Lord does not approve.
37 Who is he who speaks,
and it comes to pass,
if the Lord did not command it?
38 Do not both adversity and good
come from the mouth of the Most High?
39 Why does a man who is alive complain,
for the punishment of his sins?
40 Let us search and test our ways
and turn back to the Lord.
41 Let us lift up our hearts and our hands
to God in heaven.
42 “We have transgressed and have rebelled.
You have not forgiven.”
43 You have covered us with anger and pursued us.
You have killed.
You have not pitied.
44 You have covered yourself with a cloud,
so that no prayer can pass through.
45 You have made us scum and refuse
in the midst of the peoples.
46 All of our enemies
have opened their mouths against us.
47 Terror and the pit have come upon us;
devastation and destruction.
48 My eye pours with streams of water,
for the destruction of the daughter of my people.
49 My eyes pour without ceasing
and without a break.
50 until the Lord looks down,
and sees from heaven.
51 My eyes bring grief to my soul,
because of all the daughters of my city.
52 They have chased me relentlessly like a bird,
those who are my enemies for no reason.
53 They have cut off my life in the dungeon,
and have cast a stone over me.
54 Waters flowed over my head.
I said, “I am cut off.”
55 I called on your name, Lord,
out of the lowest dungeon.
56 You heard my voice,
“Do not hide your ear
from my groaning and my cry.”
57 You came near on the day that I called on you.
You said, “Do not be afraid.”
58 Lord, you have pleaded my case.
You have redeemed my life.
59 Lord, you see how I have been wronged.
Judge my case.
60 You have seen all their vengeful deeds,
and all their plots against me.
61 You have heard their reproach, O Lord,
and all their plots against me,
62 the lips of those that rose up against me,
and their plots against me all day long.
63 You see their sitting down and their rising up.
that I am mocked in their songs.
64 You will pay them back, Lord,
according to the work of their hands.
65 You will give them hardness of heart.
Your curse will be upon them.
66 You will pursue them in anger
and destroy them from under the heavens of the Lord.