Study

3. Judah's Complaint

    ⁴ He has made my skin and my flesh grow old
   and has broken my bones.
⁵ He has besieged me and surrounded me
   with bitterness and hardship.
⁶ He has made me dwell in darkness
   like those long dead.

    ⁷ He has walled me in so I cannot escape;
   he has weighed me down with chains.
⁸ Even when I call out or cry for help,
   he shuts out my prayer.
⁹ He has barred my way with blocks of stone;
   he has made my paths crooked.

    ¹⁰ Like a bear lying in wait,
   like a lion in hiding,
¹¹ he dragged me from the path and mangled me
   and left me without help.
¹² He drew his bow
   and made me the target for his arrows.

    ¹³ He pierced my heart
   with arrows from his quiver.
¹⁴ I became the laughingstock of all my people;
   they mock me in song all day long.
¹⁵ He has filled me with bitter herbs
   and given me gall to drink.

    ¹⁶ He has broken my teeth with gravel;
   he has trampled me in the dust.
¹⁷ I have been deprived of peace;
   I have forgotten what prosperity is.
¹⁸ So I say, “My splendor is gone
   and all that I had hoped from the LORD.”

    ¹⁹ I remember my affliction and my wandering,
   the bitterness and the gall.
²⁰ I well remember them,
   and my soul is downcast within me.
²¹ Yet this I call to mind
   and therefore I have hope:

    ²² Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed,
   for his compassions never fail.
²³ They are new every morning;
   great is your faithfulness.
²⁴ I say to myself, “The LORD is my portion;
   therefore I will wait for him.”

    ²⁵ The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him,
   to the one who seeks him;
²⁶ it is good to wait quietly
   for the salvation of the LORD.
²⁷ It is good for a man to bear the yoke
   while he is young.

    ²⁸ Let him sit alone in silence,
   for the LORD has laid it on him.
²⁹ Let him bury his face in the dust—
   there may yet be hope.
³⁰ Let him offer his cheek to one who would strike him,
   and let him be filled with disgrace.

    ³¹ For no one is cast off
   by the Lord forever.
³² Though he brings grief, he will show compassion,
   so great is his unfailing love.
³³ For he does not willingly bring affliction
   or grief to anyone.

    ³⁴ To crush underfoot
   all prisoners in the land,
³⁵ to deny people their rights
   before the Most High,
³⁶ to deprive them of justice—
   would not the Lord see such things?

    ³⁷ Who can speak and have it happen
   if the Lord has not decreed it?
³⁸ Is it not from the mouth of the Most High
   that both calamities and good things come?
³⁹ Why should the living complain
   when punished for their sins?

    ⁴⁰ Let us examine our ways and test them,
   and let us return to the LORD.
⁴¹ Let us lift up our hearts and our hands
   to God in heaven, and say:
⁴² “We have sinned and rebelled
   and you have not forgiven.

    ⁴³ “You have covered yourself with anger and pursued us;
   you have slain without pity.
⁴⁴ You have covered yourself with a cloud
   so that no prayer can get through.
⁴⁵ You have made us scum and refuse
   among the nations.

    ⁴⁶ “All our enemies have opened their mouths
   wide against us.
⁴⁷ We have suffered terror and pitfalls,
   ruin and destruction.”
⁴⁸ Streams of tears flow from my eyes
   because my people are destroyed.

    ⁴⁹ My eyes will flow unceasingly,
   without relief,
⁵⁰ until the LORD looks down
   from heaven and sees.
⁵¹ What I see brings grief to my soul
   because of all the women of my city.

    ⁵² Those who were my enemies without cause
   hunted me like a bird.
⁵³ They tried to end my life in a pit
   and threw stones at me;
⁵⁴ the waters closed over my head,
   and I thought I was about to perish.

    ⁵⁵ I called on your name, LORD,
   from the depths of the pit.
⁵⁶ You heard my plea: “Do not close your ears
   to my cry for relief.”
⁵⁷ You came near when I called you,
   and you said, “Do not fear.”

    ⁵⁸ You, Lord, took up my case;
   you redeemed my life.
⁵⁹ LORD, you have seen the wrong done to me.
   Uphold my cause!
⁶⁰ You have seen the depth of their vengeance,
   all their plots against me.

    ⁶¹ LORD, you have heard their insults,
   all their plots against me—
⁶² what my enemies whisper and mutter
   against me all day long.
⁶³ Look at them! Sitting or standing,
   they mock me in their songs.

    ⁶⁴ Pay them back what they deserve, LORD,
   for what their hands have done.
⁶⁵ Put a veil over their hearts,
   and may your curse be on them!
⁶⁶ Pursue them in anger and destroy them
   from under the heavens of the LORD.