• Jeremiah Shares Israel’s Misery

  • 1 I am the man who has seen misery Because of the rod of His wrath.
  • 2 He has driven me and made me walk In darkness and not in light.
  • 3 Indeed, He has turned His hand against me Repeatedly all the day.
  • 4 He has consumed my flesh and my skin, He has broken my bones.
  • 5 He has besieged and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship.
  • 6 He has made me live in dark places, Like those who have long been dead.
  • 7 He has walled me in so that I cannot go out; He has made my chain heavy.
  • 8 Even when I cry out and call for help, He shuts out my prayer.
  • 9 He has blocked my ways with cut stone; He has twisted my paths.
  • 10 He is to me like a bear lying in wait, Like a lion in secret places.
  • 11 He has made my ways deviate, and torn me to pieces; He has made me desolate.
  • 12 He bent His bow And took aim at me as a target for the arrow.
  • 13 He made the arrows of His quiver Enter my inward parts.
  • 14 I have become a laughingstock to all my people, Their song of ridicule all the day.
  • 15 He has filled me with bitterness, He has made me drink plenty of wormwood.
  • 16 He has also made my teeth grind with gravel; He has made me cower in the dust.
  • 17 My soul has been excluded from peace; I have forgotten happiness.
  • 18 So I say, “My strength has failed, And so has my hope from the Lord.”

  • Hope of Relief in God’s Mercy

  • 19 Remember my misery and my homelessness, the wormwood and bitterness.
  • 20 My soul certainly remembers, And is bent over within me.
  • 21 I recall this to my mind, Therefore I wait.
  • 22 The Lord’s acts of mercy indeed do not end, For His compassions do not fail.
  • 23 They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.
  • 24 “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “Therefore I wait for Him.”
  • 25 The Lord is good to those who await Him, To the person who seeks Him.
  • 26 It is good that he waits silently 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 keep quiet, Since He has laid it on him.
  • 29 Let him put his mouth in the dust; Perhaps there is hope.
  • 30 Let him give his cheek to the one who is going to strike him; Let him be filled with shame.
  • 31 For the Lord will not reject forever,
  • 32 For if He causes grief, Then He will have compassion In proportion to His abundant mercy.
  • 33 For He does not afflict willingly Or grieve the sons of mankind.
  • 34 To crush under one’s feet All the prisoners of the land,
  • 35 To deprive a man of justice In the presence of the Most High,
  • 36 To defraud someone in his lawsuit— Of these things the Lord does not approve.
  • 37 Who is there who speaks and it comes to pass, Unless the Lord has commanded it?
  • 38 Is it not from the mouth of the Most High That both adversity and good proceed?
  • 39 Of what can any living mortal, or any man, Complain in view of his sins?
  • 40 Let’s examine and search out our ways, And let’s return to the Lord.
  • 41 We raise our heart and hands Toward God in heaven;
  • 42 We have done wrong and rebelled; You have not pardoned.
  • 43 You have covered Yourself with anger And pursued us; You have slain and have not spared.
  • 44 You have veiled Yourself with a cloud So that no prayer can pass through.
  • 45 You have made us mere refuse and rubbish In the midst of the peoples.
  • 46 All our enemies have opened their mouths against us.
  • 47 Panic and pitfall have come upon us, Devastation and destruction;
  • 48 My eyes run down with streams of water Because of the destruction of the daughter of my people.
  • 49 My eyes flow unceasingly, Without stopping,
  • 50 Until the Lord looks down And sees from heaven.
  • 51 My eyes bring pain to my soul Because of all the daughters of my city.
  • 52 My enemies without reason Hunted me down like a bird;
  • 53 They have silenced me in the pit And have thrown stones on me.
  • 54 Waters flowed over my head; I said, “I am cut off!”
  • 55 I called on Your name, Lord, Out of the lowest pit.
  • 56 You have heard my voice, “Do not cover Your ear from my plea for relief, From my cry for help.”
  • 57 You came near on the day I called to You; You said, “Do not fear!”
  • 58 Lord, You have pleaded my soul’s cause; You have redeemed my life.
  • 59 Lord, You have seen my oppression; Judge my case.
  • 60 You have seen all their vengeance, All their schemes against me.
  • 61 You have heard their reproach, Lord, All their schemes against me.
  • 62 The lips of my assailants and their talk Are against me all day long.
  • 63 Look at their sitting and their rising; I am their mocking song.
  • 64 You will repay them, Lord, In accordance with the work of their hands.
  • 65 You will give them shamelessness of heart, Your curse will be on them.
  • 66 You will pursue them in anger and eliminate them From under the heavens of the Lord!