bible_study/Bible/Lamentations/Lam 3.md

## Jeremiah's Heavy Chain 

###### 1
I am the man who has seen affliction Because of the rod of His wrath. 

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He has driven me and made me walk In darkness and not in light. 

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Surely against me He has turned His hand Repeatedly all the day. 

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He has caused my flesh and my skin to waste away; He has broken my bones. 

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He has besieged and encompassed me with gall and hardship. 

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Dark places He has made me inhabit, Like those who have long been dead. 

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He has walled me in so that I cannot go out; He has made my chain heavy. 

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Even when I cry out and call for help, He shuts out my prayer. 

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He has blocked my ways with cut stone; He has made my paths crooked. 

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He is to me like a bear lying in wait, _Like_ a lion in secret places. 

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He has turned aside my ways and torn me to pieces; He has made me desolate. 

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He bent His bow And set me as a target for the arrow. 

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He made the arrows of His quiver To enter into my inward parts. 

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I have become a laughingstock to all my people, Their music of _mockery_ all the day. 

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He has saturated me with bitterness; He has sated me with wormwood. 

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He has broken my teeth with gravel; He has made me cower in the dust. 

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My soul has been rejected from peace; I have forgotten goodness. 

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So I say, "My strength has perished, As well as my hopeful waiting _which comes_ from Yahweh." 

## The Lord Will Not Reject Forever 

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Remember my affliction and my homelessness, the wormwood and gall. 

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Surely my soul remembers And is bowed down within me. 

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This I will return to my heart; Therefore I will wait in hope. 

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The lovingkindnesses of Yahweh indeed never cease, For His compassions never fail. 

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_They_ are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness. 

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"Yahweh is my portion," says my soul, "Therefore I wait for Him." 

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Yahweh is good to those who hope in Him, To the soul who seeks Him. 

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_It is_ good that he waits silently For the salvation of Yahweh. 

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_It is_ good for a man that he should bear The yoke in his youth. 

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Let him sit alone and be silent Since He has laid _it_ on him. 

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Let him put his mouth in the dust; Perhaps there is hope. 

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Let him give his cheek to the one who strikes him; Let him be saturated with reproach. 

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For the Lord will not reject forever, 

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For if He causes grief, Then He will have compassion According to His abundant lovingkindness. 

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For He does not afflict from His heart Or grieve the sons of men. 

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To crush under His feet All the prisoners of the land, 

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To deprive a man of justice In the presence of the Most High, 

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To defraud a man in his _legal_ case-- These things the Lord does not see _with approval_. 

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Who is there who speaks and it happens, Unless the Lord has commanded _it_? 

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_Is it_ not from the mouth of the Most High That both calamities and good go forth? 

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Why should _any_ living person or _any_ man Complain because of his sins? 

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Let us search out and examine our ways, And let us return to Yahweh. 

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We lift up our heart to _our_ hands Toward God in heaven; 

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We have transgressed and rebelled; You have not pardoned. 

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You have covered _Yourself_ with anger And pursued us; You have killed _and_ have not spared. 

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You have covered Yourself with a cloud So that no prayer can pass through. 

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_You have made us mere_ scum and refuse In the midst of the peoples. 

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All our enemies have opened their mouths against us. 

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Panic and pitfall have befallen us, Devastation and destruction; 

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My eyes run down with streams of water Because of the destruction of the daughter of my people. 

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My eyes pour down unceasingly, Without stopping, 

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Until Yahweh looks down And sees from heaven. 

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My eyes deal severely with my soul Because of all the daughters of my city. 

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My enemies without cause Hunted me down like a bird; 

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They have silenced my life in the pit And have placed a stone on me. 

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Waters flowed over my head; I said, "I am cut off!" 

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I called on Your name, O Yahweh, Out of the lowest pit. 

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You have heard my voice, "Do not hide Your ear from my _prayer for_ relief, From my cry for help." 

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You drew near when I called on You; You said, "Do not fear!" 

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O Lord, You have pleaded my soul's cause; You have redeemed my life. 

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O Yahweh, You have seen my oppression; Judge my case. 

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You have seen all their vengeance, All their purposes against me. 

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You have heard their reproach, O Yahweh, All their purposes against me. 

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The lips of those who rise against me and their whispering _Are_ against me all day long. 

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Look on their sitting and their rising; I am their mocking song. 

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You will recompense them, O Yahweh, According to the work of their hands. 

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You will give them dullness of heart; Your curse will be on them. 

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You will pursue them in anger and destroy them From under the heavens of Yahweh!