## Jeremiah's Heavy Chain 

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

###### 2
He has driven me and made me walk In darkness and not in light. 

###### 3
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. 

###### 5
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. 

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

###### 12
He bent His bow And set me as a target for the arrow. 

###### 13
He made the arrows of His quiver To enter into my inward parts. 

###### 14
I have become a laughingstock to all my people, Their music of _mockery_ all the day. 

###### 15
He has saturated me with bitterness; He has sated me with wormwood. 

###### 16
He has broken my teeth with gravel; He has made me cower in the dust. 

###### 17
My soul has been rejected from peace; I have forgotten goodness. 

###### 18
So I say, "My strength has perished, As well as my hopeful waiting _which comes_ from Yahweh." 

## The Lord Will Not Reject Forever 

###### 19
Remember my affliction and my homelessness, the wormwood and gall. 

###### 20
Surely my soul remembers And is bowed down within me. 

###### 21
This I will return to my heart; Therefore I will wait in hope. 

###### 22
The lovingkindnesses of Yahweh indeed never cease, For His compassions never fail. 

###### 23
_They_ are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness. 

###### 24
"Yahweh is my portion," says my soul, "Therefore I wait for Him." 

###### 25
Yahweh is good to those who hope in Him, To the soul who seeks Him. 

###### 26
_It is_ good that he waits silently For the salvation of Yahweh. 

###### 27
_It is_ good for a man that he should bear The yoke in his youth. 

###### 28
Let him sit alone and be silent 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 strikes him; Let him be saturated with reproach. 

###### 31
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. 

###### 33
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, 

###### 35
To deprive a man of justice In the presence of the Most High, 

###### 36
To defraud a man in his _legal_ case-- These things the Lord does not see _with approval_. 

###### 37
Who is there who speaks and it happens, Unless the Lord has commanded _it_? 

###### 38
_Is it_ not from the mouth of the Most High That both calamities and good go forth? 

###### 39
Why should _any_ living person or _any_ man Complain because of his sins? 

###### 40
Let us search out and examine our ways, And let us return to Yahweh. 

###### 41
We lift up our heart to _our_ hands Toward God in heaven; 

###### 42
We have transgressed and rebelled; You have not pardoned. 

###### 43
You have covered _Yourself_ with anger And pursued us; You have killed _and_ have not spared. 

###### 44
You have covered Yourself with a cloud So that no prayer can pass through. 

###### 45
_You have made us mere_ scum and refuse In the midst of the peoples. 

###### 46
All our enemies have opened their mouths against us. 

###### 47
Panic and pitfall have befallen 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 pour down unceasingly, Without stopping, 

###### 50
Until Yahweh looks down And sees from heaven. 

###### 51
My eyes deal severely with my soul Because of all the daughters of my city. 

###### 52
My enemies without cause Hunted me down like a bird; 

###### 53
They have silenced my life in the pit And have placed a stone on me. 

###### 54
Waters flowed over my head; I said, "I am cut off!" 

###### 55
I called on Your name, O Yahweh, Out of the lowest pit. 

###### 56
You have heard my voice, "Do not hide Your ear from my _prayer for_ relief, From my cry for help." 

###### 57
You drew near when I called on You; You said, "Do not fear!" 

###### 58
O Lord, You have pleaded my soul's cause; You have redeemed my life. 

###### 59
O Yahweh, You have seen my oppression; Judge my case. 

###### 60
You have seen all their vengeance, All their purposes against me. 

###### 61
You have heard their reproach, O Yahweh, All their purposes against me. 

###### 62
The lips of those who rise against me and their whispering _Are_ against me all day long. 

###### 63
Look on their sitting and their rising; I am their mocking song. 

###### 64
You will recompense them, O Yahweh, According to the work of their hands. 

###### 65
You will give them dullness of heart; Your curse will be on them. 

###### 66
You will pursue them in anger and destroy them From under the heavens of Yahweh!