Parallel Bible results for "lamentations 3"

Lamentations 3

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MSG

1 I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of his wrath;
1 I'm the man who has seen trouble, trouble coming from the lash of God's anger.
2 he has driven and brought me into darkness without any light;
2 He took me by the hand and walked me into pitch-black darkness.
3 surely against me he turns his hand again and again the whole day long.
3 Yes, he's given me the back of his hand over and over and over again.
4 He has made my flesh and my skin waste away; he has broken my bones;
4 He turned me into a scarecrow of skin and bones, then broke the bones.
5 he has besieged and enveloped me with bitterness and tribulation;
5 He hemmed me in, ganged up on me, poured on the trouble and hard times.
6 he has made me dwell in darkness like the dead of long ago.
6 He locked me up in deep darkness, like a corpse nailed inside a coffin.
7 He has walled me about so that I cannot escape; he has made my chains heavy;
7 He shuts me in so I'll never get out, manacles my hands, shackles my feet.
8 though I call and cry for help, he shuts out my prayer;
8 Even when I cry out and plead for help, he locks up my prayers and throws away the key.
9 he has blocked my ways with blocks of stones; he has made my paths crooked.
9 He sets up blockades with quarried limestone. He's got me cornered.
10 He is a bear lying in wait for me, a lion in hiding;
10 He's a prowling bear tracking me down, a lion in hiding ready to pounce.
11 he turned aside my steps and tore me to pieces; he has made me desolate;
11 He knocked me from the path and ripped me to pieces. When he finished, there was nothing left of me.
12 he bent his bow and set me as a target for his arrow.
12 He took out his bow and arrows and used me for target practice.
13 He drove into my kidneys the arrows of his quiver;
13 He shot me in the stomach with arrows from his quiver.
14 I have become the laughingstock of all peoples, the object of their taunts all day long.
14 Everyone took me for a joke, made me the butt of their mocking ballads.
15 He has filled me with bitterness; he has sated me with wormwood.
15 He forced rotten, stinking food down my throat, bloated me with vile drinks.
16 He has made my teeth grind on gravel, and made me cower in ashes;
16 He ground my face into the gravel. He pounded me into the mud.
17 my soul is bereft of peace; I have forgotten what happiness is;
17 I gave up on life altogether. I've forgotten what the good life is like.
18 so I say, "My endurance has perished; so has my hope from the LORD."
18 I said to myself, "This is it. I'm finished. God is a lost cause." It's a Good Thing to Hope for Help from God
19 Remember my affliction and my wanderings, the wormwood and the gall!
19 I'll never forget the trouble, the utter lostness, the taste of ashes, the poison I've swallowed.
20 My soul continually remembers it and is bowed down within me.
20 I remember it all - oh, how well I remember - the feeling of hitting the bottom.
21 But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope:
21 But there's one other thing I remember, and remembering, I keep a grip on hope:
22 The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end;
22 God's loyal love couldn't have run out, his merciful love couldn't have dried up.
23 they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
23 They're created new every morning. How great your faithfulness!
24 "The LORD is my portion," says my soul, "therefore I will hope in him."
24 I'm sticking with God (I say it over and over). He's all I've got left.
25 The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.
25 God proves to be good to the man who passionately waits, to the woman who diligently seeks.
26 It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.
26 It's a good thing to quietly hope, quietly hope for help from God.
27 It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.
27 It's a good thing when you're young to stick it out through the hard times.
28 Let him sit alone in silence when it is laid on him;
28 When life is heavy and hard to take, go off by yourself. Enter the silence.
29 let him put his mouth in the dust-- there may yet be hope;
29 Bow in prayer. Don't ask questions: Wait for hope to appear.
30 let him give his cheek to the one who strikes, and let him be filled with insults.
30 Don't run from trouble. Take it full-face. The "worst" is never the worst.
31 For the Lord will not cast off forever,
31 Why? Because the Master won't ever walk out and fail to return.
32 but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love;
32 If he works severely, he also works tenderly. His stockpiles of loyal love are immense.
33 for he does not willingly afflict or grieve the children of men.
33 He takes no pleasure in making life hard, in throwing roadblocks in the way:
34 To crush underfoot all the prisoners of the earth,
34 Stomping down hard on luckless prisoners,
35 to deny a man justice in the presence of the Most High,
35 Refusing justice to victims in the court of High God,
36 to subvert a man in his lawsuit, the Lord does not approve.
36 Tampering with evidence - the Master does not approve of such things. God Speaks Both Good Things and Hard Things into Being
37 Who has spoken and it came to pass, unless the Lord has commanded it?
37 Who do you think "spoke and it happened"? It's the Master who gives such orders.
38 Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and bad come?
38 Doesn't the High God speak everything, good things and hard things alike, into being?
39 Why should a living man complain, a man, about the punishment of his sins?
39 And why would anyone gifted with life complain when punished for sin?
40 Let us test and examine our ways, and return to the LORD!
40 Let's take a good look at the way we're living and reorder our lives under God.
41 Let us lift up our hearts and hands to God in heaven:
41 Let's lift our hearts and hands at one and the same time, praying to God in heaven:
42 "We have transgressed and rebelled, and you have not forgiven.
42 "We've been contrary and willful, and you haven't forgiven.
43 "You have wrapped yourself with anger and pursued us, killing without pity;
43 "You lost your temper with us, holding nothing back. You chased us and cut us down without mercy.
44 you have wrapped yourself with a cloud so that no prayer can pass through.
44 You wrapped yourself in thick blankets of clouds so no prayers could get through.
45 You have made us scum and garbage among the peoples.
45 You treated us like dirty dishwater, threw us out in the backyard of the nations.
46 "All our enemies open their mouths against us;
46 "Our enemies shout abuse, their mouths full of derision, spitting invective.
47 panic and pitfall have come upon us, devastation and destruction;
47 We've been to hell and back. We've nowhere to turn, nowhere to go.
48 my eyes flow with rivers of tears because of the destruction of the daughter of my people.
48 Rivers of tears pour from my eyes at the smashup of my dear people.
49 "My eyes will flow without ceasing, without respite,
49 "The tears stream from my eyes, an artesian well of tears,
50 until the LORD from heaven looks down and sees;
50 Until you, God, look down from on high, look and see my tears.
51 my eyes cause me grief at the fate of all the daughters of my city.
51 When I see what's happened to the young women in the city, the pain breaks my heart.
52 "I have been hunted like a bird by those who were my enemies without cause;
52 "Enemies with no reason to be enemies hunted me down like a bird.
53 they flung me alive into the pit and cast stones on me;
53 They threw me into a pit, then pelted me with stones.
54 water closed over my head; I said, 'I am lost.'
54 Then the rains came and filled the pit. The water rose over my head. I said, 'It's all over.'
55 "I called on your name, O LORD, from the depths of the pit;
55 "I called out your name, O God, called from the bottom of the pit.
56 you heard my plea, 'Do not close your ear to my cry for help!'
56 You listened when I called out, 'Don't shut your ears! Get me out of here! Save me!'
57 You came near when I called on you; you said, 'Do not fear!'
57 You came close when I called out. You said, 'It's going to be all right.'
58 "You have taken up my cause, O Lord; you have redeemed my life.
58 "You took my side, Master; you brought me back alive!
59 You have seen the wrong done to me, O LORD; judge my cause.
59 God, you saw the wrongs heaped on me. Give me my day in court!
60 You have seen all their vengeance, all their plots against me.
60 Yes, you saw their mean-minded schemes, their plots to destroy me.
61 "You have heard their taunts, O LORD, all their plots against me.
61 "You heard, God, their vicious gossip, their behind-my-back plots to ruin me.
62 The lips and thoughts of my assailants are against me all the day long.
62 They never quit, these enemies of mine, dreaming up mischief, hatching out malice, day after day after day.
63 Behold their sitting and their rising; I am the object of their taunts.
63 Sitting down or standing up - just look at them! - they mock me with vulgar doggerel.
64 "You will repay them, O LORD, according to the work of their hands.
64 "Make them pay for what they've done, God. Give them their just deserts.
65 You will give them dullness of heart; your curse will be on them.
65 Break their miserable hearts! Damn their eyes!
66 You will pursue them in anger and destroy them from under your heavens, O LORD."
66 Get good and angry. Hunt them down. Make a total demolition here under your heaven!"
The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.