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Jeremiah Shares Israel’s Misery
1I am the man who has seen misery
Because of the rod of His wrath.
2He has driven me and made me walk
In darkness and not in light.
3Indeed, He has turned His hand against me
Repeatedly all the day.
4He has consumed my flesh and my skin,
He has broken my bones.
5He has Lit built againstbesieged and surrounded me with Lit poisonbitterness and hardship.
6He has made me live in dark places,
Like those who have long been dead.
7He has walled me in so that I cannot go out;
He has made my Lit bronze piecechain heavy.
8Even when I cry out and call for help,
He shuts out my prayer.
9He has blocked my ways with cut stone;
He has twisted my paths.
10He is to me like a bear lying in wait,
Like a lion in secret places.
11He has made my ways deviate, and torn me to pieces;
He has made me desolate.
12He bent His bow
And took aim at me as a target for the arrow.
13He made the Lit sonsarrows of His quiver
Enter my Lit kidneysinward parts.
14I have become a laughingstock to all my people,
Their song of ridicule all the day.
15He has filled me with bitterness,
He has made me drink plenty of wormwood.
16He has also made my teeth grind with gravel;
He has made me cower in the dust.
17My soul has been excluded from peace;
I have forgotten Lit goodhappiness.
18So I say, “My Or splendorstrength has failed,
And so has my hope from the Lord.”
Hope of Relief in God’s Mercy
19Remember my misery and my homelessness, the wormwood and Lit poisonbitterness.
20My soul certainly remembers,
And Or bows downis bent over within me.
21I recall this to my mind,
Therefore I Lit have hopewait.
22 As in ancient versions; MT It is...mercy that we do not end The Lords 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 Or hope inwait for Him.”
25The Lord is good to those who Or hope inawait Him,
To the Lit soulperson 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.
28Let him sit alone and keep quiet,
Since He has laid it on him.
29Let him Lit giveput his mouth in the dust;
Perhaps there is hope.
30Let him give his cheek to the one who is going to strike him;
Let him be filled with shame.
31For the Lord will not reject forever,
32For if He causes grief,
Then He will have compassion
In proportion to His abundant mercy.
33For He does not Or oppressafflict Lit from His heartwillingly
Or Or tormentgrieve the sons of mankind.
34To crush under Lit hisone’s feet
All the prisoners of the Or earthland,
35To Or turn aside a man’s casedeprive a man of justice
In the presence of the Most High,
36To Lit benddefraud someone in his lawsuit—
Of these things the Lord does not Lit seeapprove.
37Who is Lit thisthere 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 Lit the evil things and the goodboth adversity and good proceed?
39Of what can any living Or human beingmortal, or any man,
Complain Or on the basis ofin view of his sins?
40Let’s examine and search out our ways,
And let’s return to the Lord.
41We raise our heart Lit toward ourand hands
Toward God in heaven;
42We have done wrong and rebelled;
You have not pardoned.
43You have covered Yourself with anger
And pursued us;
You have slain and have not spared.
44You have veiled Yourself with a cloud
So that no prayer can pass through.
45You have made us mere refuse and rubbish
In the midst of the peoples.
46All our enemies have opened their mouths against us.
47Panic and pitfall have come upon us,
Devastation and destruction;
48My Lit eye goes downeyes run down with streams of water
Because of the destruction of the daughter of my people.
49My eyes flow unceasingly,
Without stopping,
50Until the Lord looks down
And sees from heaven.
51My eyes bring pain to my soul
Because of all the daughters of my city.
52My enemies without reason
Hunted me down like a bird;
53They have silenced Lit my lifeme in the pit
And have Or thrown a stonethrown stones on me.
54Waters flowed over my head;
I said, “I am Or destroyedcut off!”
55I called on Your name, Lord,
Out of the lowest pit.
56You have heard my voice,
“Do not cover Your ear from my plea for relief,
From my cry for help.”
57You came near on the day I called to You;
You said, “Do not fear!”
58Lord, You have pleaded my soul’s cause;
You have redeemed my life.
59Lord, You have seen my oppression;
Judge my case.
60You have seen all their vengeance,
All their schemes against me.
61You have heard their reproach, Lord,
All their schemes against me.
62The lips of my assailants and their talk
Are against me all day long.
63Look at their I.e., daily activitiessitting and their rising;
I am their mocking song.
64You will repay them, Lord,
In accordance with the work of their hands.
65You will give them Or insanityshamelessness of heart,
Your curse will be on them.
66You will pursue them in anger and eliminate them
From under the heavens of the Lord!