You Can Read the Bible

The author of Lamentations – quite possibly Jeremiah, or maybe Baruch – is under no illusions about why this calamity has befallen them, for “Jerusalem sinned grievously; therefore, she became filthy.” Therefore, “The LORD has done what He purposed.” Yet the author pours forth lament. This is not contradictory: sit at the author’s feet and let him teach us of repentance and grief.

In the original Hebrew, chapters 3 and 4 are again acrostic poems. In chapter 3, the lines are in series of three: the first three lines begin with aleph, the second three begin with bet, etc., for a total of 66 lines, or 22 sets of 3. In chapter 4 each line begins with the next letter in the alphabet. Chapter 5 is simply a 22-line oracle that culminates with a plea: “Restore us to yourself, O LORD, that we may be restored! Renew our days of old – unless you have utterly rejected us, and you remain exceedingly angry with us.

But I want to highlight the very center of the book, where the author’s own steadfast faith is revealed. Consider when and where and how this is written:

Remember my affliction and my wanderings,
the wormwood and the gall!

My soul continually remembers it
and is bowed down within me.

But this I call to mind,
and therefore I have hope:

The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases,
his mercies never come to an end;

they are new every morning;
great is Your faithfulness.

“The LORD is my portion,” says my soul,
“therefore I will hope in Him.”

Our verse for this week is Romans 3:23: For all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God.

Lamentations 3 through 5. Now let’s read it!

Lamentations 3 - 5

I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath. He has led me and caused me to walk in darkness, and not in light. Surely he turns his hand against me again and again all day long. He has made my flesh and my skin old. He has broken my bones. He has built against me, and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship. He has made me dwell in dark places, as those who have been long dead. He has walled me about, so that I can't go out. He has made my chain heavy. Yes, when I cry, and call for help, he shuts out my prayer. He has walled up my ways with cut stone. He has made my paths crooked. He is to me as a bear lying in wait, as a lion in hiding. He has turned away my path, and pulled me in pieces. He has made me desolate. He has bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow. He has caused the shafts of his quiver to enter into my kidneys. I have become a derision to all my people, and their song all day long. He has filled me with bitterness. He has stuffed me with wormwood. He has also broken my teeth with gravel. He has covered me with ashes. You have removed my soul far away from peace. I forgot prosperity. I said, "My strength has perished, along with my expectation from Jehovah." Remember my affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the bitterness. My soul still remembers them, and is bowed down within me. This I recall to my mind; therefore I have hope. It is because of Jehovah's loving kindnesses that we are not consumed, because his mercies don't fail. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. "Jehovah is my portion," says my soul. "Therefore I will hope in him." Jehovah is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. It is good that a man should hope and quietly wait for the salvation of Jehovah. It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. Let him sit alone and keep silence, because he has laid it on him. Let him put his mouth in the dust, if it is so that there may be hope. Let him give his cheek to him who strikes him. Let him be filled full of reproach. For the Lord will not cast off forever. For though he causes grief, yet he will have compassion according to the multitude of his loving kindnesses. For he does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men. To crush under foot all the prisoners of the earth, to turn away the right of a man before the face of the Most High, to subvert a man in his cause, the Lord doesn't approve. Who is he who says, and it comes to pass, when the Lord doesn't command it? Doesn't evil and good come out of the mouth of the Most High? Why should a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins? Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to Jehovah. Let's lift up our heart with our hands to God in the heavens. "We have transgressed and have rebelled. You have not pardoned. "You have covered us with anger and pursued us. You have killed. You have not pitied. You have covered yourself with a cloud, so that no prayer can pass through. You have made us an off-scouring and refuse in the middle of the peoples. "All our enemies have opened their mouth wide against us. Terror and the pit have come on us, devastation and destruction." My eye runs down with streams of water, for the destruction of the daughter of my people. My eye pours down and doesn't cease, without any intermission, until Jehovah looks down, and sees from heaven. My eye affects my soul, because of all the daughters of my city. They have chased me relentlessly like a bird, those who are my enemies without cause. They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and have cast a stone on me. Waters flowed over my head. I said, "I am cut off." I called on your name, Jehovah, out of the lowest dungeon. You heard my voice: "Don't hide your ear from my sighing, and my cry." You came near in the day that I called on you. You said, "Don't be afraid." Lord, you have pleaded the causes of my soul. You have redeemed my life. Jehovah, you have seen my wrong. Judge my cause. You have seen all their vengeance and all their plans against me. You have heard their reproach, Jehovah, and all their plans against me, the lips of those that rose up against me, and their plots against me all day long. You see their sitting down and their rising up. I am their song. You will pay them back, Jehovah, according to the work of their hands. You will give them hardness of heart, your curse to them. You will pursue them in anger, and destroy them from under the heavens of Jehovah. How the gold has become dim! The most pure gold has changed! The stones of the sanctuary are poured out at the head of every street. The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, how they are esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter! Even the jackals offer their breast. They nurse their young ones. But the daughter of my people has become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness. The tongue of the nursing child clings to the roof of his mouth for thirst. The young children ask for bread, and no one breaks it for them. Those who ate delicacies are desolate in the streets. Those who were brought up in purple embrace dunghills. For the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the sin of Sodom, which was overthrown as in a moment. No hands were laid on her. Her nobles were purer than snow. They were whiter than milk. They were more ruddy in body than rubies. Their polishing was like sapphire. Their appearance is blacker than a coal. They are not known in the streets. Their skin clings to their bones. It is withered. It has become like wood. Those who are killed with the sword are better than those who are killed with hunger; for these pine away, stricken through, for lack of the fruits of the field. The hands of the pitiful women have boiled their own children. They were their food in the destruction of the daughter of my people. Jehovah has accomplished his wrath. He has poured out his fierce anger. He has kindled a fire in Zion, which has devoured its foundations. The kings of the earth didn't believe, neither did all the inhabitants of the world, that the adversary and the enemy would enter into the gates of Jerusalem. It is because of the sins of her prophets and the iniquities of her priests, that have shed the blood of the just in the middle of her. They wander as blind men in the streets. They are polluted with blood, So that men can't touch their garments. "Go away!" they cried to them. "Unclean! Go away! Go away! Don't touch! When they fled away and wandered, men said among the nations, "They can't live here any more." Jehovah's anger has scattered them. He will not pay attention to them any more. They didn't respect the persons of the priests. They didn't favor the elders. Our eyes still fail, looking in vain for our help. In our watching we have watched for a nation that could not save. They hunt our steps, so that we can't go in our streets. Our end is near. Our days are fulfilled, for our end has come. Our pursuers were swifter than the eagles of the sky. They chased us on the mountains. They set an ambush for us in the wilderness. The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of Jehovah, was taken in their pits; of whom we said, under his shadow we will live among the nations. Rejoice and be glad, daughter of Edom, who dwells in the land of Uz. The cup will pass through to you also. You will be drunken, and will make yourself naked. The punishment of your iniquity is accomplished, daughter of Zion. He will no more carry you away into captivity. He will visit your iniquity, daughter of Edom. He will uncover your sins. Remember, Jehovah, what has come on us. Look, and see our reproach. Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers, our houses to aliens. We are orphans and fatherless. Our mothers are as widows. We must pay for water to drink. Our wood is sold to us. Our pursuers are on our necks. We are weary, and have no rest. We have given our hands to the Egyptians, and to the Assyrians, to be satisfied with bread. Our fathers sinned, and are no more. We have borne their iniquities. Servants rule over us. There is no one to deliver us out of their hand. We get our bread at the peril of our lives, because of the sword in the wilderness. Our skin is black like an oven, because of the burning heat of famine. They ravished the women in Zion, the virgins in the cities of Judah. Princes were hanged up by their hands. The faces of elders were not honored. The young men carry millstones. The children stumbled under loads of wood. The elders have ceased from the gate, and the young men from their music. The joy of our heart has ceased. Our dance is turned into mourning. The crown has fallen from our head. Woe to us, for we have sinned! For this our heart is faint. For these things our eyes are dim: for the mountain of Zion, which is desolate. The foxes walk on it. You, Jehovah, remain forever. Your throne is from generation to generation. Why do you forget us forever, and forsake us for so long a time? Turn us to yourself, Jehovah, and we will be turned. Renew our days as of old. But you have utterly rejected us. You are very angry against us.

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