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| | Lam 3:1 | I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.
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| | Lam 3:2 | He has driven me away and made me walk in darkness rather than light;
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| | Lam 3:3 | indeed, he has turned his hand against me again and again, all day long.
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| | Lam 3:4 | He has made my skin and my flesh grow old and has broken my bones.
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| | Lam 3:5 | He has besieged me and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship.
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| | Lam 3:6 | He has made me dwell in darkness like those long dead.
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| | Lam 3:7 | He has walled me in so I cannot escape; he has weighed me down with chains.
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| | Lam 3:8 | Even when I call out or cry for help, he shuts out my prayer.
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| | Lam 3:9 | He has barred my way with blocks of stone; he has made my paths crooked.
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| | Lam 3:10 | Like a bear lying in wait, like a lion in hiding,
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| | Lam 3:11 | he dragged me from the path and mangled me and left me without help.
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| | Lam 3:12 | He drew his bow and made me the target for his arrows.
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| | Lam 3:13 | He pierced my heart with arrows from his quiver.
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| | Lam 3:14 | I became the laughingstock of all my people; they mock me in song all day long.
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| | Lam 3:15 | He has filled me with bitter herbs and sated me with gall.
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| | Lam 3:16 | He has broken my teeth with gravel; he has trampled me in the dust.
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| | Lam 3:17 | I have been deprived of peace; I have forgotten what prosperity is.
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| | Lam 3:18 | So I say, "My splendor is gone and all that I had hoped from the LORD."
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| | Lam 3:19 | I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall.
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| | Lam 3:20 | I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me.
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| | Lam 3:21 | Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope:
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| | Lam 3:22 | Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.
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| | Lam 3:23 | They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
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| | Lam 3:24 | I say to myself, "The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him."
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| | Lam 3:25 | The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him;
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| | Lam 3:26 | it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.
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| | Lam 3:27 | It is good for a man to bear the yoke while he is young.
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| | Lam 3:28 | Let him sit alone in silence, for the LORD has laid it on him.
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| | Lam 3:29 | Let him bury his face in the dust-- there may yet be hope.
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| | Lam 3:30 | Let him offer his cheek to one who would strike him, and let him be filled with disgrace.
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| | Lam 3:31 | For men are not cast off by the Lord forever.
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| | Lam 3:32 | Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love.
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| | Lam 3:33 | For he does not willingly bring affliction or grief to the children of men.
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| | Lam 3:34 | To crush underfoot all prisoners in the land,
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| | Lam 3:35 | to deny a man his rights before the Most High,
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| | Lam 3:36 | to deprive a man of justice-- would not the Lord see such things?
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| | Lam 3:37 | Who can speak and have it happen if the Lord has not decreed it?
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| | Lam 3:38 | Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that both calamities and good things come?
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| | Lam 3:39 | Why should any living man complain when punished for his sins?
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| | Lam 3:40 | Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the LORD.
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| | Lam 3:41 | Let us lift up our hearts and our hands to God in heaven, and say:
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| | Lam 3:42 | "We have sinned and rebelled and you have not forgiven.
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| | Lam 3:43 | "You have covered yourself with anger and pursued us; you have slain without pity.
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| | Lam 3:44 | You have covered yourself with a cloud so that no prayer can get through.
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| | Lam 3:45 | You have made us scum and refuse among the nations.
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| | Lam 3:46 | "All our enemies have opened their mouths wide against us.
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| | Lam 3:47 | We have suffered terror and pitfalls, ruin and destruction."
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| | Lam 3:48 | Streams of tears flow from my eyes because my people are destroyed.
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| | Lam 3:49 | My eyes will flow unceasingly, without relief,
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| | Lam 3:50 | until the LORD looks down from heaven and sees.
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| | Lam 3:51 | What I see brings grief to my soul because of all the women of my city.
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| | Lam 3:52 | Those who were my enemies without cause hunted me like a bird.
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| | Lam 3:53 | They tried to end my life in a pit and threw stones at me;
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| | Lam 3:54 | the waters closed over my head, and I thought I was about to be cut off.
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| | Lam 3:55 | I called on your name, O LORD, from the depths of the pit.
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| | Lam 3:56 | You heard my plea: "Do not close your ears to my cry for relief."
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| | Lam 3:57 | You came near when I called you, and you said, "Do not fear."
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| | Lam 3:58 | O Lord, you took up my case; you redeemed my life.
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| | Lam 3:59 | You have seen, O LORD, the wrong done to me. Uphold my cause!
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| | Lam 3:60 | You have seen the depth of their vengeance, all their plots against me.
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| | Lam 3:61 | O LORD, you have heard their insults, all their plots against me--
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| | Lam 3:62 | what my enemies whisper and mutter against me all day long.
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| | Lam 3:63 | Look at them! Sitting or standing, they mock me in their songs.
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| | Lam 3:64 | Pay them back what they deserve, O LORD, for what their hands have done.
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| | Lam 3:65 | Put a veil over their hearts, and may your curse be on them!
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| | Lam 3:66 | Pursue them in anger and destroy them from under the heavens of the LORD.
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