pjoakes_en_ult/25-LAM/03.usfm

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\c 3
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\v 1 I am a man who has seen misery under the rod of Yahweh's fury.
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\v 2 He drove me away and caused me to walk in darkness rather than light.
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\v 3 Surely he turned his hand against me again and again, the whole day long.  
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\v 4 He made my flesh and my skin waste away; he broke my bones.

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\v 5 He built up siege works against me, and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship.
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\v 6 He made me live in dark places, like those who died long ago.
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\v 7 He built a wall around me and I cannot escape. He made my chains heavy
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\v 8 and though I call out and cry for help, he shut out my prayer.

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\v 9 He blocked my path with a wall of hewn stone; he made my paths crooked.
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\v 10 He is like a bear waiting to ambush me, a lion in hiding;
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\v 11 he turned aside my paths, he has made be desolate.

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\v 12 He bent his bow and set me as a target for his arrow.
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\v 13 He pieced my kidneys with the arrows of his quiver.
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\v 14 I became a laughingstock to all my people, the object of their taunting all day long. 
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\v 15 He filled me with bitterness and forced me to drink wormwood.

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\v 16 He crushed my teeth with gravel; he has pushed me down into the dust. 
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\v 17 My soul is deprived of peace; I have forgotten what happiness is. 
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\v 18 So I say, "My endurance has perished and so has my hope in Yahweh."
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\v 19 Remember my affliction and my wanderings, the wormwood and bitterness.
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\v 20 I continually remember it and I am bowed down within me.
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\v 21 But I call this to mind and therefore I have hope:

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\v 22 The steadfast love of Yahweh never ceases and his compassions never end,
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\v 23 they are new every morning; your faithfulness is great.
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\v 24 "Yahweh is my inheritance," I said, therefore I will hope in him.

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\v 25 Yahweh is good to those who wait for him, to the one who seeks him.
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\v 26 It is good to wait silently for the salvation of Yahweh.
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\v 27 It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.
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\v 28 Let him sit alone in silence, when it is laid upon him.
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\v 29 Let him put his mouth in the dust—there may yet be hope.

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\v 30 Let him give his cheek to the one who strikes him, and let him be filled full with disgrace.
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\v 31 For the Lord will not reject us forever,
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\v 32 but though he causes grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love.
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\v 33 For he does not afflict from his heart or torment the children of mankind.

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\v 34 To crush underfoot all the prisoners of the earth,
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\v 35 to deny a man justice in the presence of the Most High,
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\v 36 to deny justice to a person—the Lord would not approve such things!

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\v 37 Who has spoken and it came to pass, unless the Lord decreed it?
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\v 38 Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that both calamities and the good come? 
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\v 39 How can any person alive complain? How can a person complain about the punishment for his sins?
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\v 40 Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to Yahweh.
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\v 41 Let us lift up our hearts and our hands to God in the heavens:
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\v 42 "We have transgressed and rebelled, and you have not forgiven.
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\v 43 You have covered yourself with anger and pursued us, you have killed and you have not spared.  

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\v 44 You have covered yourself with a cloud so that no prayer can pass through.
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\v 45 You have made us like filthy scum and refuse among the nations.
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\v 46 All our enemies curse us,
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\v 47 panic and pitfall have come upon us, ruin and destruction.

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\v 48 My eyes flow with streams of tears because my people are destroyed.
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\v 49 My eyes will shed tears without ceasing; without relief, 
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\v 50 until he will look down and Yahweh will see from heaven. 

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\v 51 My eyes cause me grief because of all the daughters of my city.

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\v 52 I have been hunted like a bird those who were my enemies; they hunted me without a reason.
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\v 53 They cast me into a pit and they down a stone on me,
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\v 54 waters poured over my head; I said, "I have been cut off!"
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\v 55 I called on your name, Yahweh, from the depths of the pit.
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\v 56 You heard my voice when I said, "Do not close your ear to my cry for help."
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\v 57 You came near on the day I called on you; you said, "Do not fear."

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\v 58 Lord, you defended my case, you saved my life!
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\v 59 Yahweh, you have seen the wrong they have done to me; judge my case. 
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\v 60 You have seen their insults, all their plots against me—
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\v 61 You have heard their scorn, Yahweh, and all their plans regarding me.

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\v 62 The lips of those who rise up against me, and their accusations, come against all the day. 
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\v 63 Look at how they sit and then rise up; they mock me with their songs. 

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\v 64 Pay back to them, Yahweh, according to what they have done.
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\v 65 You will let their hearts be shameless! May your condemnation be upon them!
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\v 66 You pursue them in anger and destroy them from under the heavens, Yahweh!