en_ulb/25-LAM/03.usfm

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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 waits 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 any man complain about the punishment for his sins?
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\v 40 Let us test and examine our ways, and turn again to Yahweh.
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\v 41 Let us lift up our hearts and our hands to God in the heavens and pray:
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\v 42 "We have transgressed and have rebelled against you, so you have not pardoned us.
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\v 43 You have covered yourself with anger and pursued us. You have slaughtered us, and you have not pitied us.
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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 castoffs and refuse among the peoples.
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\v 46 All our enemies have opened their mouths mockingly against us.
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\v 47 Fear of the pit has come upon us, desolation and crushing."

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\v 48 My eye runs down with streams of water because of the crushing of the daughter of my people.
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\v 49 My eyes flow out, and they do not stop, for there is no end to it
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\v 50 until Yahweh looks down and sees from heaven.

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\v 51 My eye brings severe pain to my life because of all the daughters of my city.

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\v 52 My enemies have relentlessly hunted me like a bird, without cause.
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\v 53 They have destroyed my life in a well and have placed a stone over me.
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\v 54 Waters flowed over my head; I said, "I have been cut off!"
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\v 55 I called on your name, Yahweh, out of the lowest pit.
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\v 56 You heard my voice when I said, "Do not hide your ear from my call for relief, from my cry for help."
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\v 57 You approached me on the day that I called on you; you told me, "Do not fear!"

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\v 58 Lord, you defended me when I was on trial for my life; you have saved my life!
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\v 59 Yahweh, you have seen their oppression of me. Judge my case justly.
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\v 60 You have seen all their acts of vengeance, all their plans 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 You have heard the lips of those who rose up against me; you have heard their deep thoughts that are against me all day long.
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\v 63 Whether in their sitting or their rising up, look, Yahweh! I am the object of their mocking song.

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\v 64 Pay back to them, Yahweh, as much harm as what their hands have done.
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\v 65 Set fear in their hearts; set your curse on them.
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\v 66 Pursue them in your anger and destroy them everywhere under the heavens, Yahweh!