Lamentations 3:16

They have gaped on me with their mouth. They have struck me on the cheek reproachfully. They gather themselves together against me.

Therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”

My soul is among lions. I lie among those who are set on fire, even the sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword.

There is a generation whose teeth are like swords, and their jaws like knives, to devour the poor from the earth, and the needy from among men.

Let a cry be heard from their houses when you bring a troop suddenly on them; for they have dug a pit to take me and hidden snares for my feet.

I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; and I will make you wear sackcloth on all your bodies, and baldness on every head. I will make it like the mourning for an only son, and its end like a bitter day.

See the birds of the sky, that they don’t sow, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns. Your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren’t you of much more value than they?

My tears have been my food day and night, while they continually ask me, “Where is your God?”

“Stolen water is sweet. Food eaten in secret is pleasant.”

Fraudulent food is sweet to a man, but afterwards his mouth is filled with gravel.

“Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yes, these may forget, yet I will not forget you!

For this, clothe yourself with sackcloth, lament and wail; for the fierce anger of Yahweh hasn’t turned back from us.

Wail, you shepherds, and cry. Wallow in dust, you leader of the flock; for the days of your slaughter and of your dispersions have fully come, and you will fall like fine pottery.

and will cause their voice to be heard over you, and will cry bitterly. They will cast up dust on their heads. They will wallow in the ashes.

I will pour on David’s house, and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplication; and they will look to me whom they have pierced; and they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for his only son, and will grieve bitterly for him, as one grieves for his firstborn.

Behold, I will rebuke your offspring, and will spread dung on your faces, even the dung of your feasts; and you will be taken away with it.

For my sighing comes before I eat. My groanings are poured out like water.

yet you will plunge me in the ditch. My own clothes will abhor me.

I broke the jaws of the unrighteous and plucked the prey out of his teeth.

Arise, Yahweh, in your anger. Lift up yourself against the rage of my adversaries. Awake for me. You have commanded judgment.

Arise, Yahweh! God, lift up your hand! Don’t forget the helpless.

He feeds on ashes. A deceived heart has turned him aside; and he can’t deliver his soul, nor say, “Isn’t there a lie in my right hand?”

Daughter of my people, clothe yourself with sackcloth, and wallow in ashes! Mourn, as for an only son, most bitter lamentation, for the destroyer will suddenly come on us.

Babylon will become heaps, a dwelling place for jackals, an astonishment, and a hissing, without inhabitant.

Then all the princes of the sea will come down from their thrones, and lay aside their robes, and strip off their embroidered garments. They will clothe themselves with trembling. They will sit on the ground, and will tremble every moment, and be astonished at you.

“Therefore I have also made you contemptible and wicked before all the people, according to the way you have not kept my ways, but have had respect for persons in the law.

“Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works had been done in Tyre and Sidon which were done in you, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.

They are children of fools, yes, children of wicked men. They were flogged out of the land.

Arise, Yahweh! Save me, my God! For you have struck all of my enemies on the cheek bone. You have broken the teeth of the wicked.

Return, Yahweh. Deliver my soul, and save me for your loving kindness’ sake.

Arise, Yahweh! Don’t let man prevail. Let the nations be judged in your sight.

Break the arm of the wicked. As for the evil man, seek out his wickedness until you find none.

“Because of the oppression of the weak and because of the groaning of the needy, I will now arise,” says Yahweh; “I will set him in safety from those who malign him.”

Arise, Yahweh, confront him. Cast him down. Deliver my soul from the wicked by your sword;

Wake up! Rise up to defend me, my God! My Lord, contend for me!

Wake up! Why do you sleep, Lord? Arise! Don’t reject us forever.

Break their teeth, God, in their mouth. Break out the great teeth of the young lions, Yahweh.

You, Yahweh God of Armies, the God of Israel, rouse yourself to punish the nations. Show no mercy to the wicked traitors.

Why do you draw back your hand, even your right hand? Take it from your chest and consume them!

when God arose to judgment, to save all the afflicted ones of the earth.

You have fed them with the bread of tears, and given them tears to drink in large measure.

He raises up the poor out of the dust. Lifts up the needy from the ash heap,

Rejoice, young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth, and walk in the ways of your heart, and in the sight of your eyes; but know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment.

“Come down and sit in the dust, virgin daughter of Babylon. Sit on the ground without a throne, daughter of the Chaldeans. For you will no longer be called tender and delicate.

Awake, awake, put on strength, arm of Yahweh! Awake, as in the days of old, the generations of ancient times. Isn’t it you who cut Rahab in pieces, who pierced the monster?

Is this the fast that I have chosen? A day for a man to humble his soul? Is it to bow down his head like a reed, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under himself? Will you call this a fast, and an acceptable day to Yahweh?

Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a spring of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!

The king and his servants who heard all these words were not afraid, and didn’t tear their garments.

The destroyer will come on every city, and no city will escape; the valley also will perish, and the plain will be destroyed; as Yahweh has spoken.

Let him give his cheek to him who strikes him. Let him be filled full of reproach.

Don’t tell it in Gath. Don’t weep at all. At Beth Ophrah I have rolled myself in the dust.

Yahweh has commanded concerning you: “No more descendants will bear your name. Out of the house of your gods, I will cut off the engraved image and the molten image. I will make your grave, for you are vile.”

For, I think that God has displayed us, the apostles, last of all, like men sentenced to death. For we are made a spectacle to the world, both to angels and men.

partly, being exposed to both reproaches and oppressions; and partly, becoming partakers with those who were treated so.

choosing rather to share ill treatment with God’s people than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a time,

You shall eat no leavened bread with it. You shall eat unleavened bread with it seven days, even the bread of affliction (for you came out of the land of Egypt in haste) that you may remember the day when you came out of the land of Egypt all the days of your life.

Say, ‘The king says, “Put this fellow in the prison, and feed him with bread of affliction and with water of affliction, until I come in peace.” ’ ”

He took for himself a potsherd to scrape himself with, and he sat among the ashes.

The roaring of the lion, and the voice of the fierce lion, the teeth of the young lions, are broken.

But he saves from the sword of their mouth, even the needy from the hand of the mighty.

I was at ease, and he broke me apart. Yes, he has taken me by the neck, and dashed me to pieces. He has also set me up for his target.

Help, Yahweh; for the godly man ceases. For the faithful fail from among the children of men.

I will pursue my enemies, and overtake them. I won’t turn away until they are consumed.

For I have eaten ashes like bread, and mixed my drink with tears,

Her gates shall lament and mourn. She shall be desolate and sit on the ground.

Therefore I said, “Look away from me. I will weep bitterly. Don’t labor to comfort me for the destruction of the daughter of my people.

In that day, the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, called to weeping, to mourning, to baldness, and to dressing in sackcloth;

Destruction on destruction is decreed, for the whole land is laid waste. Suddenly my tents are destroyed, and my curtains gone in a moment.

Say to the king and to the queen mother, “Humble yourselves. Sit down, for your crowns have come down, even the crown of your glory.

Their widows are increased more than the sand of the seas. I have brought on them against the mother of the young men a destroyer at noonday. I have caused anguish and terrors to fall on her suddenly.

My eyes fail with tears. My heart is troubled. My liver is poured on the earth, because of the destruction of the daughter of my people, because the young children and the infants swoon in the streets of the city.

My eye runs down with streams of water, for the destruction of the daughter of my people.

The news reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and took off his royal robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.

I will throw abominable filth on you, and make you vile, and will set you a spectacle.

This is the joyous city that lived carelessly, that said in her heart, “I am, and there is no one besides me.” How she has become a desolation, a place for animals to lie down in! Everyone who passes by her will hiss, and shake their fists.

I will take away his blood out of his mouth, and his abominations from between his teeth; and he also will be a remnant for our God; and he will be as a chieftain in Judah, and Ekron as a Jebusite.

Or who is there among you, who, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone?

“Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works had been done in Tyre and Sidon which were done in you, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes.

“Which of you fathers, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, he won’t give him a snake instead of a fish, will he?