Lamentations 3:4

By reason of the voice of my groaning, my bones stick to my skin.

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 a stick.

Then the king’s face was changed in him, and his thoughts troubled him; and the joints of his thighs were loosened, and his knees struck one against another.

Whereas you don’t know what your life will be like tomorrow. For what is your life? For you are a vapor that appears for a little time, and then vanishes away.

The men of Ai struck about thirty-six men of them. They chased them from before the gate even to Shebarim, and struck them at the descent. The hearts of the people melted, and became like water.

If my head is held high, you hunt me like a lion. Again you show yourself powerful to me.

For God has made my heart faint. The Almighty has terrified me.

His flesh is so consumed away that it can’t be seen. His bones that were not seen stick out.

Let me hear joy and gladness, that the bones which you have broken may rejoice.

They mount up to the sky; they go down again to the depths. Their soul melts away because of trouble.

I waited patiently until morning. He breaks all my bones like a lion. From day even to night you will make an end of me.

The young lions have roared at him and yelled. They have made his land waste. His cities are burned up, without inhabitant.

“Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon has devoured me. He has crushed me. He has made me an empty vessel. He has, like a monster, swallowed me up. He has filled his mouth with my delicacies. He has cast me out.

“ ‘When you offer an offering of a meal offering baked in the oven, it shall be unleavened cakes of fine flour mixed with oil, or unleavened wafers anointed with oil.

God brings him out of Egypt. He has as it were the strength of the wild ox. He shall consume the nations his adversaries, shall break their bones in pieces, and pierce them with his arrows.

So Satan went out from the presence of Yahweh, and struck Job with painful sores from the sole of his foot to his head.

If I have sinned, what do I do to you, you watcher of men? Why have you set me as a mark for you, so that I am a burden to myself?

“Now my soul is poured out within me. Days of affliction have taken hold of me.

lest they tear apart my soul like a lion, ripping it in pieces, while there is no one to deliver.

But the wicked shall perish. The enemies of Yahweh shall be like the beauty of the fields. They will vanish— vanish like smoke.

For I have become like a wineskin in the smoke. I don’t forget your statutes.

“Israel is a hunted sheep. The lions have driven him away. First, the king of Assyria devoured him, and now at last Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has broken his bones.”

“From on high has he sent fire into my bones, and it prevails against them. He has spread a net for my feet. He has turned me back. He has made me desolate and I faint all day long.

The king commanded, and they brought those men who had accused Daniel, and they cast them into the den of lions, them, their children, and their wives; and the lions mauled them, and broke all their bones in pieces, before they came to the bottom of the den.

She is empty, void, and waste. The heart melts, the knees knock together, their bodies and faces have grown pale.

As soon as we had heard it, our hearts melted, and there wasn’t any more spirit in any man, because of you: for Yahweh your God, he is God in heaven above, and on earth beneath.

Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, “Oh that you would bless me indeed, and enlarge my border! May your hand be with me, and may you keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!” God granted him that which he requested.

You have shriveled me up. This is a witness against me. My leanness rises up against me. It testifies to my face.

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.

In the night season my bones are pierced in me, and the pains that gnaw me take no rest.

But I trust in your loving kindness. My heart rejoices in your salvation.

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me, and from the words of my groaning?

I can count all of my bones. They look and stare at me.

You have turned my mourning into dancing for me. You have removed my sackcloth, and clothed me with gladness,

For my life is spent with sorrow, my years with sighing. My strength fails because of my iniquity. My bones are wasted away.

All my bones shall say, “Yahweh, who is like you, who delivers the poor from him who is too strong for him; yes, the poor and the needy from him who robs him?”

There is no soundness in my flesh because of your indignation, neither is there any health in my bones because of my sin.

I am faint and severely bruised. I have groaned by reason of the anguish of my heart.

though you have crushed us in the haunt of jackals, and covered us with the shadow of death.

As smoke is driven away, so drive them away. As wax melts before the fire, so let the wicked perish at the presence of God.

My soul is weary with sorrow: strengthen me according to your word.

Then Yahweh’s ransomed ones will return, and come with singing to Zion; and everlasting joy will be on their heads. They will obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.”

Therefore I will give him a portion with the great. He will divide the plunder with the strong; because he poured out his soul to death and was counted with the transgressors; yet he bore the sins of many and made intercession for the transgressors.

Pour out your wrath on the nations that don’t know you, and on the families that don’t call on your name; for they have devoured Jacob. Yes, they have devoured him, consumed him, and have laid waste his habitation.

My people have been lost sheep. Their shepherds have caused them to go astray. They have turned them away on the mountains. They have gone from mountain to hill. They have forgotten their resting place.

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.

Our skin is black like an oven, because of the burning heat of famine.

They were scattered, because there was no shepherd. They became food to all the animals of the field, and were scattered.

I will gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat; and I will execute judgment on them there for my people, and for my heritage, Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations. They have divided my land,

Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to heal the broken hearted, to proclaim release to the captives, recovering of sight to the blind, to deliver those who are crushed,

“Now my soul is troubled. What shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this time?’ But I came to this time for this cause.

When he opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature saying, “Come and see!” And behold, a black horse, and he who sat on it had a balance in his hand.

The priest shall burn it on the altar: it is the food of the offering made by fire to Yahweh.

All its fat he shall take from it, and burn it on the altar.

Then he said to him, “Because you have not obeyed Yahweh’s voice, behold, as soon as you have departed from me, a lion will kill you.” As soon as he had departed from him, a lion found him and killed him.

My bones stick to my skin and to my flesh. I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.

My skin grows black and peels from me. My bones are burned with heat.

I am poured out like water. All my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax. It is melted within me.

When I kept silence, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.

Remove your scourge away from me. I am overcome by the blow of your hand.

“Now consider this, you who forget God, lest I tear you into pieces, and there be no one to deliver.

For my days consume away like smoke. My bones are burned as a torch.

A lion has gone up from his thicket, and a destroyer of nations. He is on his way. He has gone out from his place, to make your land desolate, that your cities be laid waste, without inhabitant.

Therefore a lion out of the forest will kill them. A wolf of the evenings will destroy them. A leopard will watch against their cities. Everyone who goes out there will be torn in pieces, because their transgressions are many and their backsliding has increased.

“Behold, he will come up like a lion from the pride of the Jordan against the strong habitation: for I will suddenly make them run away from it; and whoever is chosen, I will appoint him over it. For who is like me? Who will appoint me a time? Who is the shepherd who will stand before me?”

As a shepherd seeks out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered abroad, so I will seek out my sheep. I will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day.

For I will be to Ephraim like a lion, and like a young lion to the house of Judah. I myself will tear in pieces and go away. I will carry off, and there will be no one to deliver.

He who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but on whomever it will fall, it will scatter him as dust.”

For you were going astray like sheep; but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.