Lamentations 4:8

The voice of one saying, “Cry!” One said, “What shall I cry?” “All flesh is like grass, and all its glory is like the flower of the field.

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

For he grew up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground. He has no good looks or majesty. When we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.

The elders of the daughter of Zion sit on the ground. They keep silence. They have cast up dust on their heads. They have clothed themselves with sackcloth. The virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground.

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.

would you then wait until they were grown? Would you then refrain from having husbands? No, my daughters, for it grieves me seriously for your sakes, for Yahweh’s hand has gone out against me.”

But Yahweh’s hand was heavy on the people of Ashdod, and he destroyed them and struck them with tumors, even Ashdod and its borders.

Now in the twenty-fourth day of this month the children of Israel were assembled with fasting, with sackcloth, and dirt on them.

He grows up like a flower, and is cut down. He also flees like a shadow, and doesn’t continue.

For your arrows have pierced me, your hand presses hard on me.

I have become a stranger to my brothers, an alien to my mother’s children.

“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.

Now, behold, the hand of the Lord is on you, and you will be blind, not seeing the sun for a season!” Immediately a mist and darkness fell on him. He went around seeking someone to lead him by the hand.

Joshua tore his clothes, and fell to the earth on his face before Yahweh’s ark until the evening, he and the elders of Israel; and they put dust on their heads.

A man of Benjamin ran out of the army and came to Shiloh the same day, with his clothes torn and with dirt on his head.

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

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

Behold, my terror will not make you afraid, neither will my pressure be heavy on you.

Have mercy on me, Yahweh, for I am faint. Yahweh, heal me, for my bones are troubled.

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

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

because of your indignation and your wrath; for you have taken me up and thrown me away.

I fade away like an evening shadow. I am shaken off like a locust.

They will be dismayed. Pangs and sorrows will seize them. They will be in pain like a woman in labor. They will look in amazement one at another. Their faces will be faces of flame.

For the hurt of the daughter of my people, I am hurt. I mourn. Dismay has taken hold of me.

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

Then they spat in his face and beat him with their fists, and some slapped him,

They cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and mourning, saying, ‘Woe, woe, the great city, in which all who had their ships in the sea were made rich by reason of her great wealth!’ For she is made desolate in one hour.

They sent therefore and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines, and they said, “Send the ark of the God of Israel away, and let it go again to its own place, that it not kill us and our people.” For there was a deadly panic throughout all the city. The hand of God was very heavy there.

Therefore you shall make images of your tumors and images of your mice that mar the land; and you shall give glory to the God of Israel. Perhaps he will release his hand from you, from your gods, and from your land.

For we are strangers before you, and foreigners, as all our fathers were. Our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is no remaining.

Then Job arose, and tore his robe, and shaved his head, and fell down on the ground, and worshiped.

(For we are but of yesterday, and know nothing, because our days on earth are a shadow.)

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

Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity, for Yahweh has heard the voice of my weeping.

My strength is dried up like a potsherd. My tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. You have brought me into the dust of death.

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

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

Lord, all my desire is before you. My groaning is not hidden from you.

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

The ropes of the wicked bind me, but I won’t forget your law.

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

Man is like a breath. His days are like a shadow that passes away.

You will groan at your latter end, when your flesh and your body are consumed,

A cheerful heart makes good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.

My own vineyard is before me. The thousand are for you, Solomon, two hundred for those who tend its fruit.

Therefore all hands will be feeble, and everyone’s heart will melt.

Therefore my thighs are filled with anguish. Pains have seized me, like the pains of a woman in labor. I am in so much pain that I can’t hear. I so am dismayed that I can’t see.

Behold, Yahweh makes the earth empty, makes it waste, turns it upside down, and scatters its inhabitants.

Ask now, and see whether a man travails with child. Why do I see every man with his hands on his waist, as a woman in travail, and all faces are turned pale?

He has made my flesh and my skin old. He has broken my bones.

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.

“Come to me, all you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest.

When the sun had risen, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away.

He said to them, “Elijah indeed comes first, and restores all things. How is it written about the Son of Man, that he should suffer many things and be despised?

For the Son of Man goes, even as it is written about him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would be better for that man if he had not been born.”

No one puts new wine into old wine skins, or else the new wine will burst the skins, and it will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed.

You have forgotten the exhortation which reasons with you as with children, “My son, don’t take lightly the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by him;

For the sun arises with the scorching wind and withers the grass, and the flower in it falls, and the beauty of its appearance perishes. So the rich man will also fade away in his pursuits.

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.

When they lifted up their eyes from a distance, and didn’t recognize him, they raised their voices, and wept; and they each tore his robe, and sprinkled dust on their heads toward the sky.

If a man dies, will he live again? I would wait all the days of my warfare, until my release should come.

You forever prevail against him, and he departs. You change his face, and send him away.

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

My relatives have gone away. My familiar friends have forgotten me.

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

For day and night your hand was heavy on me. My strength was sapped in the heat of summer.

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

My days are like a long shadow. I have withered like grass.

Don’t stare at me because I am dark, because the sun has scorched me. My mother’s sons were angry with me. They made me keeper of the vineyards. I haven’t kept my own vineyard.

Just as many were astonished at you— his appearance was marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men—

At their presence the peoples are in anguish. All faces have grown pale.

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