Lamentations

¹ trouble coming from the lash of God's anger.

² into pitch-black darkness.

³ over and over and over again.

⁴ of skin and bones, then broke the bones.

⁵ poured on the trouble and hard times.

⁶ like a corpse nailed inside a coffin.

⁷ manacles my hands, shackles my feet.

⁸ he locks up my prayers and throws away the key.

⁹ He's got me cornered.

¹⁰ a lion in hiding ready to pounce.

¹¹ When he finished, there was nothing left of me.

¹² and used me for target practice.

¹³ with arrows from his quiver.

¹⁴ made me the butt of their mocking ballads.

¹⁵ bloated me with vile drinks.

¹⁶ He pounded me into the mud.

¹⁷ I've forgotten what the good life is like.

¹⁸ God is a lost cause."

¹⁹ the taste of ashes, the poison I've swallowed.

²⁰ the feeling of hitting the bottom.

²¹ and remembering, I keep a grip on hope:

²² his merciful love couldn't have dried up.

²³ How great your faithfulness!

²⁴ He's all I've got left.

²⁵ to the woman who diligently seeks.

²⁶ quietly hope for help from God.

²⁷ to stick it out through the hard times.

²⁸ go off by yourself. Enter the silence.

²⁹ Wait for hope to appear.

³⁰ The "worst" is never the worst.

³¹ walk out and fail to return.

³² His stockpiles of loyal love are immense.

³³ in throwing roadblocks in the way:

³⁴ on luckless prisoners,

³⁵ in the court of High God,

³⁶ the Master does not approve of such things.

³⁷ It's the Master who gives such orders.

³⁸ good things and hard things alike, into being?

³⁹ complain when punished for sin?

⁴⁰ and reorder our lives under God.

⁴¹ praying to God in heaven:

⁴² and you haven't forgiven.

⁴³ You chased us and cut us down without mercy.

⁴⁴ so no prayers could get through.

⁴⁵ threw us out in the backyard of the nations.

⁴⁶ their mouths full of derision, spitting invective.

⁴⁷ We've nowhere to turn, nowhere to go.

⁴⁸ at the smashup of my dear people.

⁴⁹ an artesian well of tears,

⁵⁰ look and see my tears.

⁵¹ the pain breaks my heart.

⁵² hunted me down like a bird.

⁵³ then pelted me with stones.

⁵⁴ The water rose over my head. I said, 'It's all over.'

⁵⁵ called from the bottom of the pit.

⁵⁶ Get me out of here! Save me!'

⁵⁷ You said, 'It's going to be all right.'

⁵⁸ you brought me back alive!

⁵⁹ Give me my day in court!

⁶⁰ their plots to destroy me.

⁶¹ their behind-my-back plots to ruin me.

⁶² hatching out malice, day after day after day.

⁶³ they mock me with vulgar doggerel.

⁶⁴ Give them their just deserts.

⁶⁵ Damn their eyes!

⁶⁶ Make a total demolition here under your heaven!"