Great Is Your Faithfulness
1 I am the man who has seen affliction
under the rod of his wrath;
2 he has driven and brought me
into udarkness without any light;
3 surely against me he turns his hand
again and again the whole day long.
4 He has made my flesh and my vskin waste away;
he has wbroken my bones;
5 he has besieged and enveloped me
with bitterness and tribulation;
6 xhe has made me dwell in darkness
like the dead of long ago.
7 He has walled me about so that I cannot escape;
he has made my chains heavy;
8 though I call and ycry for help,
he shuts out my prayer;
9 he has blocked my ways with blocks of stones;
he has made my paths crooked.
10 He is a zbear lying in wait for me,
a lion in hiding;
11 he turned aside my steps and tore me to pieces;
he has made me desolate;
12 he abent his bow and set me
as a target for his arrow.
13 He drove into my kidneys
the barrows of his quiver;
14 I have become the claughingstock of all my people,1
the object of their taunts all day long.
15 He has filled me with bitterness;
he has sated me with dwormwood.
16 He has made my teeth grind on gravel,
and made me cower in ashes;
17 my soul is bereft of peace;
I have forgotten what happiness2 is;
18 so I say, “My endurance has perished;
so has my hope from the Lord.”
19 Remember my affliction and my wanderings,
the wormwood and the gall!
20 My soul continually remembers it
and is ebowed down within me.
21 But this I call to mind,
and therefore I have hope:
22 The fsteadfast love of the Lord never ceases;3
his gmercies never come to an end;
23 they are new hevery morning;
great is your ifaithfulness.
24 “The Lord is jmy portion,” says my soul,
“therefore I will khope in him.”
25 The Lord is good to those who lwait for him,
to the soul who mseeks him.
26 It is good that one should wait nquietly
for the salvation of the Lord.
27 It is good for a man that he bear
the yoke in his youth.
28 Let him sit alone in silence
when it is laid on him;
29 let him put his mouth in the dust—
there may yet be hope;
30 let him give his ocheek to the one who strikes,
and let him be filled with insults.
31 For the Lord will not
cast off forever,
32 for, though he cause grief, he will have compassion
according to the pabundance of his steadfast love;
33 for qhe does not afflict from his heart
or grieve the children of men.
34 To crush underfoot
all the prisoners of the earth,
35 to rdeny a man justice
in the presence of the Most High,
36 to subvert a man in his lawsuit,
the Lord does not approve.
37 Who has spoken and it came to pass,
unless the Lord has commanded it?
38 Is it not from the mouth of the Most High
that good sand bad come?
39 tWhy should a living man complain,
a man, about the punishment of his sins?
40 Let us test and examine our ways,
and ureturn to the Lord!
41 Let us lift up our vhearts and whands
to God in heaven:
42 “We have transgressed and rebelled,
and you have not forgiven.
43 “You have wrapped yourself with anger and pursued us,
killing without pity;
44 you have wrapped yourself with a xcloud
so that no prayer can pass through.
45 You have made us yscum and garbage
among the peoples.
46 z“All our enemies
open their mouths against us;
47 apanic and pitfall have come upon us,
bdevastation and destruction;
48 my eyes flow with rivers of tears
cbecause of the destruction of the daughter of my people.
49 “My eyes will flow without ceasing,
without respite,
50 until the Lord from heaven
dlooks down and sees;
51 my eyes cause me grief
at the fate of all the daughters of my city.
52 “I have been hunted like a bird
by those who were my enemies ewithout cause;
53 they flung me alive finto the pit4
and cast stones on me;
54 gwater closed over my head;
I said, ‘I am lost.’
55 “I called on your name, O Lord,
hfrom the depths of the pit;
56 you heard my plea, ‘Do not close
your ear to my cry for help!’
57 You icame near when I called on you;
you said, ‘Do not fear!’
58 “You have jtaken up my cause, O Lord;
you have redeemed my life.
59 You have seen the wrong done to me, O Lord;
judge my cause.
60 You have seen all their vengeance,
all their kplots against me.
61 “You have heard their taunts, O Lord,
all their plots against me.
62 The lips and thoughts of my assailants
are against me all the day long.
63 Behold their sitting and their rising;
I am the object of their ltaunts.
64 “You will repay them,5 O Lord,
according to the work of their hands.
65 You will give them6 dullness of heart;
your curse will be7 on them.
66 You will pursue them8 in anger and destroy them
from under your heavens, O Lord.”9
The Holy Stones Lie Scattered
1 How the gold has grown dim,
how the pure gold is changed!
The holy stones lie scattered
mat the head of every street.
2 The precious sons of Zion,
worth their weight in fine gold,
how they are regarded as nearthen pots,
the work of a potter’s hands!
3 Even jackals offer the breast;
they nurse their young;
but the daughter of my people has become cruel,
olike the ostriches in the wilderness.
4 pThe tongue of the nursing infant sticks
to the roof of its mouth for thirst;
the children beg for food,
but no one gives to them.
5 Those who once feasted on delicacies
perish in the streets;
those who were brought up in purple
embrace ash heaps.
6 For the chastisement10 of the daughter of my people has been greater
than the punishment11 of qSodom,
which was roverthrown in a moment,
and no hands were wrung for her.12
7 Her princes were purer than snow,
swhiter than milk;
their bodies were more ruddy than coral,
8 tNow their face is blacker than soot;
they are not recognized in the streets;
their uskin has shriveled on their bones;
it has become as dry as wood.
9 Happier were the victims of the sword
than the victims of hunger,
who wasted away, pierced
by lack of the fruits of the field.
10 The hands of compassionate women
have boiled their own children;
they became their food
during the destruction of the daughter of my people.
11 The Lord vgave full vent to his wrath;
he poured out his hot anger,
and he wkindled a fire in Zion
that consumed its foundations.
12 The kings of the earth did not believe,
nor any of the inhabitants of the world,
that foe or enemy could enter
the gates of Jerusalem.
13 This was for the sins of her prophets
and the iniquities of her priests,
who shed in the midst of her
the blood of the righteous.
14 They wandered, xblind, through the streets;
they were so defiled with blood
that no one was able to touch
their garments.
15 “Away! yUnclean!” people cried at them.
“Away! Away! Do not touch!”
So they became fugitives and wanderers;
people said among the nations,
“They shall stay with us no longer.”
16 The Lord himself15 has zscattered them;
he will regard them no more;
no honor was shown to the priests,
ano favor to the elders.
17 bOur eyes failed, ever watching
vainly for help;
in our watching we watched
for a nation which could not save.
18 They dogged our steps
so that we could not walk in our streets;
our cend drew near; our days were numbered,
for our end had come.
19 Our pursuers were dswifter
than the eagles in the heavens;
they chased us on the mountains;
they lay in wait for us in the wilderness.
20 The breath of our nostrils, the Lord’s anointed,
was captured in their pits,
of whom we said, “Under his shadow
we shall live among the nations.”
21 Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom,
you who dwell in the land of eUz;
but fto you also the cup shall pass;
you shall become gdrunk and strip yourself bare.
22 The punishment of your iniquity, O daughter of Zion, is accomplished;
he will keep you in exile no longer;16
but hyour iniquity, O daughter of Edom, he will punish;
he will uncover your sins.
Restore Us to Yourself, O Lord
1 Remember, O Lord, what has befallen us;
look, and see our disgrace!
2 Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers,
our homes to foreigners.
3 We have become orphans, fatherless;
our mothers are like widows.
4 We must pay for the water we drink;
the wood we get must be bought.
5 Our pursuers are at our necks;
we are weary; we are given no rest.
6 We have given the hand to Egypt, and to Assyria,
to get bread enough.
7 Our fathers sinned, and are no more;
and iwe bear their iniquities.
8 Slaves rule over us;
there is none to deliver us from their hand.
9 We get our bread at the peril of our lives,
because of the sword in the wilderness.
10 Our jskin is hot as an oven
with the burning heat of famine.
11 Women are raped in Zion,
young women in the towns of Judah.
12 Princes are hung up by their hands;
kno respect is shown to the elders.
13 Young men are compelled to grind at the mill,
and boys stagger under loads of wood.
14 The old men have left the city gate,
the young men their music.
15 The joy of our hearts has ceased;
our dancing has been turned lto mourning.
16 The mcrown has fallen from our head;
woe to us, for we have sinned!
17 For this our heart nhas become sick,
for these things our oeyes have grown dim,
18 for Mount Zion which lies desolate;
jackals prowl over it.
19 pBut you, O Lord, reign forever;
your throne endures to all generations.
20 Why do you qforget us forever,
why do you forsake us for so many days?
21 rRestore us to yourself, O Lord, sthat we may be restored!
Renew our days as of old—
22 unless you have tutterly rejected us,
and you remain uexceedingly angry with us.
The Full Assurance of Faith
19 Therefore, brothers,1 since we have dconfidence to eenter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, 20 by the new and living fway that he opened for us through the gcurtain, that is, through his flesh, 21 and since we have a great priest over the hhouse of God, 22 let us idraw near with a true heart in jfull assurance of faith, with our hearts ksprinkled clean from an evil lconscience and our bodies mwashed with pure water. 23 Let us nhold fast the oconfession of our phope without wavering, for he who promised is qfaithful. 24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but rencouraging one another, and all the more as you see the sDay drawing near.
26 For tif we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the uknowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, 27 but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a vfury of fire that will consume the adversaries. 28 Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy won the evidence of two or three witnesses. 29 xHow much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has ytrampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the zblood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace? 30 For we know him who said, a“Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, b“The Lord will judge his people.” 31 It is a cfearful thing to fall into the hands of the dliving God.
32 But recall the former days when, after you were eenlightened, you fendured a hard struggle with sufferings, 33 sometimes being gpublicly exposed to hreproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated. 34 For you had compassion on those iin prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one. 35 Therefore do not throw away your jconfidence, which has a great kreward. 36 For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised. 37 For,
l“Yet a little while,
and mthe coming one will come and will not delay;
38 but nmy righteous one shall live by faith,
and if he shrinks back,
my soul has no pleasure in him.”
39 But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.
