LHC Midday Word

Monday, 22 February 2021

LAMENTATIONS - Chapter Three

א ( Alef )

1I am the man who has seen affliction

by the rod of the Lord’s wrath.

2He has driven me away and made me walk

in darkness rather than light;

3indeed, he has turned his hand against me

again and again, all day long.

ב ( Beit )

4He has made my skin and my flesh grow old

and has broken my bones.

5He has besieged me and surrounded me

with bitterness and hardship.

6He has made me dwell in darkness

like those long dead.

ג ( Gimmel )

7He has walled me in so I cannot escape;

he has weighed me down with chains.

8Even when I call out or cry for help,

he shuts out my prayer.

9He has barred my way with blocks of stone;

he has made my paths crooked.

ד ( Dalet )

10Like a bear lying in wait,

like a lion in hiding,

11he dragged me from the path and mangled me

and left me without help.

12He drew his bow

and made me the target for his arrows.

ה ( Hey )

13He pierced my heart

with arrows from his quiver.

14I became the laughingstock of all my people;

they mock me in song all day long.

15He has filled me with bitter herbs

and given me gall to drink.

ו ( Vav )

16He has broken my teeth with gravel;

he has trampled me in the dust.

17I have been deprived of peace;

I have forgotten what prosperity is.

18So I say, “My splendour is gone

and all that I had hoped from the Lord.”

ז ( Zayin )

19I remember my affliction and my wandering,

the bitterness and the gall.

20I well remember them,

and my soul is downcast within me.

21Yet this I call to mind

and therefore I have hope:

ח ( Cheit )

22Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,

for his compassions never fail.

23They are new every morning;

great is your faithfulness.

24I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion;

therefore I will wait for him.”

ט ( Teit )

25The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him,

to the one who seeks him;

26it is good to wait quietly

for the salvation of the Lord.

27It is good for a man to bear the yoke

while he is young.

י ( Yod )

28Let him sit alone in silence,

for the Lord has laid it on him.

29Let him bury his face in the dust—

there may yet be hope.

30Let him offer his cheek to one who would strike him,

and let him be filled with disgrace.

כ ( Kaf )

31For no one is cast off

by the Lord forever.

32Though he brings grief, he will show compassion,

so great is his unfailing love.

33For he does not willingly bring affliction

or grief to anyone.

ל ( Lamed )

34To crush underfoot

all prisoners in the land,

35to deny people their rights

before the Most High,

36to deprive them of justice—

would not the Lord see such things?

מ ( Mem )

37Who can speak and have it happen

if the Lord has not decreed it?

38Is it not from the mouth of the Most High

that both calamities and good things come?

39Why should the living complain

when punished for their sins?

נ ( Nun )

40Let us examine our ways and test them,

and let us return to the Lord.

41Let us lift up our hearts and our hands

to God in heaven, and say:

42“We have sinned and rebelled

and you have not forgiven.

ס ( Samech )

43“You have covered yourself with anger and pursued us;

you have slain without pity.

44You have covered yourself with a cloud

so that no prayer can get through.

45You have made us scum and refuse

among the nations.

ע ( Ayin )

46“All our enemies have opened their mouths

wide against us.

47We have suffered terror and pitfalls,

ruin and destruction.”

48Streams of tears flow from my eyes

because my people are destroyed.

פ ( Pey )

49My eyes will flow unceasingly,

without relief,

50until the Lord looks down

from heaven and sees.

51What I see brings grief to my soul

because of all the women of my city.

צ ( Tzadeh )

52Those who were my enemies without cause

hunted me like a bird.

53They tried to end my life in a pit

and threw stones at me;

54the waters closed over my head,

and I thought I was about to perish.

ק ( Qoof )

55I called on your name, Lord,

from the depths of the pit.

56You heard my plea: “Do not close your ears

to my cry for relief.”

57You came near when I called you,

and you said, “Do not fear.”

ר ( Resh )

58You, Lord, took up my case;

you redeemed my life.

59Lord, you have seen the wrong done to me.

Uphold my cause!

60You have seen the depth of their vengeance,

all their plots against me.

ש ( Sheen )

61Lord, you have heard their insults,

all their plots against me—

62what my enemies whisper and mutter

against me all day long.

63Look at them! Sitting or standing,

they mock me in their songs.

ת ( Tav )

64Pay them back what they deserve, Lord,

for what their hands have done.

65Put a veil over their hearts,

and may your curse be on them!

66Pursue them in anger and destroy them

from under the heavens of the Lord.

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Study - LINKS

Lamentations - Overview

The Bible Project

https://youtu.be/p8GDFPdaQZQ

LAMENTATIONS - David Pawson

https://youtu.be/eD4ruTpZ0qk

Lamentations - by Tim Mackie

(The Bible Project)

https://youtu.be/g72cXP3MKX0

Lamentations in 6 Minutes

https://youtu.be/s9nf0a8TkDg

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Sunday, 21 February 2021

LAMENTATIONS - Chapter Two

1 - א ( Alef )

How the Lord has covered Daughter Zion

with the cloud of his anger!

He has hurled down the splendour of Israel

from heaven to earth;

he has not remembered his footstool

in the day of his anger.

2 - ב ( Beit )

Without pity the Lord has swallowed up

all the dwellings of Jacob;

in his wrath he has torn down

the strongholds of Daughter Judah.

He has brought her kingdom and its princes

down to the ground in dishonour.

3 - ג ( Gimmel )

In fierce anger he has cut off

every horn of Israel.

He has withdrawn his right hand

at the approach of the enemy.

He has burned in Jacob like a flaming fire

that consumes everything around it.

4 - ד ( Dalet )

Like an enemy he has strung his bow;

his right hand is ready.

Like a foe he has slain

all who were pleasing to the eye;

he has poured out his wrath like fire

on the tent of Daughter Zion.

5 - ה ( Hey )

The Lord is like an enemy;

he has swallowed up Israel.

He has swallowed up all her palaces

and destroyed her strongholds.

He has multiplied mourning and lamentation

for Daughter Judah.

6 - ו ( Vav )

He has laid waste his dwelling like a garden;

he has destroyed his place of meeting.

The Lord has made Zion forget

her appointed festivals and her Sabbaths;

in his fierce anger he has spurned

both king and priest.

7 - ז ( Zayin )

The Lord has rejected his altar

and abandoned his sanctuary.

He has given the walls of her palaces

into the hands of the enemy;

they have raised a shout in the house of the Lord

as on the day of an appointed festival.

8 - ח ( Cheit )

The Lord determined to tear down

the wall around Daughter Zion.

He stretched out a measuring line

and did not withhold his hand from destroying.

He made ramparts and walls lament;

together they wasted away.

9 - ט ( Teit )

Her gates have sunk into the ground;

their bars he has broken and destroyed.

Her king and her princes are exiled among the nations,

the law is no more,

and her prophets no longer find

visions from the Lord.

10 - י ( Yod )

The elders of Daughter Zion

sit on the ground in silence;

they have sprinkled dust on their heads

and put on sackcloth.

The young women of Jerusalem

have bowed their heads to the ground.

11 - כ ( Kaf )

My eyes fail from weeping,

I am in torment within;

my heart is poured out on the ground

because my people are destroyed,

because children and infants faint

in the streets of the city.

12 - ל ( Lamed )

They say to their mothers,

‘Where is bread and wine?’

as they faint like the wounded

in the streets of the city,

as their lives ebb away

in their mothers’ arms.

13 - מ ( Mem )

What can I say for you?

With what can I compare you,

Daughter Jerusalem?

To what can I liken you,

that I may comfort you,

Virgin Daughter Zion?

Your wound is as deep as the sea.

Who can heal you?

14 - נ ( Nun )

The visions of your prophets

were false and worthless;

they did not expose your sin

to ward off your captivity.

The prophecies they gave you

were false and misleading.

15 - ס ( Samech )

All who pass your way

clap their hands at you;

they scoff and shake their heads

at Daughter Jerusalem:

‘Is this the city that was called

the perfection of beauty,

the joy of the whole earth?’

16 - ע ( Ayin )

All your enemies open their mouths

wide against you;

they scoff and gnash their teeth

and say, ‘We have swallowed her up.

This is the day we have waited for;

we have lived to see it.’

17 - פ ( Pey )

The Lord has done what he planned;

he has fulfilled his word,

which he decreed long ago.

He has overthrown you without pity,

he has let the enemy gloat over you,

he has exalted the horn of your foes.

18 - צ ( Tzadeh )

The hearts of the people

cry out to the Lord.

You walls of Daughter Zion,

let your tears flow like a river

day and night;

give yourself no relief,

your eyes no rest.

19 - ק ( Qoof )

Arise, cry out in the night,

as the watches of the night begin;

pour out your heart like water

in the presence of the Lord.

Lift up your hands to him

for the lives of your children,

who faint from hunger

at every street corner.

20 - ר ( Resh )

‘Look, Lord, and consider:

whom have you ever treated like this?

Should women eat their offspring,

the children they have cared for?

Should priest and prophet be killed

in the sanctuary of the Lord?

21 - ש ( Sheen )

‘Young and old lie together

in the dust of the streets;

my young men and young women

have fallen by the sword.

You have slain them in the day of your anger;

you have slaughtered them without pity.

22 - ת ( Tav )

‘As you summon to a feast day,

so you summoned against me terrors on every side.

In the day of the Lord’s anger

no one escaped or survived;

those I cared for and reared

my enemy has destroyed.’

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