If you want to accept God's
offer in his Son, say a prayer like this:
Jesus, I confess that you are not only the
most important person in history, but you are the Creator and Savior of the
world. Lord Jesus, I need you. I have done wrong. Please forgive me of my sins
and come into my life. I ask you not just to be part of my life, but to guide me
to live according to the words I read in the Bible. Thank you for your mercy and
forgiveness. I am now committed to be your follower.
Amen.
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Old Testament
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The Book of Lamentations
Chapter 1
001:001 How doth the city sit solitary, that was
full of people! how
is she become
as a widow! she that was great among
the
nations, and princess among
the provinces, how is she become
tributary!
001:002 She weepeth sore in the night, and her tears are
on her
cheeks: among all her
lovers she hath none to comfort her:
all
her friends have dealt
treacherously with her, they are
become
her enemies.
001:003 Judah is gone into captivity because of
affliction, and
because of great
servitude: she dwelleth among the
heathen,
she findeth no rest: all
her persecutors overtook her
between
the straits.
001:004 The ways of Zion do mourn, because none come to
the solemn
feasts: all her gates
are desolate: her priests sigh,
her
virgins are afflicted, and she
is in bitterness.
001:005 Her adversaries are the chief, her enemies
prosper; for the
LORD hath
afflicted her for the multitude of
her
transgressions: her children
are gone into captivity before
the
enemy.
001:006 And from the daughter of Zion all her beauty is
departed: her
princes are become
like harts that find no pasture, and
they
are gone without strength
before the pursuer.
001:007 Jerusalem remembered in the days of her
affliction and of her
miseries all
her pleasant things that she had in the days
of
old, when her people fell into
the hand of the enemy, and none
did help her: the adversaries saw her, and did mock at
her
sabbaths.
001:008 Jerusalem hath grievously sinned; therefore she
is removed:
all that honoured her
despise her, because they have seen
her
nakedness: yea, she sigheth,
and turneth backward.
001:009 Her filthiness is in her skirts; she remembereth
not her last
end; therefore she
came down wonderfully: she had no
comforter. O LORD, behold my affliction: for the enemy
hath
magnified himself.
001:010 The adversary hath spread out his hand upon all
her pleasant
things: for she hath
seen that the heathen entered into
her
sanctuary, whom thou didst
command that they should not enter
into thy congregation.
001:011 All her people sigh, they seek bread; they have
given their
pleasant things for
meat to relieve the soul: see, O LORD,
and
consider; for I am become
vile.
001:012 Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by?
behold, and see if
there be any
sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done
unto
me, wherewith the LORD hath
afflicted me in the day of his
fierce anger.
001:013 From above hath he sent fire into my bones, and
it prevaileth
against them: he
hath spread a net for my feet, he hath
turned
me back: he hath made me
desolate and faint all the day.
001:014 The yoke of my transgressions is bound by his
hand: they are
wreathed, and come
up upon my neck: he hath made my
strength
to fall, the LORD hath
delivered me into their hands,
from
whom I am not able to rise
up.
001:015 The LORD hath trodden under foot all my mighty
men in the
midst of me: he hath
called an assembly against me to crush
my
young men: the LORD hath
trodden the virgin, the daughter
of
Judah, as in a winepress.
001:016 For these things I weep; mine eye, mine eye
runneth down with
water, because
the comforter that should relieve my soul
is
far from me: my children are
desolate, because the enemy
prevailed.
001:017 Zion spreadeth forth her hands, and there is
none to comfort
her: the LORD hath
commanded concerning Jacob, that
his
adversaries should be round
about him: Jerusalem is as a
menstruous woman among them.
001:018 The LORD is righteous; for I have rebelled
against his
commandment: hear, I
pray you, all people, and behold
my
sorrow: my virgins and my young
men are gone into captivity.
001:019 I called for my lovers, but they deceived me: my
priests and
mine elders gave up
the ghost in the city, while they
sought
their meat to relieve their
souls.
001:020 Behold, O LORD; for I am in distress: my bowels
are troubled;
mine heart is turned
within me; for I have grievously
rebelled: abroad the sword bereaveth, at home there is
as
death.
001:021 They have heard that I sigh: there is none to
comfort me: all
mine enemies have
heard of my trouble; they are glad that
thou
hast done it: thou wilt bring
the day that thou hast called,
and
they shall be like unto me.
001:022 Let all their wickedness come before thee; and
do unto them,
as thou hast done
unto me for all my transgressions: for
my
sighs are many, and my heart is
faint.
002:001 How hath the LORD covered the daughter of Zion
with a cloud in
his anger, and
cast down from heaven unto the earth the
beauty
of Israel, and remembered
not his footstool in the day of
his
anger!
002:002 The LORD hath swallowed up all the habitations
of Jacob, and
hath not pitied: he
hath thrown down in his wrath the
strong
holds of the daughter of
Judah; he hath brought them down
to
the ground: he hath polluted
the kingdom and the princes
thereof.
002:003 He hath cut off in his fierce anger all the horn
of Israel: he
hath drawn back his
right hand from before the enemy, and
he
burned against Jacob like a
flaming fire, which devoureth
round about.
002:004 He hath bent his bow like an enemy: he stood
with his right
hand as an
adversary, and slew all that were pleasant to
the
eye in the tabernacle of the
daughter of Zion: he poured out
his fury like fire.
002:005 The LORD was as an enemy: he hath swallowed up
Israel, he hath
swallowed up all
her palaces: he hath destroyed his
strong
holds, and hath increased
in the daughter of Judah mourning
and lamentation.
002:006 And he hath violently taken away his tabernacle,
as if it were
of a garden: he hath
destroyed his places of the assembly:
the
LORD hath caused the solemn
feasts and sabbaths to be
forgotten in Zion, and hath despised in the indignation of
his
anger the king and the
priest.
002:007 The LORD hath cast off his altar, he hath
abhorred his
sanctuary, he hath
given up into the hand of the enemy
the
walls of her palaces; they
have made a noise in the house of
the LORD, as in the day of a solemn feast.
002:008 The LORD hath purposed to destroy the wall of
the daughter of
Zion: he hath
stretched out a line, he hath not withdrawn
his
hand from destroying:
therefore he made the rampart and
the
wall to lament; they
languished together.
002:009 Her gates are sunk into the ground; he hath
destroyed and
broken her bars: her
king and her princes are among the
Gentiles: the law is no more; her prophets also find no
vision
from the LORD.
002:010 The elders of the daughter of Zion sit upon the
ground, and
keep silence: they
have cast up dust upon their heads;
they
have girded themselves with
sackcloth: the virgins of
Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground.
002:011 Mine eyes do fail with tears, my bowels are
troubled, my liver
is poured upon
the earth, for the destruction of the
daughter
of my people; because the
children and the sucklings swoon
in
the streets of the city.
002:012 They say to their mothers, Where is corn and
wine? when they
swooned as the
wounded in the streets of the city, when
their
soul was poured out into
their mothers' bosom.
002:013 What thing shall I take to witness for thee?
what thing shall
I liken to thee,
O daughter of Jerusalem? what shall I
equal
to thee, that I may comfort
thee, O virgin daughter of Zion?
for thy breach is great like the sea: who can heal thee?
002:014 Thy prophets have seen vain and foolish things
for thee: and
they have not
discovered thine iniquity, to turn away
thy
captivity; but have seen for
thee false burdens and causes of
banishment.
002:015 All that pass by clap their hands at thee; they
hiss and wag
their head at the
daughter of Jerusalem, saying, Is this
the
city that men call The
perfection of beauty, The joy of
the
whole earth?
002:016 All thine enemies have opened their mouth
against thee: they
hiss and gnash
the teeth: they say, We have swallowed her
up:
certainly this is the day that
we looked for; we have found,
we
have seen it.
002:017 The LORD hath done that which he had devised; he
hath
fulfilled his word that he
had commanded in the days of old:
he hath thrown down, and hath not pitied: and he hath
caused
thine enemy to rejoice over
thee, he hath set up the horn of
thine adversaries.
002:018 Their heart cried unto the LORD, O wall of the
daughter of
Zion, let tears run
down like a river day and night:
give
thyself no rest; let not the
apple of thine eye cease.
002:019 Arise, cry out in the night: in the beginning of
the watches
pour out thine heart
like water before the face of the
LORD:
lift up thy hands toward him
for the life of thy young
children, that faint for hunger in the top of every street.
002:020 Behold, O LORD, and consider to whom thou hast
done this.
Shall the women eat
their fruit, and children of a span
long?
shall the priest and the
prophet be slain in the sanctuary
of
the Lord?
002:021 The young and the old lie on the ground in the
streets: my
virgins and my young
men are fallen by the sword; thou
hast
slain them in the day of
thine anger; thou hast killed, and
not pitied.
002:022 Thou hast called as in a solemn day my terrors
round about, so
that in the day of
the LORD's anger none escaped nor
remained:
those that I have
swaddled and brought up hath mine
enemy
consumed.
003:001 I AM the man that hath seen affliction by the
rod of his
wrath.
003:002 He hath led me, and brought me into darkness,
but not into
light.
003:003 Surely against me is he turned; he turneth his
hand against me
all the day.
003:004 My flesh and my skin hath he made old; he hath
broken my
bones.
003:005 He hath builded against me, and compassed me
with gall and
travail.
003:006 He hath set me in dark places, as they that be dead of old.
003:007 He hath hedged me about, that I cannot get out:
he hath made
my chain heavy.
003:008 Also when I cry and shout, he shutteth out my prayer.
003:009 He hath inclosed my ways with hewn stone, he
hath made my
paths crooked.
003:010 He was unto me as a bear lying in wait, and as a
lion in
secret places.
003:011 He hath turned aside my ways, and pulled me in
pieces: he hath
made me
desolate.
003:012 He hath bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow.
003:013 He hath caused the arrows of his quiver to enter
into my
reins.
003:014 I was a derision to all my people; and their song all the day.
003:015 He hath filled me with bitterness, he hath made
me drunken
with wormwood.
003:016 He hath also broken my teeth with gravel stones,
he hath
covered me with ashes.
003:017 And thou hast removed my soul far off from
peace: I forgat
prosperity.
003:018 And I said, My strength and my hope is perished from the LORD:
003:019 Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the
wormwood and
the gall.
003:020 My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me.
003:021 This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope.
003:022 It is of the LORD's mercies that we are not
consumed, because
his compassions
fail not.
003:023 They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.
003:024 The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore
will I hope
in him.
003:025 The LORD is good unto them that wait for him, to
the soul that
seeketh him.
003:026 It is good that a man should both hope and
quietly wait for
the salvation of
the LORD.
003:027 It is good for a man that he bear the yoke of his youth.
003:028 He sitteth alone and keepeth silence, because he
hath borne it
upon him.
003:029 He putteth his mouth in the dust; if so be there may be hope.
003:030 He giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him: he
is filled full
with reproach.
003:031 For the LORD will not cast off for ever:
003:032 But though he cause grief, yet will he have
compassion
according to the
multitude of his mercies.
003:033 For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the
children of
men.
003:034 To crush under his feet all the prisoners of the earth.
003:035 To turn aside the right of a man before the face
of the most
High,
003:036 To subvert a man in his cause, the LORD approveth not.
003:037 Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass,
when the Lord
commandeth it
not?
003:038 Out of the mouth of the most High proceedeth not
evil and
good?
003:039 Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for
the punishment
of his sins?
003:040 Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the LORD.
003:041 Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God
in the
heavens.
003:042 We have transgressed and have rebelled: thou
hast not
pardoned.
003:043 Thou hast covered with anger, and persecuted us:
thou hast
slain, thou hast not
pitied.
003:044 Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud, that our
prayer should
not pass
through.
003:045 Thou hast made us as the offscouring and refuse
in the midst
of the people.
003:046 All our enemies have opened their mouths against us.
003:047 Fear and a snare is come upon us, desolation and destruction.
003:048 Mine eye runneth down with rivers of water for
the destruction
of the daughter of
my people.
003:049 Mine eye trickleth down, and ceaseth not,
without any
intermission.
003:050 Till the LORD look down, and behold from heaven.
003:051 Mine eye affecteth mine heart because of all the
daughters of
my city.
003:052 Mine enemies chased me sore, like a bird, without cause.
003:053 They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and
cast a stone
upon me.
003:054 Waters flowed over mine head; then I said, I am cut off.
003:055 I called upon thy name, O LORD, out of the low dungeon.
003:056 Thou hast heard my voice: hide not thine ear at
my breathing,
at my cry.
003:057 Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon
thee: thou
saidst, Fear not.
003:058 O LORD, thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul;
thou hast
redeemed my life.
003:059 O LORD, thou hast seen my wrong: judge thou my cause.
003:060 Thou hast seen all their vengeance and all their
imaginations
against me.
003:061 Thou hast heard their reproach, O LORD, and all
their
imaginations against me;
003:062 The lips of those that rose up against me, and
their device
against me all the
day.
003:063 Behold their sitting down, and their rising up;
I am their
musick.
003:064 Render unto them a recompence, O LORD, according
to the work
of their hands.
003:065 Give them sorrow of heart, thy curse unto them.
003:066 Persecute and destroy them in anger from under
the heavens of
the LORD.
004:001 How is the gold become dim! how is the most fine
gold changed!
the stones of the
sanctuary are poured out in the top of
every
street.
004:002 The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine
gold, how are
they esteemed as
earthen pitchers, the work of the hands
of
the potter!
004:003 Even the sea monsters draw out the breast, they
give suck to
their young ones: the
daughter of my people is become
cruel,
like the ostriches in the
wilderness.
004:004 The tongue of the sucking child cleaveth to the
roof of his
mouth for thirst: the
young children ask bread, and no
man
breaketh it unto them.
004:005 They that did feed delicately are desolate in
the streets:
they that were
brought up in scarlet embrace dunghills.
004:006 For the punishment of the iniquity of the
daughter of my
people is greater
than the punishment of the sin of
Sodom,
that was overthrown as in a
moment, and no hands stayed on
her.
004:007 Her Nazarites were purer than snow, they were
whiter than
milk, they were more
ruddy in body than rubies, their
polishing was of sapphire:
004:008 Their visage is blacker than a coal; they are
not known in the
streets: their
skin cleaveth to their bones; it is
withered,
it is become like a
stick.
004:009 They that be slain with the sword are better
than they that be
slain with
hunger: for these pine away, stricken through
for
want of the fruits of the
field.
004:010 The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their
own children:
they were their meat
in the destruction of the daughter of
my
people.
004:011 The LORD hath accomplished his fury; he hath
poured out his
fierce anger, and
hath kindled a fire in Zion, and it
hath
devoured the foundations
thereof.
004:012 The kings of the earth, and all the inhabitants
of the world,
would not have
believed that the adversary and the
enemy
should have entered into the
gates of Jerusalem.
004:013 For the sins of her prophets, and the iniquities
of her
priests, that have shed the
blood of the just in the midst of
her,
004:014 They have wandered as blind men in the streets,
they have
polluted themselves with
blood, so that men could not touch
their garments.
004:015 They cried unto them, Depart ye; it is unclean;
depart,
depart, touch not: when
they fled away and wandered, they
said
among the heathen, They shall
no more sojourn there.
004:016 The anger of the LORD hath divided them; he will
no more
regard them: they
respected not the persons of the
priests,
they favoured not the
elders.
004:017 As for us, our eyes as yet failed for our vain
help: in our
watching we have
watched for a nation that could not save us.
004:018 They hunt our steps, that we cannot go in our
streets: our end
is near, our days
are fulfilled; for our end is come.
004:019 Our persecutors are swifter than the eagles of
the heaven:
they pursued us upon
the mountains, they laid wait for us
in
the wilderness.
004:020 The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the
LORD, was
taken in their pits, of
whom we said, Under his shadow we
shall live among the heathen.
004:021 Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, that
dwellest in the
land of Uz; the
cup also shall pass through unto thee:
thou
shalt be drunken, and shalt
make thyself naked.
004:022 The punishment of thine iniquity is
accomplished, O daughter
of Zion;
he will no more carry thee away into captivity:
he
will visit thine iniquity, O
daughter of Edom; he will
discover
thy sins.
005:001 Remember, O LORD, what is come upon us:
consider, and behold
our
reproach.
005:002 Our inheritance is turned to strangers, our houses to aliens.
005:003 We are orphans and fatherless, our mothers are as widows.
005:004 We have drunken our water for money; our wood is sold unto us.
005:005 Our necks are under persecution: we labour, and have no rest.
005:006 We have given the hand to the Egyptians, and to
the Assyrians,
to be satisfied
with bread.
005:007 Our fathers have sinned, and are not; and we
have borne their
iniquities.
005:008 Servants have ruled over us: there is none that
doth deliver
us out of their
hand.
005:009 We gat our bread with the peril of our lives
because of the
sword of the
wilderness.
005:010 Our skin was black like an oven because of the
terrible
famine.
005:011 They ravished the women in Zion, and the maids
in the cities
of Judah.
005:012 Princes are hanged up by their hand: the faces
of elders were
not honoured.
005:013 They took the young men to grind, and the
children fell under
the wood.
005:014 The elders have ceased from the gate, the young
men from their
musick.
005:015 The joy of our heart is ceased; our dance is
turned into
mourning.
005:016 The crown is fallen from our head: woe unto us,
that we have
sinned!
005:017 For this our heart is faint; for these things
our eyes are
dim.
005:018 Because of the mountain of Zion, which is
desolate, the foxes
walk upon
it.
005:019 Thou, O LORD, remainest for ever; thy throne
from generation
to generation.
005:020 Wherefore dost thou forget us for ever, and
forsake us so long
time?
005:021 Turn thou us unto thee, O LORD, and we shall be
turned; renew
our days as of
old.
005:022 But thou hast utterly rejected us; thou art very
wroth against
us.