3:1 | I AM [Jeremiah] the man who has seen affliction under the rod of His wrath.

3:2 | He has led me and brought me into darkness and not light.

3:3 | Surely He has turned away from me; His hand is against me all the day.

3:4 | My flesh and my skin has He worn out and made old; He has shattered my bones.

3:5 | He has built up [siege mounds] against me and surrounded me with bitterness, tribulation, and anguish.

3:6 | He has caused me to dwell in dark places like those long dead.

3:7 | He walled me in so that I cannot get out; He has weighted down my chain.

3:8 | Even when I cry and shout for help, He shuts out my prayer.

3:9 | He has enclosed my ways with hewn stone; He has made my paths crooked.

3:10 | He is to me like a bear lying in wait, and like a lion [hiding] in secret places.

3:11 | He has turned me off my ways and pulled me in pieces; He has made me desolate.

3:12 | He has bent His bow and set me as a mark for the arrow.

3:13 | He has caused the arrows of His quiver to enter into my heart [the seat of my affections and desires].

3:14 | I have become a derision to all my people, and [the subject of] their singsong all the day.

3:15 | He has filled me with bitterness; He has made me drink to excess and until drunken with wormwood [bitterness].

3:16 | He has also broken my teeth with gravel (stones); He has covered me with ashes.

3:17 | And You have bereaved my soul and cast it off far from peace; I have forgotten what good and happiness are.

3:18 | And I say, Perished is my strength and my expectation from the Lord.

3:19 | [O Lord] remember [earnestly] my affliction and my misery, my wandering and my outcast state, the wormwood and the gall.

3:20 | My soul has them continually in remembrance and is bowed down within me.

3:21 | But this I recall and therefore have I hope and expectation:

3:23 | They are new every morning; great and abundant is Your stability and faithfulness.

3:24 | The Lord is my portion or share, says my living being (my inner self); therefore will I hope in Him and wait expectantly for Him.

3:26 | It is good that one should hope in and wait quietly for the salvation (the safety and ease) of the Lord.

3:27 | It is good for a man that he should bear the yoke [of divine disciplinary dealings] in his youth.

3:28 | Let him sit alone uncomplaining and keeping silent [in hope], because [God] has laid [the yoke] upon him [for his benefit].

3:29 | Let him put his mouth in the dust [in abject recognition of his unworthiness]--there may yet be hope.

3:31 | For the Lord will not cast off forever!

3:32 | But though He causes grief, yet will He be moved to compassion according to the multitude of His loving-kindness and tender mercy.

3:33 | For He does not willingly and from His heart afflict or grieve the children of men.

3:34 | To trample and crush underfoot all the prisoners of the earth,

3:36 | To subvert a man in his cause--[of these things] the Lord does not approve.

3:37 | Who is he who speaks and it comes to pass, if the Lord has not authorized and commanded it?

3:38 | Is it not out of the mouth of the Most High that evil and good both proceed [adversity and prosperity, physical evil or misfortune and physical good or happiness]?

3:40 | Let us test and examine our ways, and let us return to the Lord!

3:41 | Let us lift up our hearts and our hands [and then with them mount up in prayer] to God in heaven:

3:42 | We have transgressed and rebelled and You have not pardoned.

3:43 | You have covered Yourself with wrath and pursued and afflicted us; You have slain without pity.

3:44 | You have covered Yourself with a cloud so that no prayer can pass through.

3:45 | You have made us offscouring and refuse among the nations.

3:46 | All our enemies have gaped at us and railed against us.

3:47 | Fear and pitfall have come upon us, devastation and destruction.

3:48 | My eyes overflow with streams of tears because of the destruction of the daughter of my people.

3:49 | My eyes overflow continually and will not cease

3:50 | Until the Lord looks down and sees from heaven.

3:51 | My eyes cause me grief at the fate of all the maidens [and the daughter-towns] of my city [Jerusalem].

3:52 | I have been hunted down like a bird by those who were my enemies without cause.

3:53 | They [thought they had] destroyed my life in the dungeon (pit) and cast a stone [over it] above me.

3:54 | The waters ran down on my head; I said, I am gone.

3:55 | I called upon Your name, O Lord, out of the depths [of the mire] of the dungeon.

3:56 | You heard my voice [then]: [Oh] hide not Your ear [now] at my prayer for relief.

3:57 | You drew near on the day I called to You; You said, Fear not.

3:58 | O Lord, You have pleaded the causes of my soul [You have managed my affairs and You have protected my person and my rights]; You have rescued and redeemed my life!

3:59 | O Lord, You have seen my wrong [done to me]; judge and maintain my cause.

3:60 | You have seen all their vengeance, all their devices against me.

3:61 | You have heard their reproach and revilings, O Lord, and all their devices against me--

3:62 | The lips and thoughts of my assailants are against me all day long.

3:63 | Look at their sitting down and their rising up [their movements, doings, and secret counsels]; I am their singsong [the subject of their derision and merriment].

3:64 | Render to them a recompense, O Lord, according to the work of their hands.

3:65 | You will give them hardness and blindness of heart; Your curse will be upon them.

3:66 | You will pursue and afflict them in anger and destroy them from under Your heavens, O Lord.