Hello, this is Father Paul, and I'm glad we're
taking this journey together to read the Bible
in a year. Today we wrap up the book of Lamentations
with chapters 3 through 5. Chapter 3 I am the
man who has seen affliction by the rod of his
wrath. He has led me and made me walk in darkness
and not in light. Surely he has turned his hand
against me time and time again throughout the
day. He has aged my flesh and my skin and broken
my bones. He has besieged me and surrounded me
with bitterness and woe. He has set me in dark
places like the dead of long ago. He has hedged
me in so that I cannot get out. He has made my
chain heavy. Even when I cry and shout, he shuts
out my prayer. He has blocked my ways with hewn
stone. He has made my path crooked. He has been
to me a bear lying in wait, like a lion in ambush.
He has turned aside my ways and torn me in pieces.
He has made me desolate. He has bent his bow
and set me up as a target for the arrow. He has
caused the arrows of his quiver to pierce my
loins. I have become the ridicule of all my people,
their taunting song all the day. He has filled
me with bitterness. He has made me drink wormwood.
He has also broken my teeth with gravel. and
covered me with ashes. You have moved my soul
far from peace. I have forgotten prosperity.
And I said, My strength and my hope have perished
from the Lord. Remember my affliction and roaming,
the wormwood and the gall. My soul still remembers
and sinks within me. This I recall to my mind,
therefore I have hope. Through the Lord's mercies
we are not consumed, because His compassions
fail not. They are new every morning. Great is
your faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, says
my soul, therefore I hope in him. The Lord is
good to those who wait for him, to the soul who
seeks him. It is good that one should hope and
wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. It
is good for a man to bear the yoke in his youth.
Let him sit alone and keep silent, because God
has laid it on him. Let him put his mouth in
the dust. There may yet be hope. Let him give
cheek to the one who strikes him, and be full
of reproach. For the Lord will not cast off forever.
Though he causes grief, yet he will show compassion,
according to the multitude of his mercies. For
he does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the
children of men. To crush under one's feet all
the prisoners of the earth, to turn aside the
justice due a man before the face of the Most
High, or subvert a man in his cause, the Lord
does not approve. Who is he who speaks and it
comes to pass, when the Lord has not commanded
it? Is it not from the mouth of the Most High,
that woe and well -being proceed? Why should
a living man complain, a man for the punishment
of his sins? Let us search out and examine our
ways, and turn back to the Lord. Let us lift
our hearts and hands to God in heaven. We have
transgressed and rebelled. You have not pardoned.
You have covered yourself with anger and pursued
us. You have slain and not pitied. You have covered
yourself with a cloud that prayer should not
pass through. You have made us an off -scouring
and refuse in the midst of the peoples. All our
enemies have opened their mouth against us. Fear
and a snare have come upon us, desolation and
destruction. My eyes overflow with rivers of
water for the destruction of the daughter of
my people. My eyes flow and do not cease without
interruption. till the Lord from heaven looks
down and sees. My eyes bring suffering to my
soul because of all the daughters of my city.
My enemies without cause hunted me down like
a bird. They silenced my life in the pit and
threw stones at me. The waters flowed over my
head. I said, I am cut off. I called on your
name, O Lord, from the lowest pit. You have heard
my voice. Do not hide your ear from my sighing,
from my cry for help. You drew near on the day
I called on you and said, Do not fear. O Lord,
you have pleaded the case for my soul. You have
redeemed my life. O Lord, you have seen how I
am wronged. Judge my case. You have seen all
their vengeance, all their schemes against me.
You have heard their reproach, O Lord, all their
schemes against me, the lips of my enemies, and
their whispering against me all the day. Look
at their sitting down and their rising up. I
am their taunting song. Repay them, O Lord, according
to the work of their hands. Give them a veiled
heart. Your curse be upon them. In your anger
pursue and destroy them from under the heavens
of the Lord. Chapter 4 How the gold has become
dim. How changed the fine gold. The stones of
the sanctuary are scattered at the head of every
street. The precious sons of Zion, valuable as
fine gold, how they are regarded as clay pots,
the work of the hands of the potter. Even the
jackals present their breasts to nurse their
young, but the daughter of my people is cruel,
like ostriches in the wilderness. The tongue
of the infant clings to the roof of its mouth
for thirst. The young children ask for bread,
but no one breaks it for them. Those who ate
delicacies are desolate in the streets. Those
who were brought up in scarlet embrace ash heaps.
The punishment of the iniquity of the daughter
of my people is greater than the punishment of
the sin of Sodom, which was overthrown in a moment
with no hand to help her. Her Nazarites were
brighter than snow and whiter than milk. They
were more ruddy in body than rubies, like sapphire
in their appearance. Now their appearance is
blacker than soot. They go unrecognized in the
streets. Their skin clings to their bones. It
has become as dry as wood. Those slain by the
sword are better off than those who die of hunger.
For these pine away, stricken for lack of the
fruits of the field. The hands of the compassionate
women have cooked their own children. They became
food for them in the destruction of the daughter
of my people. The Lord has fulfilled his fury.
He has poured out his fierce anger. He kindled
a fire in Zion, and it has devoured its foundations.
The kings of the earth and all inhabitants of
the world would not have believed that the adversary
and the enemy could enter the gates of Jerusalem,
because of the sins of her prophets and the iniquities
of her priests, who shed in her midst the blood
of the just. They wandered blind in the streets.
They have defiled themselves with blood, so that
no one would touch their garments. They cried
out to them, Go away, unclean, go away, go away.
Do not touch us. When they fled and wandered,
those among the nations said, They shall no longer
dwell there. The face of the Lord scattered them.
He no longer regards them. The people do not
respect the priests, nor show favor to the elders.
Still our eyes failed us, watching vainly for
our help. In our watching we watched for a nation
that could not save us. They tracked our steps,
so that we could not walk in our streets. Our
end was near. Our days were over, for our end
had come. Our pursuers were swifter than the
eagles of the heavens. They pursued us on the
mountains, and lay in wait for us in the wilderness.
The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the
Lord, who caught in their pits, of whom we said,
Under his shadow we shall live among the nations.
Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, you
who dwell in the land of Uz. The cup shall also
pass over to you, and you shall become drunk
and make yourself naked. The punishment of your
iniquity is accomplished, O daughter of Zion.
He will no longer send you into captivity. He
will punish your iniquity, O daughter of Edom.
He will uncover your sins. Chapter 5 Remember,
O Lord, what has come upon us. Look and behold
our reproach. Our inheritance has been turned
over to aliens, and our houses to foreigners.
We have become orphans and waifs. Our mothers
are like widows. We pay for the water we drink,
and our wood comes at a price. They pursue at
our heels. We labor and have no rest. We have
given our hand to the Egyptians and the Assyrians
to be satisfied with bread. Our fathers sinned
and are no more. But we bear their iniquities.
Servants rule over us. There is none to deliver
us from their hand. We get our bread at the risk
of our lives because of the sword in the wilderness.
Our skin is hot as an oven because of the fever
of famine. They ravaged the women in Zion, the
maidens in the cities of Judah. Princes were
hung up by their hands and elders were not respected.
Young men ground at the millstones. Boys staggered
under loads of wood. The elders have ceased gathering
at the gate and the young men from their music.
The joy of our heart has ceased, our dance has
turned into mourning. The crown has fallen from
our head. Woe to us, for we have sinned. Because
of this our heart is faint. Because of these
things our eyes grow dim. Because of Mount Zion,
which is desolate, with foxes walking about on
it. You, O Lord, remain forever, your throne
from generation to generation. Why do you forget
us forever and forsake us for so long a time?
Turn us back to you, O Lord, and we will be restored.
Renew our days as of old, unless you have utterly
rejected us and are very angry with us. I hope
you enjoyed today's reading as much as I did,
and I look forward to seeing you again tomorrow
to continue on our journey. God bless you and
have a great day.