Good Friday

¹ I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of his wrath;
² he has driven and brought me into darkness 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 skin waste away, and broken my bones;
⁵ he has besieged and enveloped me with bitterness and tribulation;
⁶ he 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 put heavy chains on me;
⁸ though I call and cry for help, he shuts out my prayer;
⁹ he has blocked my ways with hewn stones, he has made my paths crooked.
¹⁰ He is to me like a bear lying in wait, like a lion in hiding;
¹¹ he led me off my way and tore me to pieces; he has made me desolate;
¹² he bent his bow and set me as a mark for his arrow.
¹³ He drove into my heart the arrows of his quiver;
¹⁴ I have become the laughingstock of all peoples, the burden of their songs all day long.
¹⁵ He has filled me with bitterness, he has sated me with wormwood.
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 happiness is;
¹⁸ so I say, "Gone is my glory, and my expectation from the LORD."
¹⁹ Remember my affliction and my bitterness, the wormwood and the gall!
²⁰ My soul continually thinks of it and is bowed down within me.
²¹ But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope:
²² The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases, his mercies never come to an end;
²³ they are new every morning; great is thy faithfulness.
²⁴ "The LORD is my portion," says my soul, "therefore I will hope in him."
²⁵ The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul that seeks him.
²⁶ It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.

Book of Lamentations 3:1-26, RSV