Daily Bible GNT March 26 Verses

Punishment, Repentance, and Hope

Lamentations 3 I am one who knows what it is to be punished by God.

He drove me deeper and deeper into darkness

And beat me again and again with merciless blows.

⁴He has left my flesh open and raw, and has broken my bones.

⁵

He has shut me in a prison of misery and anguish.

⁶

He has forced me to live in the stagnant darkness of death.

⁷He has bound me in chains; I am a prisoner with no hope of escape.

⁸

I cry aloud for help, but God refuses to listen;

⁹

I stagger as I walk; stone walls block me wherever I turn.

¹⁰He waited for me like a bear; he pounced on me like a lion.

¹¹

He chased me off the road, tore me to pieces, and left me.

¹²

He drew his bow and made me the target for his arrows.

¹³He shot his arrows deep into my body.

¹⁴

People laugh at me all day long; I am a joke to them all.

¹⁵

Bitter suffering is all he has given me for food and drink.

¹⁶He rubbed my face in the ground and broke my teeth on rocks.

¹⁷

I have forgotten what health and peace and happiness are.

¹⁸

I do not have much longer to live; my hope in the LORD is gone.

¹⁹The thought of my pain, my homelessness, is bitter poison.

²⁰

I think of it constantly, and my spirit is depressed.

²¹

Yet hope returns when I remember this one thing:

²²The LORD's unfailing love and mercy still continue,

²³

Fresh as the morning, as sure as the sunrise.

²⁴

The LORD is all I have, and so in him I put my hope.

²⁵The LORD is good to everyone who trusts in him,

²⁶

So it is best for us to wait in patience--to wait for him to save us--

²⁷

And it is best to learn this patience in our youth.

²⁸When we suffer, we should sit alone in silent patience;

²⁹

We should bow in submission, for there may still be hope.

³⁰

Though beaten and insulted, we should accept it all.

³¹The Lord is merciful and will not reject us forever.

³²

He may bring us sorrow, but his love for us is sure and strong.

³³

He takes no pleasure in causing us grief or pain.

This reading is from The Holy Bible, Today's English Version, Second Edition copyright © American Bible Society, 1992;
Old Testament copyright © American Bible Society, 1976, 1992; New Testament © American Bible Society, 1966, 1971, 1976, 1992.

These daily Bible readings from the Good News Translation (GNT), formerly the Today's English Version (TEV), are published by BibleNetUSA. The web site and BibleCard® designs are by iCreative. All BibleCard® images are copyrighted by iCreative. All rights reserved.