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Lamentations 3

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1 I am the man that has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.

2 He has led me and caused me to walk in darkness, and not in light.

3 Surely against me he turns his hand again and again all the day.

4 My flesh and my skin has he made old; he has broken my bones.

5 He has built against me, and surrounded me with gall and travail.

6 He has made me to dwell in dark places, as those that have been long dead.

7 He has walled me about, that I can't go forth; he has made my chain heavy.

8 Yes, when I cry, and call for help, he shuts out my prayer.

9 He has walled up my ways with cut stone; he has made my paths crooked.

10 He is to me as a bear lying in wait, as a lion in secret places.

11 He has turned aside my ways, and pulled me in pieces; he has made me desolate.

12 He has bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow.

13 He has caused the shafts of his quiver to enter into my kidneys.

14 I am become a derision to all my people, and their song all the day.

15 He has filled me with bitterness, he has sated me with wormwood.

16 He has also broken my teeth with gravel stones; he has covered me with ashes.

17 You have removed my soul far off from peace; I forgot prosperity.

18 I said, My strength is perished, and my expectation from Yahweh.

19 Remember my affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall.

20 My soul still remembers them, and is bowed down within me.

21 This I recall to my mind; therefore have I hope.

22 [It is of] Yahweh's loving kindnesses that we are not consumed, because his compassion doesn't fail.

23 They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

24 Yahweh is my portion, says my soul; therefore will I hope in him.

25 Yahweh is good to those who wait for him, to the soul that seeks him.

26 It is good that a man should hope and quietly wait for the salvation of Yahweh.

27 It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.

28 Let him sit alone and keep silence, because he has laid it on him.

29 Let him put his mouth in the dust, if so be there may be hope.

30 Let him give his cheek to him who strikes him; let him be filled full with reproach.

31 For the Lord will not cast off forever.

32 For though he cause grief, yet he will have compassion according to the multitude of his loving kindnesses.

33 For he does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men.

34 To crush under foot all the prisoners of the earth,

35 To turn aside the right of a man before the face of the Most High,

36 To subvert a man in his cause, the Lord doesn't approve.

37 Who is he who says, and it comes to pass, when the Lord doesn't command it?

38 Doesn't evil and good come out of the mouth of the Most High?

39 Why does a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?

40 Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to Yahweh.

41 Let us lift up our heart with our hands to God in the heavens.

42 We have transgressed and have rebelled; you have not pardoned.

43 You have covered with anger and pursued us; you have killed, you have not pitied.

44 You have covered yourself with a cloud, so that no prayer can pass through.

45 You have made us an off-scouring and refuse in the midst of the peoples.

46 All our enemies have opened their mouth wide against us.

47 Fear and the pit are come on us, devastation and destruction.

48 My eye runs down with streams of water, for the destruction of the daughter of my people.

49 My eye pours down, and doesn't cease, without any intermission,

50 Until Yahweh look down, and see from heaven.

51 My eye affects my soul, because of all the daughters of my city.

52 They have chased me relentlessly like a bird, those who are my enemies without cause.

53 They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and have cast a stone on me.

54 Waters flowed over my head; I said, I am cut off.

55 I called on your name, Yahweh, out of the lowest dungeon.

56 You heard my voice; don't hide your ear at my breathing, at my cry.

57 You drew near in the day that I called on you; you said, Don't be afraid.

58 Lord, you have pleaded the causes of my soul; you have redeemed my life.

59 Yahweh, you have seen my wrong. Judge my cause.

60 You have seen all their vengeance and all their devices against me.

61 You have heard their reproach, Yahweh, and all their devices against me,

62 The lips of those that rose up against me, and their device against me all the day.

63 You see their sitting down, and their rising up; I am their song.

64 You will render to them a recompense, Yahweh, according to the work of their hands.

65 You will give them hardness of heart, your curse to them.

66 You will pursue them in anger, and destroy them from under the heavens of Yahweh.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Scriptural Confirmations #4

  
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4. 2. The Son of God (Romans 1:3-4).

Called after Jesus Christ, Christians (Romans 1:6) through the faith of Jesus Christ (Romans 3:22).

Faith in Christ. Through Jesus Christ we have peace toward God, and to God we have access by faith into this grace, and we glory in the hope of the glory of God (Romans 5:1-2).

By Jesus Christ were we reconciled to God (Romans 5:10,11).

As by one man sin entered into the world, so by the justice of one are we justified (Romans 5:12, 13, 15, 18-19).

There is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit, in order that the justification of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit (Romans 8:1-4). Christ is at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us (Romans 8:34).

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, distress, hunger, death, angels, principalities, height, depth, etc. (Romans 8:35-39)?

From the fathers Christ is according to the flesh, who is over all; God blessed forever. Amen (Romans 9:5).

Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord, shall be saved (Romans 10:13).

We are one body in Christ; all are members having different gifts according to grace (Romans 12:5-6). The gifts which belong to different members are enumerated in a long series (verses 6, 13).

Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 13:14).

Whether we live, we live in the Lord; whether we die, we die in the Lord; therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord's. For to this end Christ both died and rose and lived again that He might be Lord both of the dead and of the living (Romans 14:8-9).

It is written, I live, saith the Lord, for every knee shall bow to Me, and every tongue shall confess to God (Romans 14:11). Isaiah saith, there shall be a root of Jesse, and He that shall rise to rule over the nations; in Him shall the nations hope (Romans 15:12).

The Gospel of Christ (Romans 15:19-21).

Chosen and tried in the Lord, in Christ: to work and labor in the Lord (Romans 16:8-13).

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Foundation for their permission to use this translation.