Excerpts from Lamentations

"Look and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow, which was brought upon me..for these things I weep; my eyes flow with tears; for a comforter is far from me, one to revive my spirit.... Look, O Lord, for I am in distress; my stomach churns; my heart is wrung within me.... They [everyone] heard my groaning. Yet there is no one to comfort me.... For my groans are many, and my heart is faint.... My eyes are spent with weeping; my stomach churns...'Arise, cry out in the night.... Pour out your heart like water before the presence of the Lord!' My soul is bereft of peace; I have forgotten what happiness is; so I say, 'My endurance has perished; so has my hope from the Lord.' Remember my affliction and my wanderings, my soul continually remembers it and is bowed down within me. But this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. 'The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him.... for the Lord will not cast off forever, but, though He cause grief, He will have compassion according to the abundance of His steadfast love; for He does not willingly afflict or greive the children of men.... Who has spoken and it came to pass, unless the Lord has commanded it? Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and bad come? Why should a living man complain, a man, about the punishment of his sins? Let us test and examine our ways, and return to the Lord! Let us lift up our hearts and hands to God in heaven.... My eyes will flow without ceasing, without respite, until the Lord from heaven looks down and sees; my eyes cause me grief....'I am lost. I called on your name, O Lord, from the depth of the pit; you heard my plea, 'Do no close your ear to my cry for help!' You came near when I called on you; You said, 'Do not fear!' You have taken up my case O Lord; You have redeemed my life. You have seen the wrong done to me, O Lord; judge my cause.'"