Lamentations 3
1ALEPH. I am a man watching my own poverty by the rod of his indignation.
2ALEPH. He has driven me and led me into darkness, and not into light.
3ALEPH. Against me only, he has turned and turned again his hand, all day long.
4BETH. My skin and my flesh, he has made old; he has crushed my bones.
5BETH. He has built all around me, and he has encircled me with gall and hardship.
6BETH. He has gathered me into darkness, like those who are forever dead.
7GHIMEL. He has built against me all around, so that I may not depart. He has increased the burden of my confinement.
8GHIMEL. Yet even when I cry out and beg, he excludes my prayer.
9GHIMEL. He has enclosed my ways with square stones; he has subverted my paths.
10DALETH. He has become to me like a bear lying in ambush, like a lion in hiding.
11DALETH. He has subverted my paths, and he has broken me. He has placed me in desolation.
12DALETH. He has bent his bow, and he has positioned me like a target for his arrows.
13HE. He has shot into my kidneys the daughters of his quiver.
14HE. I have become a derision to all my people, their song throughout the day.
15HE. He has filled me with bitterness; he has inebriated me with wormwood.
16VAU. And he has broken each one of my teeth; he has fed me with ashes.
17VAU. And my soul has been driven away from peace; I have forgotten what is good.
18VAU. And I said, “My end and my hope from the Lord has perished.”
19ZAIN. Remember my poverty and my transgression, the wormwood and the gall.
20ZAIN. I will call to mind the past, and my soul shall languish within me.
21ZAIN. These recollections are in my heart; therefore, I shall hope.
22HETH. By the mercies of the Lord, we are not consumed. For his compassion has not passed away.
23HETH. I know it at first light; great is your faithfulness.
24HETH. “The Lord is my portion,” said my soul. Because of this, I will wait for him.
25TETH. The Lord is good to those who hope in him, to the soul that seeks him.
26TETH. It is good to stand ready in silence for the salvation of God.
27TETH. It is good for a man, when he has carried the yoke from his youth.
28JOD. He shall sit solitary and silent. For he has lifted it upon himself.
29JOD. He shall place his mouth in the dirt, if perhaps there may be hope.
30JOD. He shall give his cheek to those who strike him; he shall be saturated with reproaches.
31CAPH. For the Lord will not rebuke forever.
32CAPH. For, if he has cast down, he will also have compassion, according to the multitude of his mercies.
33CAPH. For he has not humiliated from his heart, nor has he thrown aside the sons of men,
34LAMED. as if to crush under his feet all the prisoners of the land,
35LAMED. as if to turn aside the judgment of a man in the sight of the presence of the Most High,
36LAMED. as if to pervert a man in his judgment: the Lord does not do this.
37MEM. Who is this, who said to do what the Lord did not command?
38MEM. Does not both misfortune and good proceed from the mouth of the Most High?
39MEM. Why has a living man murmured, a man suffering for his sins?
40NUN. Let us examine our ways, and seek out, and return to the Lord.
41NUN. Let us lift up our hearts, with our hands, toward the Lord in the heavens.
42NUN. We have acted sinfully, and we have provoked to wrath. About this, you are relentless.
43SAMECH. You have covered us in your fury, and you have struck us. You have killed, and have not spared.
44SAMECH. You have set a cloud opposite you, lest our prayer pass through.
45SAMECH. In the midst of the peoples, you have uprooted me and cast me out.
46PHE. All our enemies have opened their mouths over us.
47PHE. Prediction has become for us a dread, and a snare, and a grief.
48PHE. My eye has brought forth streams of water at the contrition of the daughter of my people.
49AIN. My eye has been afflicted, and it has not been quieted, because there would be no rest
50AIN. until the Lord looked down and saw from the heavens.
51AIN. My eye has exhausted my soul over every one of the daughters of my city.
52SADE. My enemies have chased me, and they have caught me like a bird, without reason.
53SADE. My life has fallen into a pit, and they have placed a stone over me.
54SADE. The waters have flooded over my head. I said, “I am lost.”
55COPH. I called upon your name, O Lord, from the furthest pit.
56COPH. You have heard my voice. Do not turn away your ear from my sobbing and my cries.
57COPH. You drew near in the daytime, when I called upon you. You said, “Fear not.”
58RES. You have judged, O Lord, the case of my soul. You are the Redeemer of my life.
59RES. You have seen, O Lord, their iniquity against me. Judge my case.
60RES. You have seen all their fury, every one of their thoughts is against me.
61SIN. You have heard their reproach, O Lord, all their thoughts are against me.
62SIN. The lips of those who rise up against me, and their meditations, are against me all day long.
63SIN. Watch their sitting down and their rising up: I am their psalm.
64THAU. You shall pay a recompense to them, O Lord, according to the works of their hands.
65THAU. You shall give them a heavy shield of the heart: your hardship.
66THAU. You shall pursue them in fury, and you shall destroy them under the heavens, O Lord.
1I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.
2He hath led me, and brought me into darkness, but not into light.
3Surely against me is he turned; he turneth his hand against me all the day.
4My flesh and my skin hath he made old; he hath broken my bones.
5He hath builded against me, and compassed me with gall and travail.
6He hath set me in dark places, as they that be dead of old.
7He hath hedged me about, that I cannot get out: he hath made my chain heavy.
8Also when I cry and shout, he shutteth out my prayer.
9He hath inclosed my ways with hewn stone, he hath made my paths crooked.
10He was unto me as a bear lying in wait, and as a lion in secret places.
11He hath turned aside my ways, and pulled me in pieces: he hath made me desolate.
12He hath bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow.
13He hath caused the arrows of his quiver to enter into my reins.
14I was a derision to all my people; and their song all the day.
15He hath filled me with bitterness, he hath made me drunken with wormwood.
16He hath also broken my teeth with gravel stones, he hath covered me with ashes.
17And thou hast removed my soul far off from peace: I forgat prosperity.
18And I said, My strength and my hope is perished from the Lord:
19Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall.
20My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me.
21This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope.
22It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.
23They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.
24The Lord is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him.
25The Lord is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him.
26It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord.
27It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.
28He sitteth alone and keepeth silence, because he hath borne it upon him.
29He putteth his mouth in the dust; if so be there may be hope.
30He giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him: he is filled full with reproach.
31For the Lord will not cast off for ever:
32But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies.
33For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men.
34To crush under his feet all the prisoners of the earth,
35To turn aside the right of a man before the face of the most High,
36To subvert a man in his cause, the Lord approveth not.
37Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth it not?
38Out of the mouth of the most High proceedeth not evil and good?
39Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?
40Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the Lord.
41Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens.
42We have transgressed and have rebelled: thou hast not pardoned.
43Thou hast covered with anger, and persecuted us: thou hast slain, thou hast not pitied.
44Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud, that our prayer should not pass through.
45Thou hast made us as the offscouring and refuse in the midst of the people.
46All our enemies have opened their mouths against us.
47Fear and a snare is come upon us, desolation and destruction.
48Mine eye runneth down with rivers of water for the destruction of the daughter of my people.
49Mine eye trickleth down, and ceaseth not, without any intermission,
50Till the Lord look down, and behold from heaven.
51Mine eye affecteth mine heart because of all the daughters of my city.
52Mine enemies chased me sore, like a bird, without cause.
53They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and cast a stone upon me.
54Waters flowed over mine head; then I said, I am cut off.
55I called upon thy name, O Lord, out of the low dungeon.
56Thou hast heard my voice: hide not thine ear at my breathing, at my cry.
57Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee: thou saidst, Fear not.
58O Lord, thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul; thou hast redeemed my life.
59O Lord, thou hast seen my wrong: judge thou my cause.
60Thou hast seen all their vengeance and all their imaginations against me.
61Thou hast heard their reproach, O Lord, and all their imaginations against me;
62The lips of those that rose up against me, and their device against me all the day.
63Behold their sitting down, and their rising up; I am their musick.
64Render unto them a recompence, O Lord, according to the work of their hands.
65Give them sorrow of heart, thy curse unto them.
66Persecute and destroy them in anger from under the heavens of the Lord.