Lamentations 3
1 ALEPH. I am a man watching my own poverty by the rod of his indignation.
ALEPH. I am the man that sees poverty, through the rod of his wrath upon me.
2 ALEPH. He has driven me and led me into darkness, and not into light.
He has taken me, and led me away into darkness, and not [into] light.
3 ALEPH. Against me only, he has turned and turned again his hand, all day long.
Nay, against me has he turned his hand all the day.
4 BETH. My skin and my flesh, he has made old; he has crushed my bones.
He has made old my flesh and my skin; he has broken my bones.
5 BETH. He has built all around me, and he has encircled me with gall and hardship.
BETH. He has built against me, and compassed my head, and brought travail [upon me].
6 BETH. He has gathered me into darkness, like those who are forever dead.
He has set me in dark places, as them that have long been dead.
7 GHIMEL. He has built against me all around, so that I may not depart. He has increased the burden of my confinement.
He has builded against me, and I can’t come forth: he has made my brazen [chain] heavy.
8 GHIMEL. Yet even when I cry out and beg, he excludes my prayer.
GIMEL. Yes, [though] I cry and shout, he shuts out my prayer.
9 GHIMEL. He has enclosed my ways with square stones; he has subverted my paths.
DALETH. He has built up my ways, he has hedged my paths;
10 DALETH. He has become to me like a bear lying in ambush, like a lion in hiding.
he has troubled me, [as] a she-bear lying in wait: he is to me [as] a lion in secret places.
11 DALETH. He has subverted my paths, and he has broken me. He has placed me in desolation.
He pursued [me] after I departed, and brought me to a stand: he has utterly ruined me.
12 DALETH. He has bent his bow, and he has positioned me like a target for his arrows.
HE. He has bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow.
13 HE. He has shot into my kidneys the daughters of his quiver.
He has caused the arrows of his quiver to enter into my reins.
14 HE. I have become a derision to all my people, their song throughout the day.
I became a laughing stock to all my people; and their song all the day.
15 HE. He has filled me with bitterness; he has inebriated me with wormwood.
VAU. He has filled me with bitterness, he has drenched me with gall.
16 VAU. And he has broken each one of my teeth; he has fed me with ashes.
And he has dashed out my teeth with gravel, he has fed me with ashes.
17 VAU. And my soul has been driven away from peace; I have forgotten what is good.
He has also removed my soul from peace: I forgot prosperity.
18 VAU. And I said, “My end and my hope from the Lord has perished.”
Therefore my success has perished, and my hope from the Lord.
19 ZAIN. Remember my poverty and my transgression, the wormwood and the gall.
ZAIN. I remembered by reason of my poverty, and because of persecution my bitterness and gall shall be remembered;
20 ZAIN. I will call to mind the past, and my soul shall languish within me.
and my soul shall meditate with me.
21 ZAIN. These recollections are in my heart; therefore, I shall hope.
This will I lay up in my heart, therefore I will endure.
22 HETH. By the mercies of the Lord, we are not consumed. For his compassion has not passed away.
HETH. [It is] the mercies of the Lord, that he has not failed me, because his compassions are not exhausted. Pity [us], O Lord, early [every] month: for we are not brought to an end, because his compassions are not exhausted.
23 HETH. I know it at first light; great is your faithfulness.
[They are] new every morning: great is your faithfulness.
24 HETH. “The Lord is my portion,” said my soul. Because of this, I will wait for him.
The Lord is my portion, says my soul; therefore will I wait for him.
25 TETH. The Lord is good to those who hope in him, to the soul that seeks him.
TETH. The Lord is good to them that wait for him: the soul which shall seek him
26 TETH. It is good to stand ready in silence for the salvation of God.
[is] good, and shall wait for, and quietly expect salvation of the Lord.
27 TETH. It is good for a man, when he has carried the yoke from his youth.
TETH. [It is] good for a man when he bears a yoke in his youth.
28 JOD. He shall sit solitary and silent. For he has lifted it upon himself.
He will sit alone, and be silent, because he has borne [it] upon him.
29 JOD. He shall place his mouth in the dirt, if perhaps there may be hope.
30 JOD. He shall give his cheek to those who strike him; he shall be saturated with reproaches.
JOD. He will give [his] cheek to him that smites him: he will be filled full with reproaches.
31 CAPH. For the Lord will not rebuke forever.
For the Lord will not reject for ever.
32 CAPH. For, if he has cast down, he will also have compassion, according to the multitude of his mercies.
CHAPH. For he that has brought down will pity, and [that] according to the abundance of his mercy.
33 CAPH. For he has not humiliated from his heart, nor has he thrown aside the sons of men,
He has not answered [in anger] from his heart, though he has brought low the children of a man.
34 LAMED. as if to crush under his feet all the prisoners of the land,
LAMED. To bring down under his feet all the prisoners of the earth,
35 LAMED. as if to turn aside the judgment of a man in the sight of the presence of the Most High,
to turn aside the judgment of a man before the face of the Most High,
36 LAMED. as if to pervert a man in his judgment: the Lord does not do this.
to condemn a man [unjustly] in his judgment, the Lord has not given commandment.
37 MEM. Who is this, who said to do what the Lord did not command?
Who has thus spoken, and it has come to pass? the Lord has not commanded it.
38 MEM. Does not both misfortune and good proceed from the mouth of the Most High?
Out of the mouth of the Most High there shall not come forth evil and good.
39 MEM. Why has a living man murmured, a man suffering for his sins?
MEM. Why should a living man complain, a man concerning his sin?
40 NUN. Let us examine our ways, and seek out, and return to the Lord.
NUN. Our way has been searched out and examined, and we will turn to the Lord.
41 NUN. Let us lift up our hearts, with our hands, toward the Lord in the heavens.
Let us lift up our hearts with [our] hand to the lofty One in heaven.
42 NUN. We have acted sinfully, and we have provoked to wrath. About this, you are relentless.
We have sinned, we have transgressed; and you have not pardoned.
43 SAMECH. You have covered us in your fury, and you have struck us. You have killed, and have not spared.
SAMECH. You has visited [us] in wrath, and driven us away: you has slain, you has not pitied.
44 SAMECH. You have set a cloud opposite you, lest our prayer pass through.
You have veiled yourself with a cloud because of prayer, that I might be blind,
45 SAMECH. In the midst of the peoples, you have uprooted me and cast me out.
and be cast off. AIN. You have set us [alone] in the midst of the nations.
46 PHE. All our enemies have opened their mouths over us.
All our enemies have opened their mouth against us.
47 PHE. Prediction has become for us a dread, and a snare, and a grief.
Fear and wrath are come upon us, suspense and destruction.
48 PHE. My eye has brought forth streams of water at the contrition of the daughter of my people.
Mine eye shall pour down torrents of water, for the destruction of the daughter of my people.
49 AIN. My eye has been afflicted, and it has not been quieted, because there would be no rest
PHE. Mine eye is drowned [with tears], and I will not be silent, so that there shall be no rest,
50 AIN. until the Lord looked down and saw from the heavens.
until the Lord look down, and behold from heaven.
51 AIN. My eye has exhausted my soul over every one of the daughters of my city.
Mine eye shall prey upon my soul, because of all the daughters of the city.
52 SADE. My enemies have chased me, and they have caught me like a bird, without reason.
TSADE. The fowlers chased me as a sparrow, all mine enemies destroyed my life in a pit without cause,
53 SADE. My life has fallen into a pit, and they have placed a stone over me.
and laid a stone upon me.
54 SADE. The waters have flooded over my head. I said, “I am lost.”
Water flowed over my head: I said, I am cut off.
55 COPH. I called upon your name, O Lord, from the furthest pit.
KOPH. I called upon your name, O Lord, out of the lowest dungeon.
56 COPH. You have heard my voice. Do not turn away your ear from my sobbing and my cries.
You heard my voice: close not your ears to my supplication.
57 COPH. You drew near in the daytime, when I called upon you. You said, “Fear not.”
You drew near to my help: in the day wherein I called upon you you said to me, Fear not.
58 RES. You have judged, O Lord, the case of my soul. You are the Redeemer of my life.
RECHS. O Lord, you has pleaded the causes of my soul; you has redeemed my life.
59 RES. You have seen, O Lord, their iniquity against me. Judge my case.
You have seen, O Lord, my troubles: you have judged my cause.
60 RES. You have seen all their fury, every one of their thoughts is against me.
You have seen all their vengeance, [you have looked] on all their devices against me.
61 SIN. You have heard their reproach, O Lord, all their thoughts are against me.
CHSEN. You have heard their reproach [and] all their devices against me;
62 SIN. The lips of those who rise up against me, and their meditations, are against me all day long.
the lips of them that rose up against me, and their plots against me all the day;
63 SIN. Watch their sitting down and their rising up: I am their psalm.
their sitting down and their rising up: look you upon their eyes.
64 THAU. You shall pay a recompense to them, O Lord, according to the works of their hands.
You will render them a recompense, O Lord, according to the works of their hands.
65 THAU. You shall give them a heavy shield of the heart: your hardship.
THAU. You will give them [as] a covering, the grief of my heart.
66 THAU. You shall pursue them in fury, and you shall destroy them under the heavens, O Lord.
You will persecute them in anger, and will consume them from under the heaven, O Lord.
