Lamentations 3

NEW AMERICAN BIBLE	CATHOLIC PUBLIC DOMAIN
1 I am a man who knows affliction from the rod of his anger,	1 ALEPH. I am a man watching my own poverty by the rod of his indignation.
2 One whom he has led and forced to walk in darkness, not in the light;	2 ALEPH. He has driven me and led me into darkness, and not into light.
3 Against me alone he brings back his hand again and again all the day.	3 ALEPH. Against me only, he has turned and turned again his hand, all day long.
4 He has worn away my flesh and my skin, he has broken my bones;	4 BETH. My skin and my flesh, he has made old; he has crushed my bones.
5 He has beset me round about with poverty and weariness;	5 BETH. He has built all around me, and he has encircled me with gall and hardship.
6 He has left me to dwell in the dark like those long dead.	6 BETH. He has gathered me into darkness, like those who are forever dead.
7 He has hemmed me in with no escape and weighed me down with chains;	7 GHIMEL. He has built against me all around, so that I may not depart. He has increased the burden of my confinement.
8 Even when I cry out for help, he stops my prayer;	8 GHIMEL. Yet even when I cry out and beg, he excludes my prayer.
9 He has blocked my ways with fitted stones, and turned my paths aside.	9 GHIMEL. He has enclosed my ways with square stones; he has subverted my paths.
10 A lurking bear he has been to me, a lion in ambush!	10 DALETH. He has become to me like a bear lying in ambush, like a lion in hiding.
11 He deranged my ways, set me astray, left me desolate.	11 DALETH. He has subverted my paths, and he has broken me. He has placed me in desolation.
12 He bent his bow, and set me up as the target for his arrow.	12 DALETH. He has bent his bow, and he has positioned me like a target for his arrows.
13 He pierces my sides with shafts from his quiver.	13 HE. He has shot into my kidneys the daughters of his quiver.
14 I have become a laughingstock for all nations, their taunt all the day long;	14 HE. I have become a derision to all my people, their song throughout the day.
15 He has sated me with bitter food, made me drink my fill of wormwood.	15 HE. He has filled me with bitterness; he has inebriated me with wormwood.
16 He has broken my teeth with gravel, pressed my face in the dust;	16 VAU. And he has broken each one of my teeth; he has fed me with ashes.
17 My soul is deprived of peace, I have forgotten what happiness is;	17 VAU. And my soul has been driven away from peace; I have forgotten what is good.
18 I tell myself my future is lost, all that I hoped for from the LORD.	18 VAU. And I said, “My end and my hope from the Lord has perished.”
19 The thought of my homeless poverty is wormwood and gall;	19 ZAIN. Remember my poverty and my transgression, the wormwood and the gall.
20 Remembering it over and over leaves my soul downcast within me.	20 ZAIN. I will call to mind the past, and my soul shall languish within me.
21 But I will call this to mind, as my reason to have hope:	21 ZAIN. These recollections are in my heart; therefore, I shall hope.
22 The favors of the LORD are not exhausted, his mercies are not spent;	22 HETH. By the mercies of the Lord, we are not consumed. For his compassion has not passed away.
23 They are renewed each morning, so great is his faithfulness.	23 HETH. I know it at first light; great is your faithfulness.
24 My portion is the LORD, says my soul; therefore will I hope in him.	24 HETH. “The Lord is my portion,” said my soul. Because of this, I will wait for him.
25 Good is the LORD to one who waits for him, to the soul that seeks him;	25 TETH. The Lord is good to those who hope in him, to the soul that seeks him.
26 It is good to hope in silence for the saving help of the LORD.	26 TETH. It is good to stand ready in silence for the salvation of God.
27 It is good for a man to bear the yoke from his youth.	27 TETH. It is good for a man, when he has carried the yoke from his youth.
28 Let him sit alone and in silence, when it is laid upon him.	28 JOD. He shall sit solitary and silent. For he has lifted it upon himself.
29 Let him put his mouth to the dust; there may yet be hope.	29 JOD. He shall place his mouth in the dirt, if perhaps there may be hope.
30 Let him offer his cheek to be struck, let him be filled with disgrace.	30 JOD. He shall give his cheek to those who strike him; he shall be saturated with reproaches.
31 For the Lord's rejection does not last forever;	31 CAPH. For the Lord will not rebuke forever.
32 Though he punishes, he takes pity, in the abundance of his mercies;	32 CAPH. For, if he has cast down, he will also have compassion, according to the multitude of his mercies.
33 He has no joy in afflicting or grieving the sons of men.	33 CAPH. For he has not humiliated from his heart, nor has he thrown aside the sons of men,
34 When anyone tramples underfoot all the prisoners in the land,	34 LAMED. as if to crush under his feet all the prisoners of the land,
35 When he distorts men's rights in the very sight of the Most High,	35 LAMED. as if to turn aside the judgment of a man in the sight of the presence of the Most High,
36 When he presses a crooked claim, the Lord does not look on unconcerned.	36 LAMED. as if to pervert a man in his judgment: the Lord does not do this.
37 Who commands so that it comes to pass, except the Lord ordains it;	37 MEM. Who is this, who said to do what the Lord did not command?
38 Except it proceeds from the mouth of the Most High, whether the thing be good or bad!	38 MEM. Does not both misfortune and good proceed from the mouth of the Most High?
39 Why should any living man complain, any mortal, in the face of his sins?	39 MEM. Why has a living man murmured, a man suffering for his sins?
40 Let us search and examine our ways that we may return to the LORD!	40 NUN. Let us examine our ways, and seek out, and return to the Lord.
41 Let us reach out our hearts toward God in heaven!	41 NUN. Let us lift up our hearts, with our hands, toward the Lord in the heavens.
42 We have sinned and rebelled; you have not forgiven us.	42 NUN. We have acted sinfully, and we have provoked to wrath. About this, you are relentless.
43 You veiled yourself in wrath and pursued us, you slew us and took no pity;	43 SAMECH. You have covered us in your fury, and you have struck us. You have killed, and have not spared.
44 You wrapped yourself in a cloud which prayer could not pierce.	44 SAMECH. You have set a cloud opposite you, lest our prayer pass through.
45 You have made us offscourings and refuse among the nations.	45 SAMECH. In the midst of the peoples, you have uprooted me and cast me out.
46 All our enemies have opened their mouths against us;	46 PHE. All our enemies have opened their mouths over us.
47 Terror and the pit have been our lot, desolation and destruction;	47 PHE. Prediction has become for us a dread, and a snare, and a grief.
48 My eyes run with streams of water over the downfall of the daughter of my people.	48 PHE. My eye has brought forth streams of water at the contrition of the daughter of my people.
49 My eyes flow without ceasing, there is no respite,	49 AIN. My eye has been afflicted, and it has not been quieted, because there would be no rest
50 Till the LORD from heaven looks down and sees.	50 AIN. until the Lord looked down and saw from the heavens.
51 My eyes torment my soul at the sight of all the daughters of my city.	51 AIN. My eye has exhausted my soul over every one of the daughters of my city.
52 Those who were my enemies without cause hunted me down like a bird;	52 SADE. My enemies have chased me, and they have caught me like a bird, without reason.
53 They struck me down alive in the pit, and sealed me in with a stone.	53 SADE. My life has fallen into a pit, and they have placed a stone over me.
54 The waters flowed over my head, and I said, "I am lost!"	54 SADE. The waters have flooded over my head. I said, “I am lost.”
55 I called upon your name, O LORD, from the bottom of the pit;	55 COPH. I called upon your name, O Lord, from the furthest pit.
56 You heard me call, "Let not your ear be deaf to my cry for help!"	56 COPH. You have heard my voice. Do not turn away your ear from my sobbing and my cries.
57 You came to my aid when I called to you; you said, "Have no fear!"	57 COPH. You drew near in the daytime, when I called upon you. You said, “Fear not.”
58 You defended me in mortal danger, you redeemed my life.	58 RES. You have judged, O Lord, the case of my soul. You are the Redeemer of my life.
59 You see, O LORD, how I am wronged; do me justice!	59 RES. You have seen, O Lord, their iniquity against me. Judge my case.
60 You see all their vindictiveness, all their plots against me.	60 RES. You have seen all their fury, every one of their thoughts is against me.
61 You hear their insults, O LORD, (all their plots against me),	61 SIN. You have heard their reproach, O Lord, all their thoughts are against me.
62 The whispered murmurings of my foes, against me all the day;	62 SIN. The lips of those who rise up against me, and their meditations, are against me all day long.
63 Whether they sit or stand, see, I am their taunt song.	63 SIN. Watch their sitting down and their rising up: I am their psalm.
64 Requite them as they deserve, O LORD, according to their deeds;	64 THAU. You shall pay a recompense to them, O Lord, according to the works of their hands.
65 Give them hardness of heart, as your curse upon them;	65 THAU. You shall give them a heavy shield of the heart: your hardship.
66 Pursue them in wrath and destroy them from under your heavens!	66 THAU. You shall pursue them in fury, and you shall destroy them under the heavens, O Lord.