Lamentations 3

NEW JERUSALEM	CATHOLIC PUBLIC DOMAIN
1 I am the man familiar with misery under the rod of his fury.	1 ALEPH. I am a man watching my own poverty by the rod of his indignation.
2 He has led and guided me into darkness, not light.	2 ALEPH. He has driven me and led me into darkness, and not into light.
3 Against none but me does he turn his hand, again and again, al day.	3 ALEPH. Against me only, he has turned and turned again his hand, all day long.
4 He has wasted my flesh and skin away, has broken my bones.	4 BETH. My skin and my flesh, he has made old; he has crushed my bones.
5 He has besieged me and made hardship a circlet round my head.	5 BETH. He has built all around me, and he has encircled me with gall and hardship.
6 He has forced me to dwel where al is dark, like those long-dead in their everlasting home.	6 BETH. He has gathered me into darkness, like those who are forever dead.
7 He has walled me in so that I cannot escape; he has 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 shout for help, he shuts out my prayer.	8 GHIMEL. Yet even when I cry out and beg, he excludes my prayer.
9 He has closed my way with blocks of stone, he has obstructed my paths.	9 GHIMEL. He has enclosed my ways with square stones; he has subverted my paths.
10 For me he is a lurking bear, a lion in hiding.	10 DALETH. He has become to me like a bear lying in ambush, like a lion in hiding.
11 Heading me off, he has torn me apart, leaving me shattered.	11 DALETH. He has subverted my paths, and he has broken me. He has placed me in desolation.
12 He has bent his bow and used me as a target for his arrows.	12 DALETH. He has bent his bow, and he has positioned me like a target for his arrows.
13 He has shot deep into me with shafts from his quiver.	13 HE. He has shot into my kidneys the daughters of his quiver.
14 I have become a joke to al my own people, their refrain all day long.	14 HE. I have become a derision to all my people, their song throughout the day.
15 He has given me my fil of bitterness, he has made me drunk with wormwood.	15 HE. He has filled me with bitterness; he has inebriated me with wormwood.
16 He has broken my teeth with gravel, he has fed me on ashes.	16 VAU. And he has broken each one of my teeth; he has fed me with ashes.
17 I have been 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 and thought, 'My lasting hope in Yahweh is lost.'	18 VAU. And I said, “My end and my hope from the Lord has perished.”
19 Bring to mind my misery and anguish; it is wormwood and gall!	19 ZAIN. Remember my poverty and my transgression, the wormwood and the gall.
20 My heart dwel s on this continual y and sinks within me.	20 ZAIN. I will call to mind the past, and my soul shall languish within me.
21 This is what I shal keep in mind and so regain some hope:	21 ZAIN. These recollections are in my heart; therefore, I shall hope.
22 Surely Yahweh's mercies are not over, his deeds of faithful love not exhausted;	22 HETH. By the mercies of the Lord, we are not consumed. For his compassion has not passed away.
23 every morning they are renewed; great is his faithfulness!	23 HETH. I know it at first light; great is your faithfulness.
24 'Yahweh is al I have,' I say to myself, 'and so I shal put my hope in him.'	24 HETH. “The Lord is my portion,” said my soul. Because of this, I will wait for him.
25 Yahweh is good to those who trust him, to al who search for him.	25 TETH. The Lord is good to those who hope in him, to the soul that seeks him.
26 It is good to wait in silence for Yahweh to save.	26 TETH. It is good to stand ready in silence for the salvation of God.
27 It is good for someone to bear the yoke from a young age,	27 TETH. It is good for a man, when he has carried the yoke from his youth.
28 to sit in solitude and silence when it weighs heavy,	28 JOD. He shall sit solitary and silent. For he has lifted it upon himself.
29 to lay one's head in the dust -- maybe there is hope-	29 JOD. He shall place his mouth in the dirt, if perhaps there may be hope.
30 to offer one's cheek to the striker, to have one's fil of disgrace!	30 JOD. He shall give his cheek to those who strike him; he shall be saturated with reproaches.
31 For the Lord will not reject anyone for ever.	31 CAPH. For the Lord will not rebuke forever.
32 If he brings grief, he wil have pity out of the ful ness of his faithful love,	32 CAPH. For, if he has cast down, he will also have compassion, according to the multitude of his mercies.
33 for it is not for his own pleasure that he torments and grieves the human race.	33 CAPH. For he has not humiliated from his heart, nor has he thrown aside the sons of men,
34 When al the prisoners in a country are crushed underfoot,	34 LAMED. as if to crush under his feet all the prisoners of the land,
35 when human rights are overridden in defiance 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 someone is cheated of justice, does not the Lord see it?	36 LAMED. as if to pervert a man in his judgment: the Lord does not do this.
37 Who has only to speak and it is so done? Who commands, if not the Lord?	37 MEM. Who is this, who said to do what the Lord did not command?
38 From where, if not from the mouth of the Most High, do evil and good come?	38 MEM. Does not both misfortune and good proceed from the mouth of the Most High?
39 Why then should anyone complain? Better to be bold against one's sins.	39 MEM. Why has a living man murmured, a man suffering for his sins?
40 Let us examine our path, let us ponder it and return to Yahweh.	40 NUN. Let us examine our ways, and seek out, and return to the Lord.
41 Let us raise our hearts and hands to God in heaven.	41 NUN. Let us lift up our hearts, with our hands, toward the Lord in the heavens.
42 We are the ones who have sinned, who have rebel ed, and you have not forgiven.	42 NUN. We have acted sinfully, and we have provoked to wrath. About this, you are relentless.
43 You have enveloped us in anger, pursuing us, slaughtering without pity.	43 SAMECH. You have covered us in your fury, and you have struck us. You have killed, and have not spared.
44 You have wrapped yourself in a cloud too thick for prayer to pierce.	44 SAMECH. You have set a cloud opposite you, lest our prayer pass through.
45 You have reduced us to rubbish and refuse among the nations.	45 SAMECH. In the midst of the peoples, you have uprooted me and cast me out.
46 Our enemies open their mouths in chorus against us.	46 PHE. All our enemies have opened their mouths over us.
47 Terror and pitfal have been our lot, ravage and ruin.	47 PHE. Prediction has become for us a dread, and a snare, and a grief.
48 My eyes dissolve in torrents of tears at the ruin of my beloved people.	48 PHE. My eye has brought forth streams of water at the contrition of the daughter of my people.
49 My eyes wil weep ceaselessly, without relief,	49 AIN. My eye has been afflicted, and it has not been quieted, because there would be no rest
50 until Yahweh looks down and sees from heaven.	50 AIN. until the Lord looked down and saw from the heavens.
51 My eyes have grown sore over al the daughters of my city.	51 AIN. My eye has exhausted my soul over every one of the daughters of my city.
52 Unprovoked, my enemies 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 shut me final y in a pit, they closed 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 rose over my head; I thought, 'I am lost!'	54 SADE. The waters have flooded over my head. I said, “I am lost.”
55 Yahweh, I called on your name from the deep pit.	55 COPH. I called upon your name, O Lord, from the furthest pit.
56 You heard my voice, do not close your ear to my prayer, to my cry.	56 COPH. You have heard my voice. Do not turn away your ear from my sobbing and my cries.
57 You are near when I cal to you. You said, 'Do not be afraid!'	57 COPH. You drew near in the daytime, when I called upon you. You said, “Fear not.”
58 Lord, you defended my cause, you have redeemed my life.	58 RES. You have judged, O Lord, the case of my soul. You are the Redeemer of my life.
59 Yahweh, you have seen the wrong done to me, grant me redress.	59 RES. You have seen, O Lord, their iniquity against me. Judge my case.
60 You have seen their vindictiveness, al their plots against me.	60 RES. You have seen all their fury, every one of their thoughts is against me.
61 You have heard their insults, Yahweh, al their plots against me,	61 SIN. You have heard their reproach, O Lord, all their thoughts are against me.
62 the whispering and murmuring of my enemies against me all day long.	62 SIN. The lips of those who rise up against me, and their meditations, are against me all day long.
63 Look, whether they sit or stand, I am their refrain.	63 SIN. Watch their sitting down and their rising up: I am their psalm.
64 Yahweh, repay them as their deeds deserve.	64 THAU. You shall pay a recompense to them, O Lord, according to the works of their hands.
65 Lay hardness of heart as your curse on them.	65 THAU. You shall give them a heavy shield of the heart: your hardship.
66 Angrily pursue them, root them out from under your heavens!	66 THAU. You shall pursue them in fury, and you shall destroy them under the heavens, O Lord.