CPDV - Lamentations - 3

3:1  ALEPH. I am a man watching my own poverty by the rod of his indignation.

3:2  ALEPH. He has driven me and led me into darkness, and not into light.

3:3  ALEPH. Against me only, he has turned and turned again his hand, all day long.

3:4  BETH. My skin and my flesh, he has made old; he has crushed my bones.

3:5  BETH. He has built all around me, and he has encircled me with gall and hardship.

3:6  BETH. He has gathered me into darkness, like those who are forever dead.

3:7  GHIMEL. He has built against me all around, so that I may not depart. He has increased the burden of my confinement.

3:8  GHIMEL. Yet even when I cry out and beg, he excludes my prayer.

3:9  GHIMEL. He has enclosed my ways with square stones; he has subverted my paths.

3:10  DALETH. He has become to me like a bear lying in ambush, like a lion in hiding.

3:11  DALETH. He has subverted my paths, and he has broken me. He has placed me in desolation.

3:12  DALETH. He has bent his bow, and he has positioned me like a target for his arrows.

3:13  HE. He has shot into my kidneys the daughters of his quiver.

3:14  HE. I have become a derision to all my people, their song throughout the day.

3:15  HE. He has filled me with bitterness; he has inebriated me with wormwood.

3:16  VAU. And he has broken each one of my teeth; he has fed me with ashes.

3:17  VAU. And my soul has been driven away from peace; I have forgotten what is good.

3:18  VAU. And I said, “My end and my hope from the Lord has perished.”

3:19  ZAIN. Remember my poverty and my transgression, the wormwood and the gall.

3:20  ZAIN. I will call to mind the past, and my soul shall languish within me.

3:21  ZAIN. These recollections are in my heart; therefore, I shall hope.

3:22  HETH. By the mercies of the Lord, we are not consumed. For his compassion has not passed away.

3:23  HETH. I know it at first light; great is your faithfulness.

3:24  HETH. “The Lord is my portion,” said my soul. Because of this, I will wait for him.

3:25  TETH. The Lord is good to those who hope in him, to the soul that seeks him.

3:26  TETH. It is good to stand ready in silence for the salvation of God.

3:27  TETH. It is good for a man, when he has carried the yoke from his youth.

3:28  JOD. He shall sit solitary and silent. For he has lifted it upon himself.

3:29  JOD. He shall place his mouth in the dirt, if perhaps there may be hope.

3:30  JOD. He shall give his cheek to those who strike him; he shall be saturated with reproaches.

3:31  CAPH. For the Lord will not rebuke forever.

3:32  CAPH. For, if he has cast down, he will also have compassion, according to the multitude of his mercies.

3:33  CAPH. For he has not humiliated from his heart, nor has he thrown aside the sons of men,

3:34  LAMED. as if to crush under his feet all the prisoners of the land,

3:35  LAMED. as if to turn aside the judgment of a man in the sight of the presence of the Most High,

3:36  LAMED. as if to pervert a man in his judgment: the Lord does not do this.

3:37  MEM. Who is this, who said to do what the Lord did not command?

3:38  MEM. Does not both misfortune and good proceed from the mouth of the Most High?

3:39  MEM. Why has a living man murmured, a man suffering for his sins?

3:40  NUN. Let us examine our ways, and seek out, and return to the Lord.

3:41  NUN. Let us lift up our hearts, with our hands, toward the Lord in the heavens.

3:42  NUN. We have acted sinfully, and we have provoked to wrath. About this, you are relentless.

3:43  SAMECH. You have covered us in your fury, and you have struck us. You have killed, and have not spared.

3:44  SAMECH. You have set a cloud opposite you, lest our prayer pass through.

3:45  SAMECH. In the midst of the peoples, you have uprooted me and cast me out.

3:46  PHE. All our enemies have opened their mouths over us.

3:47  PHE. Prediction has become for us a dread, and a snare, and a grief.

3:48  PHE. My eye has brought forth streams of water at the contrition of the daughter of my people.

3:49  AIN. My eye has been afflicted, and it has not been quieted, because there would be no rest

3:50  AIN. until the Lord looked down and saw from the heavens.

3:51  AIN. My eye has exhausted my soul over every one of the daughters of my city.

3:52  SADE. My enemies have chased me, and they have caught me like a bird, without reason.

3:53  SADE. My life has fallen into a pit, and they have placed a stone over me.

3:54  SADE. The waters have flooded over my head. I said, “I am lost.”

3:55  COPH. I called upon your name, O Lord, from the furthest pit.

3:56  COPH. You have heard my voice. Do not turn away your ear from my sobbing and my cries.

3:57  COPH. You drew near in the daytime, when I called upon you. You said, “Fear not.”

3:58  RES. You have judged, O Lord, the case of my soul. You are the Redeemer of my life.

3:59  RES. You have seen, O Lord, their iniquity against me. Judge my case.

3:60  RES. You have seen all their fury, every one of their thoughts is against me.

3:61  SIN. You have heard their reproach, O Lord, all their thoughts are against me.

3:62  SIN. The lips of those who rise up against me, and their meditations, are against me all day long.

3:63  SIN. Watch their sitting down and their rising up: I am their psalm.

3:64  THAU. You shall pay a recompense to them, O Lord, according to the works of their hands.

3:65  THAU. You shall give them a heavy shield of the heart: your hardship.

3:66  THAU. You shall pursue them in fury, and you shall destroy them under the heavens, O Lord.