AB - Lamentations - 3

3:1  ALEPH. I am the man that sees poverty, through the rod of His wrath upon me.

3:2  He has taken me, and led me away into darkness, and not into light.

3:3  Nay, against me has He turned His hand all the day.

3:4  He has made old my flesh and my skin; He has broken my bones.

3:5  BETH. He has built against me, and compassed my head, and brought travail upon me.

3:6  He has set me in dark places, as them that have long been dead.

3:7  He has hedged me in, and I cannot come forth; He has made my bronze chain heavy.

3:8  GIMEL. Yea, though I cry and shout, He shuts out my prayer.

3:9  DALETH. He has built up my ways, He has hedged my paths;

3:10  He has troubled me, as a female bear lying in wait; He is to me as a lion in secret places.

3:11  He pursued me after I departed, and brought me to a stand; He has utterly ruined me.

3:12  HE. He has bent His bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow.

3:13  He has caused the arrows of His quiver to enter into my reins.

3:14  I became a laughing stock to all my people; and their song all the day.

3:15  VAU. He has filled me with bitterness, He has drenched me with gall.

3:16  And He has dashed out my teeth with gravel, He has fed me with ashes.

3:17  He has also removed my soul from peace: I forgot prosperity.

3:18  Therefore my success has perished, and my hope from the Lord.

3:19  ZAIN. I remembered by reason of my poverty, and because of persecution my bitterness and gall shall be remembered;

3:20  and my soul shall meditate with me.

3:21  This will I lay up in my heart, therefore I will endure.

3:22  HETH. It is through 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.

3:23  They are new every morning: great is Your faithfulness.

3:24  The Lord is my portion, says my soul; therefore will I wait for Him.

3:25  TETH. The Lord is good to them that wait for Him; the soul which shall seek Him

3:26  is good, and shall wait for, and quietly expect salvation from the Lord.

3:27  TETH. It is good for a man when he bears a yoke in his youth.

3:28  He will sit alone, and be silent, because he has borne it upon him.

3:30  JOD. He will give his cheek to him that smites him: he will be filled full with reproaches.

3:31  For the Lord will not reject forever.

3:32  CHAPH. For He that has brought down will pity, and that according to the abundance of His mercy.

3:33  He has not answered in anger from His heart, though He has brought low the children of a man.

3:34  LAMED. To bring down under His feet all the prisoners of the earth,

3:35  to turn aside the judgment of a man before the face of the Most High,

3:36  to condemn a man unjustly in his judgment, the Lord has not given commandment.

3:37  Who has thus spoken, and it has come to pass? The Lord has not commanded it.

3:38  Out of the mouth of the Most High there shall not come forth evil and good.

3:39  MEM. Why should a living man complain, a man concerning his sin?

3:40  NUN. Our way has been searched out and examined, and we will turn to the Lord.

3:41  Let us lift up our hearts with our hand to the lofty One in heaven.

3:42  We have sinned, we have transgressed; and You have not pardoned.

3:43  SAMECH. You has visited us in wrath, and driven us away; You have slain, You have not pitied.

3:44  You have veiled Yourself with a cloud because of prayer, that I might be blind, and be cast off.

3:45  AIN. You have set us alone in the midst of the nations.

3:46  All our enemies have opened their mouth against us.

3:47  Fear and wrath have come upon us, suspense and destruction.

3:48  My eye shall pour down torrents of water, for the destruction of the daughter of my people.

3:49  PHE. My eye is drowned with tears, and I will not be silent, so that there shall be no rest,

3:50  until the Lord look down, and behold from heaven.

3:51  My eye shall prey upon my soul, because of all the daughters of the city.

3:52  TSADE. The fowlers chased me as a sparrow; all my enemies destroyed my life in a pit without cause,

3:53  and laid a stone upon me.

3:54  Water flowed over my head: I said, I am cut off.

3:55  KOPH. I called upon Your name, O Lord, out of the lowest dungeon.

3:56  You heard my voice; close not Your ears to my supplication.

3:57  You drew near to my help; in the day that I called upon You, You said to me, Fear not.

3:58  RECHS. O Lord, You have pleaded the causes of my soul; You have redeemed my life.

3:59  You have seen my troubles, O Lord; You have judged my cause.

3:60  You have seen all their vengeance; You have looked on all their devices against me.

3:61  CHSEN. You have heard their reproach and all their devices against me;

3:62  the lips of them that rose up against me, and their plots against me all the day;

3:63  their sitting down and their rising up: look upon their eyes.

3:64  You will render them a recompense, O Lord, according to the works of their hands.

3:65  THAU. You will give them as a covering, the grief of my heart.

3:66  You will persecute them in anger, and will consume them from under the heaven, O Lord.