Lamentations 3
The speaker describes their suffering and affliction at the hands of God, who has driven them into darkness, crushed their bones, and enclosed their ways. Despite their cries for help, God seems to have turned against them, and they feel like a target for his arrows. However, the speaker holds onto hope, remembering God's mercies and faithfulness, and affirms that the Lord is their portion. They encourage others to wait in silence for God's salvation and to seek him, trusting that he will not rebuke forever and will have compassion according to his mercies.
ALEPH. I am a man watching my own poverty by the rod of his indignationALEPH. He has driven me and led me into darkness, and not into lightALEPH. Against me only, he has turned and turned again his hand, all day longBETH. My skin and my flesh, he has made old; he has crushed my bonesBETH. He has built all around me, and he has encircled me with gall and hardshipBETH. He has gathered me into darkness, like those who are forever deadGHIMEL. He has built against me all around, so that I may not depart. He has increased the burden of my confinementGHIMEL. Yet even when I cry out and beg, he excludes my prayerGHIMEL. He has enclosed my ways with square stones; he has subverted my pathsDALETH. He has become to me like a bear lying in ambush, like a lion in hidingDALETH. He has subverted my paths, and he has broken me. He has placed me in desolationDALETH. He has bent his bow, and he has positioned me like a target for his arrowsHE. He has shot into my kidneys the daughters of his quiverHE. I have become a derision to all my people, their song throughout the dayHE. He has filled me with bitterness; he has inebriated me with wormwoodVAU. And he has broken each one of my teeth; he has fed me with ashesVAU. And my soul has been driven away from peace; I have forgotten what is goodVAU. And I said, "My end and my hope from the Lord has perished.ZAIN. Remember my poverty and my transgression, the wormwood and the gallZAIN. I will call to mind the past, and my soul shall languish within meZAIN. These recollections are in my heart; therefore, I shall hopeHETH. By the mercies of the Lord, we are not consumed. For his compassion has not passed awayHETH. I know it at first light; great is your faithfulnessHETH. "The Lord is my portion," said my soul. Because of this, I will wait for himTETH. The Lord is good to those who hope in him, to the soul that seeks himTETH. It is good to stand ready in silence for the salvation of GodTETH. It is good for a man, when he has carried the yoke from his youthJOD. He shall sit solitary and silent. For he has lifted it upon himselfJOD. He shall place his mouth in the dirt, if perhaps there may be hopeJOD. He shall give his cheek to those who strike him; he shall be saturated with reproachesCAPH. For the Lord will not rebuke foreverCAPH. For, if he has cast down, he will also have compassion, according to the multitude of his merciesCAPH. For he has not humiliated from his heart, nor has he thrown aside the sons of menLAMED. as if to crush under his feet all the prisoners of the landLAMED. as if to turn aside the judgment of a man in the sight of the presence of the Most HighLAMED. as if to pervert a man in his judgment: the Lord does not do thisMEM. Who is this, who said to do what the Lord did not commandMEM. Does not both misfortune and good proceed from the mouth of the Most HighMEM. Why has a living man murmured, a man suffering for his sinsNUN. Let us examine our ways, and seek out, and return to the LordNUN. Let us lift up our hearts, with our hands, toward the Lord in the heavensNUN. We have acted sinfully, and we have provoked to wrath. About this, you are relentlessSAMECH. You have covered us in your fury, and you have struck us. You have killed, and have not sparedSAMECH. You have set a cloud opposite you, lest our prayer pass throughSAMECH. In the midst of the peoples, you have uprooted me and cast me outPHE. All our enemies have opened their mouths over usPHE. Prediction has become for us a dread, and a snare, and a griefPHE. My eye has brought forth streams of water at the contrition of the daughter of my peopleAIN. My eye has been afflicted, and it has not been quieted, because there would be no resAIN. until the Lord looked down and saw from the heavensAIN. My eye has exhausted my soul over every one of the daughters of my citySADE. My enemies have chased me, and they have caught me like a bird, without reasonSADE. My life has fallen into a pit, and they have placed a stone over meSADE. The waters have flooded over my head. I said, "I am lost.COPH. I called upon your name, O Lord, from the furthest pitCOPH. You have heard my voice. Do not turn away your ear from my sobbing and my criesCOPH. You drew near in the daytime, when I called upon you. You said, "Fear not.RES. You have judged, O Lord, the case of my soul. You are the Redeemer of my lifeRES. You have seen, O Lord, their iniquity against me. Judge my caseRES. You have seen all their fury, every one of their thoughts is against meSIN. You have heard their reproach, O Lord, all their thoughts are against meSIN. The lips of those who rise up against me, and their meditations, are against me all day longSIN. Watch their sitting down and their rising up: I am their psalmTHAU. You shall pay a recompense to them, O Lord, according to the works of their handsTHAU. You shall give them a heavy shield of the heart: your hardshipTHAU. You shall pursue them in fury, and you shall destroy them under the heavens, O Lord
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