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 them in hardship. Despite their cries for help, God seems to have turned against them, and they feel like a target for God's 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 the Lord, acknowledging that God does not rebuke forever and will have compassion according to His mercies.
1 ALEPH. I am a man watching my own poverty by the rod of his indignation 2 ALEPH. He has driven me and led me into darkness, and not into light 3 ALEPH. Against me only, he has turned and turned again his hand, all day long 4 BETH. My skin and my flesh, he has made old; he has crushed my bones 5 BETH. He has built all around me, and he has encircled me with gall and hardship 6 BETH. He has gathered me into darkness, like those who are forever dead 7 GHIMEL. He has built against me all around, so that I may not depart. He has increased the burden of my confinement 8 GHIMEL. Yet even when I cry out and beg, he excludes my prayer 9 GHIMEL. He has enclosed my ways with square stones; he has subverted my paths 10 DALETH. He has become to me like a bear lying in ambush, like a lion in hiding 11 DALETH. He has subverted my paths, and he has broken me. He has placed me in desolation 12 DALETH. He has bent his bow, and he has positioned me like a target for his arrows 13 HE. He has shot into my kidneys the daughters of his quiver 14 HE. I have become a derision to all my people, their song throughout the day 15 HE. He has filled me with bitterness; he has inebriated me with wormwood 16 VAU. And he has broken each one of my teeth; he has fed me with ashes 17 VAU. And my soul has been driven away from peace; I have forgotten what is good 18 VAU. And I said, "My end and my hope from the Lord has perished. 19 ZAIN. Remember my poverty and my transgression, the wormwood and the gall 20 ZAIN. I will call to mind the past, and my soul shall languish within me 21 ZAIN. These recollections are in my heart; therefore, I shall hope 22 HETH. By the mercies of the Lord, we are not consumed. For his compassion has not passed away 23 HETH. I know it at first light; great is your faithfulness 24 HETH. "The Lord is my portion," said my soul. Because of this, I will wait for him 25 TETH. The Lord is good to those who hope in him, to the soul that seeks him 26 TETH. It is good to stand ready in silence for the salvation of God 27 TETH. It is good for a man, when he has carried the yoke from his youth 28 JOD. He shall sit solitary and silent. For he has lifted it upon himself 29 JOD. He shall place his mouth in the dirt, if perhaps there may be hope 30 JOD. He shall give his cheek to those who strike him; he shall be saturated with reproaches 31 CAPH. For the Lord will not rebuke forever 32 CAPH. For, if he has cast down, he will also have compassion, according to the multitude of his mercies 33 CAPH. For he has not humiliated from his heart, nor has he thrown aside the sons of men 34 LAMED. as if to crush under his feet all the prisoners of the land 35 LAMED. as if to turn aside the judgment of a man in the sight of the presence of the Most High 36 LAMED. as if to pervert a man in his judgment: the Lord does not do this 37 MEM. Who is this, who said to do what the Lord did not command 38 MEM. Does not both misfortune and good proceed from the mouth of the Most High 39 MEM. Why has a living man murmured, a man suffering for his sins 40 NUN. Let us examine our ways, and seek out, and return to the Lord 41 NUN. Let us lift up our hearts, with our hands, toward the Lord in the heavens 42 NUN. We have acted sinfully, and we have provoked to wrath. About this, you are relentless 43 SAMECH. You have covered us in your fury, and you have struck us. You have killed, and have not spared 44 SAMECH. You have set a cloud opposite you, lest our prayer pass through 45 SAMECH. In the midst of the peoples, you have uprooted me and cast me out 46 PHE. All our enemies have opened their mouths over us 47 PHE. Prediction has become for us a dread, and a snare, and a grief 48 PHE. My eye has brought forth streams of water at the contrition of the daughter of my people 49 AIN. My eye has been afflicted, and it has not been quieted, because there would be no res 50 AIN. until the Lord looked down and saw from the heavens 51 AIN. My eye has exhausted my soul over every one of the daughters of my city 52 SADE. My enemies have chased me, and they have caught me like a bird, without reason 53 SADE. My life has fallen into a pit, and they have placed a stone over me 54 SADE. The waters have flooded over my head. I said, "I am lost. 55 COPH. I called upon your name, O Lord, from the furthest pit 56 COPH. You have heard my voice. Do not turn away your ear from my sobbing and my cries 57 COPH. You drew near in the daytime, when I called upon you. You said, "Fear not. 58 RES. You have judged, O Lord, the case of my soul. You are the Redeemer of my life 59 RES. You have seen, O Lord, their iniquity against me. Judge my case 60 RES. You have seen all their fury, every one of their thoughts is against me 61 SIN. You have heard their reproach, O Lord, all their thoughts are against me 62 SIN. The lips of those who rise up against me, and their meditations, are against me all day long 63 SIN. Watch their sitting down and their rising up: I am their psalm 64 THAU. You shall pay a recompense to them, O Lord, according to the works of their hands 65 THAU. You shall give them a heavy shield of the heart: your hardship 66 THAU. You shall pursue them in fury, and you shall destroy them under the heavens, O Lord