Lamentations 3

Verse 1. Aleph. I am the man that see my poverty by the rod of his indignation.

Verse 2. Aleph. He hath led me, and brought me into darkness, and not into light.

Verse 3. Aleph. Only against me he hath turned, and turned again his hand all the day.

Verse 4. Beth. My skin and my flesh he hath made old, he hath broken my bones.

Verse 5. Beth. He hath built round about me, and he hath compassed me with gall and labour.

Verse 6. Beth. He hath set me in dark places as those that are dead for ever.

Verse 7. Ghimel. He hath built against me round about, that I may not get out: he hath made my fetters heavy.

Verse 8. Ghimel. Yea, and when I cry, and entreat, he hath shut out my prayer.

Verse 9. Ghimel. He hath shut up my ways with square stones, he hath turned my paths upside down.

Verse 10. Daleth. He is become to me as a bear lying in wait: as a lion in secret places.

Verse 11. Daleth. He hath turned aside my paths, and hath broken me in pieces, he hath made me desolate.

Verse 12. Daleth. He hath bent his bow, and set me as a mark for his arrows.

Verse 13. He. He hath shot into my reins the daughters of his quiver.

Verse 14. He. I am made a derision to all my people, their song all the day long.

Verse 15. He. He hath filled me with bitterness, he hath inebriated me with wormwood.

Verse 16. Vau. And he hath broken my teeth one by one, he hath fed me with ashes.

Verse 17. Vau. And my soul is removed far off from peace, I have forgotten good things.

Verse 18. Vau. And I said: My end and my hope is perished from the Lord.

Verse 19. Zain. Remember my poverty, and transgression, the wormwood, and the gall.

Verse 20. Zain. I will be mindful and remember, and my soul shall languish within me.

Verse 21. Zain. These things I shall think over in my heart, therefore will I hope.

Verse 22. Heth. The mercies of the Lord that we are not consumed: because his commiserations have not failed.

Verse 23. Heth. They are new every morning, great is thy faithfulness.

Verse 24. Heth. The Lord is my portion, said my soul: therefore will I wait for him.

Verse 25. Teth. The Lord is good to them that hope in him, to the soul that seeketh him.

Verse 26. Teth. It is good to wait with silence for the salvation of God.

Verse 27. Teth. It is good for a man, when he hath borne the yoke from his youth.

Verse 28. Jod. He shall sit solitary, and hold his peace: because he hath taken it up upon himself.

Verse 29. Jod. He shall put his mouth in the dust, if so be there may be hope.

Verse 30. Jod. He shall give his cheek to him that striketh him, he shall be filled with reproaches.

Verse 31. Caph. For the Lord will not cast off for ever.

Verse 32. Caph. For if he hath cast off, he will also have mercy, according to the multitude of his mercies.

Verse 33. Caph. For he hath not willingly afflicted, nor cast off the children of men.

Verse 34. Lamed. To crush under his feet all the prisoners of the land,

Verse 35. Lamed. To turn aside the judgment of a man before the face of the most High,

Verse 36. Lamed. To destroy a man wrongfully in his judgment, the Lord hath not approved.

Verse 37. Mem. Who is he that hath commanded a thing to be done, when the Lord commandeth it not?

Verse 38. Mem. Shall not both evil and good proceed out of the mouth of the Highest?

Verse 39. Mem. Why hath a living man murmured, man suffering for his sins?

Verse 40. Nun. Let us search our ways, and seek, and return to the Lord.

Verse 41. Nun. Let us lift up our hearts with our hands to the Lord in the heavens.

Verse 42. Nun. We have done wickedly, and provoked thee to wrath: therefore thou art inexorable.

Verse 43. Samech. Thou hast covered in thy wrath, and hast struck us: thou hast killed and hast not spared.

Verse 44. Samech. Thou hast set a cloud before thee, that our prayer may not pass through.

Verse 45. Samech. Thou hast made me as an outcast, and refuse in the midst of the people.

Verse 46. Phe. All our enemies have opened their mouths against us.

Verse 47. Phe. Prophecy is become to us a fear, and a snare, and destruction.

Verse 48. Phe. My eye hath run down with streams of water, for the destruction of the daughter of my people.

Verse 49. Ain. My eye is afflicted, and hath not been quiet, because there was no rest:

Verse 50. Ain. Till the Lord regarded and looked down from the heavens.

Verse 51. Ain. My eye hath wasted my soul because of all the daughters of my city.

Verse 52. Sade. My enemies have chased me and caught me like a bird, without cause.

Verse 53. Sade. My life is fallen into the pit, and they have laid a stone over me.

Verse 54. Sade. Waters have flowed over my head: I said: I am cut off.

Verse 55. Coph. I have called upon thy name, O Lord, from the lowest pit.

Verse 56. Coph. Thou hast heard my voice: turn not away thy ear from my sighs, and cries.

Verse 57. Coph. Thou drewest near in the day, when I called upon thee, thou saidst: Fear not.

Verse 58. Res. Thou hast judged, O Lord, the cause of my soul, thou the Redeemer of my life.

Verse 59. Res. Thou hast seen, O Lord, their iniquity against me: judge thou my judgment.

Verse 60. Res. Thou hast seen all their fury, and all their thoughts against me.

Verse 61. Sin. Thou hast heard their reproach, O Lord, all their imaginations against me.

Verse 62. Sin. The lips of them that rise up against me: and their devices against me all the day.

Verse 63. Sin. Behold their sitting down, and their rising up, I am their song.

Verse 64. Thau. Thou shalt render them a recompense, O Lord, according to the works of their hands.

Verse 65. Thau. Thou shalt give them a buckler of heart, thy labour.

Verse 66. Thau. Thou shalt persecute them in anger, and shalt destroy them from under the heavens, O Lord.