Lamentations

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

³¹CAPH. For the Lord will not rebuke forever. ↗

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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