| Chapter 3 |
1 | Aleph. I am the man that see my poverty by the rod of his indignation.
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2 | Aleph. He hath led me, and brought me into darkness, and not into light.
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3 | Aleph. Only against me he hath turned, and turned again his hand all the day.
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4 | Beth. My skin and my flesh he hath made old, he hath broken my bones.
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5 | Beth. He hath built round about me, and he hath compassed me with gall and labour.
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6 | Beth. He hath set me in dark places as those that are dead for ever.
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7 | Ghimel. He hath built against me round about, that I may not get out: he hath made my fetters heavy.
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8 | Ghimel. Yea, and when I cry, and entreat, he hath shut out my prayer.
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9 | Ghimel. He hath shut up my ways with square stones, he hath turned my paths upside down.
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10 | Daleth. He is become to me as a bear lying in wait: as a lion in secret places.
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11 | Daleth. He hath turned aside my paths, and hath broken me in pieces, he hath made me desolate.
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12 | Daleth. He hath bent his bow, and set me as a mark for his arrows.
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13 | He. He hath shot into my reins the daughters of his quiver.
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14 | He. I am made a derision to all my people, their song all the day long.
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15 | He. He hath filled me with bitterness, he hath inebriated me with wormwood.
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16 | Vau. And he hath broken my teeth one by one, he hath fed me with ashes.
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17 | Vau. And my soul is removed far off from peace, I have forgotten good things.
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18 | Vau. And I said: My end and my hope is perished from the Lord.
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19 | Zain. Remember my poverty, and transgression, the wormwood, and the gall.
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20 | Zain. I will be mindful and remember, and my soul shall languish within me.
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21 | Zain. These things I shall think over in my heart, therefore will I hope.
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22 | Heth. The mercies of the Lord that we are not consumed: because his commiserations have not failed.
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23 | Heth. They are new every morning, great is thy faithfulness.
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24 | Heth. The Lord is my portion, said my soul: therefore will I wait for him.
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25 | Teth. The Lord is good to them that hope in him, to the soul that seeketh him.
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26 | Teth. It is good to wait with silence for the salvation of God.
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27 | Teth. It is good for a man, when he hath borne the yoke from his youth.
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28 | Jod. He shall sit solitary, and hold his peace: because he hath taken it up upon himself.
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29 | Jod. He shall put his mouth in the dust, if so be there may be hope.
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30 | Jod. He shall give his cheek to him that striketh him, he shall be filled with reproaches.
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31 | Caph. For the Lord will not cast off for ever.
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32 | Caph. For if he hath cast off, he will also have mercy, according to the multitude of his mercies.
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33 | Caph. For he hath not willingly afflicted, nor cast off the children of men.
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34 | Lamed. To crush under his feet all the prisoners of the land,
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35 | Lamed. To turn aside the judgment of a man before the face of the most High,
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36 | Lamed. To destroy a man wrongfully in his judgment, the Lord hath not approved.
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37 | Mem. Who is he that hath commanded a thing to be done, when the Lord commandeth it not?
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38 | Mem. Shall not both evil and good proceed out of the mouth of the Highest?
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39 | Mem. Why hath a living man murmured, man suffering for his sins?
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40 | Nun. Let us search our ways, and seek, and return to the Lord.
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41 | Nun. Let us lift up our hearts with our hands to the Lord in the heavens.
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42 | Nun. We have done wickedly, and provoked thee to wrath: therefore thou art inexorable.
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43 | Samech. Thou hast covered in thy wrath, and hast struck us: thou hast killed and hast not spared.
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44 | Samech. Thou hast set a cloud before thee, that our prayer may not pass through.
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45 | Samech. Thou hast made me as an outcast, and refuse in the midst of the people.
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46 | Phe. All our enemies have opened their mouths against us.
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47 | Phe. Prophecy is become to us a fear, and a snare, and destruction.
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48 | Phe. My eye hath run down with streams of water, for the destruction of the daughter of my people.
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49 | Ain. My eye is afflicted, and hath not been quiet, because there was no rest:
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50 | Ain. Till the Lord regarded and looked down from the heavens.
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51 | Ain. My eye hath wasted my soul because of all the daughters of my city.
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52 | Sade. My enemies have chased me and caught me like a bird, without cause.
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53 | Sade. My life is fallen into the pit, and they have laid a stone over me.
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54 | Sade. Waters have flowed over my head: I said: I am cut off.
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55 | Coph. I have called upon thy name, O Lord, from the lowest pit.
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56 | Coph. Thou hast heard my voice: turn not away thy ear from my sighs, and cries.
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57 | Coph. Thou drewest near in the day, when I called upon thee, thou saidst: Fear not.
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58 | Res. Thou hast judged, O Lord, the cause of my soul, thou the Redeemer of my life.
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59 | Res. Thou hast seen, O Lord, their iniquity against me: judge thou my judgment.
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60 | Res. Thou hast seen all their fury, and all their thoughts against me.
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61 | Sin. Thou hast heard their reproach, O Lord, all their imaginations against me.
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62 | Sin. The lips of them that rise up against me: and their devices against me all the day.
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63 | Sin. Behold their sitting down, and their rising up, I am their song.
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64 | Thau. Thou shalt render them a recompense, O Lord, according to the works of their hands.
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65 | Thau. Thou shalt give them a buckler of heart, thy labour.
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66 | Thau. Thou shalt persecute them in anger, and shalt destroy them from under the heavens, O Lord.
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