Lamentations 3 — TOJB

3Verse 1I am the gever that hath seen affliction
by the rod of His wrath.
^{Verse 2}He hath driven me away, and brought me
into choshech, but not into ohr.
^{Verse 3}Surely against me is He turned;
He turneth His yad against me kol hayom.^{Verse 4}My basar and my ohr (skin) hath He made old;
He hath broken my atzmot.
^{Verse 5}He hath set up siegeworks against me,
and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship.
^{Verse 6}He hath set me in dark places,
like the mesei olam (long dead).^{Verse 7}He hath hedged me about, that I cannot escape;
He hath made my chain heavy.
^{Verse 8}Also when I cry and call out,
He shutteth out my tefillah.
^{Verse 9}He hath barred my ways with hewn stone,
He hath made my paths crooked.^{Verse 10}He was unto me like a dov (bear) lying in wait,
and like an aryeh in mistarim (hiding places).
^{Verse 11}He hath turned aside the darkhei of mine, and pulled me in pieces;
He hath made me desolate.
^{Verse 12}He hath bent His keshet,
and set me as a target for the khetz (arrow).^{Verse 13}He hath caused the arrows of His quiver
to enter into my organs.
^{Verse 14}I was a derision to kol ami;
and their⁺song kol hayom.
^{Verse 15}He hath filled me with merorim (bitter herbs);
He hath made me drunk with suffering.^{Verse 16}He hath also broken my teeth with gravel,
He hath covered me with aphar.
^{Verse 17}And Thou hast removed my nefesh far off from shalom;
I forgot tovah (prosperity).
^{Verse 18}And I said: My strength and my hope
is perished from Hashem.^{Verse 19}Remember mine oni (affliction) and my misery,
the sorrow and the trouble.
^{Verse 20}My nefesh hath them still in remembrance,
and is downcast in me.
^{Verse 21}This I recall to my lev,
therefore have I hope:^{Verse 22}Because of the chasdei Hashem we are not consumed,
for His rachamim fail not.
^{Verse 23}They are chadashim every boker;
great is Thy faithfulness.
^{Verse 24}Hashem is my chelek, saith my nefesh;
therefore in hope will I wait for Him.^{Verse 25}Hashem is tov unto them that wait for Him,
to the nefesh that seeketh Him.
^{Verse 26}It is good that a man should both hope
and quietly wait for the Teshu'at Hashem.
^{Verse 27}It is tov for a gever that
he bear the ol (yoke) from his youth.^{Verse 28}He sitteth alone and keepeth silence,
because He hath laid it upon him.
^{Verse 29}He putteth his mouth in the aphar;
there may yet be tikvah.
^{Verse 30}He offereth his lekhi (cheek) to him that striketh him;
he is filled full with reproach.^{+Verse 31}For Adonoi will not cast off l'olam (forever);
^{Verse 32}But though He cause grief,
yet will He have compassion according to the rov chasadav (the multitude of His mercies).
^{Verse 33}For He doth not afflict willingly
nor bring grief to Bnei Ish.^{Verse 34}To crush under His feet
kol asirei eretz (all the prisoners of the earth),
^{Verse 35}To turn aside the mishpat gever (the right of a man)
before the face of Elyon,
^{Verse 36}To subvert a man in his cause,
Adonoi approveth not.^{Verse 37}Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass,
when Adonoi commandeth it not?
^{Verse 38}Out of the mouth of Elyon proceedeth not
hara'ot (the woe) and hatov (the good)?
^{Verse 39}Why doth an adam chai (any man alive) complain,
a gever for the punishment of his sins?^{Verse 40}Let us search and test derakheinu (our ways),
and let us turn again to Hashem.
^{Verse 41}Let us lift up levavenu (our heart) with our hands
unto El baShomayim.
^{Verse 42}We have transgressed and have rebelled;
Atah lo salachta (Thou hast not pardoned, forgiven).^{Verse 43}Thou hast covered with af (anger), and pursued us;
Thou hast slain, Thou hast not pitied.
^{Verse 44}Thou hast covered Thyself with an anan,
that our tefillah not pass through.
^{Verse 45}Thou hast made us as the offscouring
and refuse among the amim.^{Verse 46}Kol oyveinu (all our enemies)
have opened their mouths against us.
^{Verse 47}Pachad (terror) and a snare is come upon us,
ruin and destruction.
^{Verse 48}Mine eye runneth down with streams of mayim
for the destruction of Bat Ami.^{Verse 49}Mine eye will flow down, and ceaseth not, without any intermission
^{Verse 50}Till Hashem look down, and behold from Shomayim.
^{Verse 51}Mine eye affecteth mine nefesh
because of all the banot of my city.^{Verse 52}Mine enemies hunted me down,
like a tzippor (bird), without cause.
^{Verse 53}They have cut off my life in the bor (pit)
and cast an even (stone) upon me.
^{Verse 54}Mayim flowed over mine rosh;
then I said: I am cut off.^{Verse 55}I called upon Thy Shem, Hashem,
out of the lowest pit.
^{Verse 56}Thou hast heard my voice;
close not thine ear at my sighing,
at my cry.
^{Verse 57}Thou drewest near on the Yom that I called upon Thee;
Thou saidst: Fear not.^{Verse 58}Adonoi, Thou hast pleaded the causes of my nefesh;
Thou hast redeemed my life.
^{Verse 59}Hashem, Thou hast seen my wrong;
uphold my cause.
^{Verse 60}Thou hast seen all their vengeance
and all their machsh'vot against me.^{Verse 61}Thou hast heard their reproach, Hashem,
and all their machsh'vot against me;
^{Verse 62}The whisperings of those that rose up against me,
and their muttering against me kol hayom.
^{Verse 63}Behold their sitting down, and their rising up;
Ani (I) am their mocking song.^{Verse 64}Render unto them a gemul (recompence), Hashem,
according to the work of their hands.
^{Verse 65}Give them hardness of lev as thy curse unto them.
^{Verse 66}Pursue in anger and destroy them
from under HaShomayim of Hashem.