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