Lamentations 3

1[Aleph] I [am] a man [that] sees affliction in the rod of his wrath. 2[Aleph] He has led me and brought [me into] darkness, but not [into] light. 3[Aleph] Surely he is turned against me; he turns his hand [against me] all the day. 4[Beth] My flesh and my skin he has made old; he has broken my bones. 5[Beth] He has built against me and compassed [me] with gall and travail. 6[Beth] He has set me in dark places as [those that are] dead for ever. 7[Gimel] He has hedged me about that I cannot get out; he has made my chain heavy. 8[Gimel] Even when I cried and shouted, he shut out my prayer. 9[Gimel] He has enclosed my ways with hewn stone; he has made my paths crooked. 10[Daleth] He [was] unto me [as] a bear lying in wait [and as] a lion in secret places. 11[Daleth] He has made my ways crooked and pulled me in pieces; he has made me desolate. 12[Daleth] He has bent his bow and set me as a mark for the arrow. 13[He] He has caused the arrows of his quiver to enter into my kidneys. 14[He] I was a derision to all my people [and] their song every day. 15[He] He has filled me with bitterness, he has made me drunk with wormwood. 16[Vau] He has broken my teeth with gravel stones; he has covered me with ashes. 17[Vau] My soul removed itself far from peace; I forgot about good. 18[Vau] And I said, My strength and my hope of the LORD is perished. 19[Zain] Remember my affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall. 20[Zain] My soul shall have [them] still in remembrance because it is humbled in me. 21[Zain] This shall go down into my heart; therefore I shall wait. 22[Chet] It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed because his mercies never diminish. 23[Chet They are] new every morning; great [is] thy faith. 24[Chet] The LORD [is] my portion, saith my soul; therefore I will wait for him. 25[Teth] The LORD [is] good unto those that wait in him, to the soul [that] seeks him. 26[Teth] [It is] good to wait quietly in the salvation of the LORD. 27[Teth] [It is] good for the man if he bears the yoke from his youth. 28[Jod] He shall sit alone and keep silence because he has borne [it] upon him. 29[Jod] He shall put his mouth in the dust; if so be there may be hope. 30[Jod] He shall turn [his] cheek unto him that smites him; he shall be filled with reproach. 31[Caph] For the Lord will not cast off for ever: 32[Caph] But though he causes grief, yet he will also have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies. 33[Caph] For he does not afflict nor grieve the sons of men from his heart. 34[Lamed] To crush under his feet all the prisoners of the earth, 35[Lamed] To turn aside the right of a man before the face of the most High, 36[Lamed] To subvert a man in his cause, the Lord does not approve. 37[Mem] Who shall he be that saith that something comes which the Lord has not sent? 38[Mem] Out of the mouth of the most High proceeds not evil and good? 39[Mem] Why does the living man have pain, the man in his sins? 40[Nun] Let us search out our ways, and seek, and turn again to the LORD. 41[Nun] Let us lift up our heart with [our] hands unto God in the heavens. 42[Nun] We have rebelled and been disloyal; therefore thou hast not forgiven. 43[Samech] Thou hast unfurled anger and persecuted us; thou hast slain, thou hast not forgiven. 44[Samech] Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud that [our] prayer should not pass through. 45[Samech] Thou hast made us [as] the offscouring and abomination in the midst of the peoples. 46[Pe] All our enemies have opened their mouths upon us. 47[Pe] Fear and a snare is come upon us, desolation and destruction. 48[Pe] My eyes stream with rivers of water for the destruction of the daughter of my people. 49[Ain] My eyes run down, and cease not, for there is no relief, 50[Ain] Until the LORD looks down, and beholds from the heavens. 51[Ain] My eyes make my soul sad because of all the daughters of my city. 52[Tzaddi] My enemies hunted me like a bird, without cause. 53[Tzaddi] They bound up my life in the dungeon, and cast a stone upon me. 54[Tzaddi] Waters flowed over my head; [then] I said, I am dead. 55[Koph] I called upon thy name, O LORD, out of the low dungeon. 56[Koph] Thou hast heard my voice; do not hide thine ear at my cry that I might breath. 57[Koph] Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee; thou didst say, Fear not. 58[Resh] O Lord, thou hast pleaded the cause of my soul; thou hast redeemed my life. 59[Resh] O LORD, thou hast seen where I was wrong; plead thou my cause. 60[Resh] Thou hast seen all their vengeance [and] all their imaginations against me. 61[Schin] Thou hast heard their reproach, O LORD, [and] all their imaginations against me; 62[Schin] The words of those that rose up against me, and their design against me all the day. 63[Schin] Behold their sitting down, and their rising up; I [am] their music. 64[Tau] Render unto them a recompense, O LORD, according to the work of their hands. 65[Tau] Give them sorrow of heart; thy curse unto them. 66[Tau] Persecute them in thy anger and cut them off from under the heavens, oh LORD.: