Lamentations 3:1–20

Aleph

¹I am the man who has ^aseen affliction

Because of the rod of His wrath.

²He has driven me and made me walk

In ^adarkness and not in light.

³Surely against me He has ^aturned His hand

Repeatedly all the day.

Beth

⁴He has caused my ^aflesh and my skin to waste away;

He has ^bbroken my bones.

⁵He has ^abesieged and encompassed me with ^bgall and hardship.

^6aDark places He has made me inhabit,

Like those who have long been dead.

Gimel

⁷He has ^awalled me in so that I cannot go out;

He has made my ^1bchain heavy.

⁸Even when I cry out and call for help,

He ^ashuts out my prayer.

⁹He has ^ablocked my ways with cut stone;

He has made my paths crooked.

Daleth

¹⁰He is to me like a bear lying in wait,

Like a lion in secret places.

¹¹He has turned aside my ways and ^atorn me to pieces;

He has made me desolate.

¹²He ^abent His bow

And ^bset me as a target for the arrow.

He

¹³He made the ¹arrows of His ^aquiver

To enter into my ²inward parts.

¹⁴I have become a ^alaughingstock to all my people,

Their ^bmusic of mockery all the day.

¹⁵He has ^asaturated me with bitterness;

He has sated me with wormwood.

Vav

¹⁶He has ^abroken my teeth with ^bgravel;

He has made me cower in the ^cdust.

¹⁷My soul has been rejected ^afrom peace;

I have forgotten goodness.

¹⁸So I say, “My strength has perished,

As well as my ^ahopeful waiting which comes from Yahweh.”

The Lord Will Not Reject Forever

Zayin

¹⁹Remember my affliction and my ¹homelessness, the ^awormwood and gall.

²⁰Surely ^amy soul remembers

And is ^bbowed down within me.