Lamentations (Eikha)

3 led, that He guided, to darkness and not light. It is to me alone that He returns, 4 and turns His hand against me all the day. He has made my flesh and skin s decay; He broke my bones. He built a siege-wall round me, of wormwood and 6 of hardship. He sat me in down in darkness, like those forever dead. 7 He fenced me around - no escape; made heavy the bronze that holds me. 8 Even as I cry out to be saved - He has blocked my prayer. He fenced across 10 my way with hewn stone and made my paths twisted. He is a bear lying in ll wait for me, a lion in hiding. He turns my paths from me, gashes me, renders 12 me desolate. He has trod His bow and made me stand, the target to His arrow. 13 His quiver’s load shot into my very marrow. 14 Lam the laughing-stock of all my people, their mocking song all the day. 15 He has glutted me with bitterness, and quenched me with wormwood. He 17 crushed my teeth in grit, drove my head into the ashes. My soul shuns peace- 18 fulness - I have forgotten what goodness is. I said, “My endurance is lost, and 19 my hope, of the Lorn.” Keep in mind my affliction and wandering, worm- 2 wood, venom. Keep, keep in mind, my soul, bowed low. I make this reply to my heart; and so I wait by: 22 The Lorp’s kindness - it is not finished; His compassion is not gone. New 24 with each new morning, so great is His faithfulness. I said to myself, The 25 LORD is what is mine; and so I shall yet wait for Him. The Lorn is good to 26 those who hope; to souls that seek Him out. To hope is good, in silence, for 27 the Lorn to come, and save. It is good, for a man, to bear the yoke in his 28 youth. He should sit alone and be silent: this was inflicted on him. Let him sink his teeth into the dust — perhaps there is hope. 30 Let him offer his cheek to the one who beats him. Let him be glutted with 3} insult. For the Lorp will not shun for all eternity. For if He brings sorrow, He 33. must, in His great kindness, have compassion. He does not oppress on His 34 heart’s impulse to bring man’s children sorrow, to trample underfoot all the 35 captives of this earth; to bend a man’s claim before the highest Judgement; 36 to let one’s case be twisted - and the LorD not see it all. Who ever spoke and 38 it was so without the word of the Lorp? Do not all evils and good emerge 39 from the speech of the Most High? What has a living man to protest; why 40 should he protest his own sins? Let us seek out our ways, understand them, 41 and come back to the Lorp. Let us place our hearts in the palms of our hands, and raise them to God in Heaven: 42 “We rebelled and refused You - but You did not forgive.” You covered us in rage 44 and pursued us. You killed, showed no compassion. You covered Yourself in