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