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3:1 I am the man who has experienced affliction from the rod of the Lord’s wrath. 3:2 He drove me into captivity and made me walk in darkness and not light. 3:3 He repeatedly attacks me; he turns his hand against me all day long.
3:3 ב (Bet)
3:4 He has made my mortal skin waste away; he has broken my bones. 3:5 He has besieged and surrounded me with bitter hardship. 3:6 He has made me reside in deepest darkness like those who died long ago.
3:6 ג (Gimel)
3:7 He has walled me in so that I cannot get out; he has weighted me down with heavy prison chains. 3:8 Also, when I cry out desperately for help, he has shut out my prayer. 3:9 He has blocked every road I take with a wall of hewn stones; he has made every path impassable.
3:9 ד (Dalet)
3:10 To me he is like a bear lying in ambush, like a hidden lion stalking its prey. 3:11 He has obstructed my paths and torn me to pieces; he has made me desolate. 3:12 He drew his bow and made me the target for his arrow.
3:12 ה (He)
3:13 He shot his arrows into my heart. 3:14 I have become the laughingstock of all people, their mocking song all day long. 3:15 He has given me my fill of bitter herbs and made me drunk with bitterness.
3:15 ו (Vav)
3:16 He ground my teeth in gravel; he trampled me in the dust. 3:17 I am deprived of peace; I have forgotten what happiness is. 3:18 So I said, “My endurance has expired; I have lost all hope of deliverance from the Lord.”
3:18 ז (Zayin)
3:19 Remember my impoverished and homeless condition, which is a bitter poison. 3:20 I continually think about this, and I am depressed. 3:21 But this I call to mind; therefore I have hope:
3:21 ח (Khet)
3:22 The Lord’s loyal kindness never ceases; his compassions never end. 3:23 They are fresh every morning; your faithfulness is abundant! 3:24 “My portion is the Lord,” I have said to myself, so I will put my hope in him.
3:24 ט (Tet)
3:25 The Lord is good to those who trust in him, to the one who seeks him. 3:26 It is good to wait patiently for deliverance from the Lord. 3:27 It is good for a man to bear the yoke while he is young.
3:27 י (Yod)
3:28 Let a person sit alone in silence, when the Lord is disciplining him. 3:29 Let him bury his face in the dust; perhaps there is hope. 3:30 Let him offer his cheek to the one who hits him; let him have his fill of insults.
3:30 כ (Kaf)
3:31 For the Lord will not reject us forever. 3:32 Though he causes us grief, he then has compassion on us according to the abundance of his loyal kindness. 3:33 For he is not predisposed to afflict or to grieve people.
3:33 ל (Lamed)
3:34 To crush underfoot all the earth’s prisoners, 3:35 to deprive a person of his rights in the presence of the Most High, 3:36 to defraud a person in a lawsuit— the Lord does not approve of such things!
3:36 מ (Mem)
3:37 Whose command was ever fulfilled unless the Lord decreed it? 3:38 Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that everything comes— both calamity and blessing? 3:39 Why should any living person complain when punished for his sins?
3:39 נ (Nun)
3:40 Let us carefully examine our ways, and let us return to the Lord. 3:41 Let us lift up our hearts and our hands to God in heaven: 3:42 “We have blatantly rebelled; you have not forgiven.”
3:42 ס (Samek)
3:43 You shrouded yourself with anger and then pursued us; you killed without mercy. 3:44 You shrouded yourself with a cloud so that no prayer could get through. 3:45 You make us like filthy scum in the estimation of the nations.
3:45 פ (Pe)
3:46 All our enemies have gloated over us; 3:47 panic and pitfall have come upon us, devastation and destruction. 3:48 Streams of tears flow from my eyes because my people are destroyed.
3:48 ע (Ayin)
3:49 Tears flow from my eyes and will not stop; there will be no break 3:50 until the Lord looks down from heaven and sees what has happened. 3:51 What my eyes see grieves me — all the suffering of the daughters in my city.
3:51 צ (Tsade)
3:52 For no good reason my enemies hunted me down like a bird. 3:53 They shut me up in a pit and threw stones at me. 3:54 The waters closed over my head; I thought I was about to die.
3:54 ק (Qof)
3:55 I have called on your name, O Lord, from the deepest pit. 3:56 You heard my plea: “Do not close your ears to my cry for relief!” 3:57 You came near on the day I called to you; you said, “Do not fear!”
3:57 ר (Resh)
3:58 O Lord, you championed my cause; you redeemed my life. 3:59 You have seen the wrong done to me, O Lord; pronounce judgment on my behalf! 3:60 You have seen all their vengeance, all their plots against me.
3:60 ש (Sin/Shin)
3:61 You have heard their taunts, O Lord, all their plots against me. 3:62 My assailants revile and conspire against me all day long. 3:63 Watch them from morning to evening; I am the object of their mocking songs.
3:63 ת (Tav)
3:64 Pay them back what they deserve, O Lord, according to what they have done. 3:65 Give them a distraught heart; may your curse be on them! 3:66 Pursue them in anger and eradicate them from under the Lord’s heaven.
3:66 א (Alef)
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