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1. ALEPH. I am a man watching my own poverty by the rod of his indignation
2. ALEPH. He has driven me and led me into darkness, and not into light
3. ALEPH. Against me only, he has turned and turned again his hand, all day long
4. BETH. My skin and my flesh, he has made old; he has crushed my bones
5. BETH. He has built all around me, and he has encircled me with gall and hardship
6. BETH. He has gathered me into darkness, like those who are forever dead
7. GHIMEL. He has built against me all around, so that I may not depart. He has increased the burden of my confinement
8. GHIMEL. Yet even when I cry out and beg, he excludes my prayer
9. GHIMEL. He has enclosed my ways with square stones; he has subverted my paths
10. DALETH. He has become to me like a bear lying in ambush, like a lion in hiding
11. DALETH. He has subverted my paths, and he has broken me. He has placed me in desolation
12. DALETH. He has bent his bow, and he has positioned me like a target for his arrows
13. HE. He has shot into my kidneys the daughters of his quiver
14. HE. I have become a derision to all my people, their song throughout the day
15. HE. He has filled me with bitterness; he has inebriated me with wormwood
16. VAU. And he has broken each one of my teeth; he has fed me with ashes
17. VAU. And my soul has been driven away from peace; I have forgotten what is good
18. VAU. And I said, “My end and my hope from the Lord has perished.
19. ZAIN. Remember my poverty and my transgression, the wormwood and the gall
20. ZAIN. I will call to mind the past, and my soul shall languish within me
21. ZAIN. These recollections are in my heart; therefore, I shall hope
22. HETH. By the mercies of the Lord, we are not consumed. For his compassion has not passed away
23. HETH. I know it at first light; great is your faithfulness
24. HETH. “The Lord is my portion,” said my soul. Because of this, I will wait for him
25. TETH. The Lord is good to those who hope in him, to the soul that seeks him
26. TETH. It is good to stand ready in silence for the salvation of God
27. TETH. It is good for a man, when he has carried the yoke from his youth
28. JOD. He shall sit solitary and silent. For he has lifted it upon himself
29. JOD. He shall place his mouth in the dirt, if perhaps there may be hope
30. JOD. He shall give his cheek to those who strike him; he shall be saturated with reproaches
31. CAPH. For the Lord will not rebuke forever
32. CAPH. For, if he has cast down, he will also have compassion, according to the multitude of his mercies
33. CAPH. For he has not humiliated from his heart, nor has he thrown aside the sons of men
34. LAMED. as if to crush under his feet all the prisoners of the land
35. LAMED. as if to turn aside the judgment of a man in the sight of the presence of the Most High
36. LAMED. as if to pervert a man in his judgment: the Lord does not do this
37. MEM. Who is this, who said to do what the Lord did not command
38. MEM. Does not both misfortune and good proceed from the mouth of the Most High
39. MEM. Why has a living man murmured, a man suffering for his sins
40. NUN. Let us examine our ways, and seek out, and return to the Lord
41. NUN. Let us lift up our hearts, with our hands, toward the Lord in the heavens
42. NUN. We have acted sinfully, and we have provoked to wrath. About this, you are relentless
43. SAMECH. You have covered us in your fury, and you have struck us. You have killed, and have not spared
44. SAMECH. You have set a cloud opposite you, lest our prayer pass through
45. SAMECH. In the midst of the peoples, you have uprooted me and cast me out
46. PHE. All our enemies have opened their mouths over us
47. PHE. Prediction has become for us a dread, and a snare, and a grief
48. PHE. My eye has brought forth streams of water at the contrition of the daughter of my people
49. AIN. My eye has been afflicted, and it has not been quieted, because there would be no res
50. AIN. until the Lord looked down and saw from the heavens
51. AIN. My eye has exhausted my soul over every one of the daughters of my city
52. SADE. My enemies have chased me, and they have caught me like a bird, without reason
53. SADE. My life has fallen into a pit, and they have placed a stone over me
54. SADE. The waters have flooded over my head. I said, “I am lost.
55. COPH. I called upon your name, O Lord, from the furthest pit
56. COPH. You have heard my voice. Do not turn away your ear from my sobbing and my cries
57. COPH. You drew near in the daytime, when I called upon you. You said, “Fear not.
58. RES. You have judged, O Lord, the case of my soul. You are the Redeemer of my life
59. RES. You have seen, O Lord, their iniquity against me. Judge my case
60. RES. You have seen all their fury, every one of their thoughts is against me
61. SIN. You have heard their reproach, O Lord, all their thoughts are against me
62. SIN. The lips of those who rise up against me, and their meditations, are against me all day long
63. SIN. Watch their sitting down and their rising up: I am their psalm
64. THAU. You shall pay a recompense to them, O Lord, according to the works of their hands
65. THAU. You shall give them a heavy shield of the heart: your hardship
66. THAU. You shall pursue them in fury, and you shall destroy them under the heavens, O Lord