Lamentations 3

1Aleph . I am the man that see my poverty by the rod of his indignation.

2Aleph . He hath led me and brought me into darkness, and not into light.

3Aleph . Only against me he hath turned and turned again his hand all the day.

4Beth . My skin and my flesh he hath made old he hath broken my bones.

5Beth . He hath built round about me and he hath compassed me with gall and labour.

6Beth . He hath set me in dark places, as those that are dead for ever.

7Ghimel . He hath built against me round about, that I may not get out: he hath made my fetters heavy.

8Ghimel . Yea, and when I cry and entreat, he hath shut out my prayer.

9Ghimel . He hath shut up my ways with square stones: he hath turned my paths upside down.

10Daleth . He is become to me as a bear lying in wait: as a lion in secret places.

11Daleth . He hath turned aside my paths and hath broken me in pieces: he hath made me desolate.

12Daleth . He hath bent his bow and set me as a mark for his arrows.

13He . He hath shot into my reins the daughters of his quiver.

14He . I am made a derision to all my people, their song all the day long.

15He . He hath filled me with bitterness, he hath inebriated me with wormwood.

16Vau . And he hath broken my teeth one by one, he hath fed me with ashes.

17Vau . And my soul is removed far off from peace: I have forgotten good things.

18Vau . And I said: My end and my hope is perished from the Lord.

19Zain . Remember my poverty and transgression, the wormwood and the gall.

20Zain . I will be mindful and remember and my soul shall languish within me.

21Zain . These things I shall think over in my heart therefore will I hope.

22Heth . The mercies of the Lord that we are not consumed: because his commiserations have not failed.

23Heth . They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.

24Heth . The Lord is my portion, said my soul: therefore will I wait for him.

25Teth . The Lord is good to them that hope in him, to the soul that seeketh him.

26Teth . It is good to wait with silence for the salvation of God.

27Teth . It is good for a man, when he hath borne the yoke from his youth.

28Jod . He shall sit solitary and hold his peace: because he hath taken it up upon himself.

29Jod . He shall put his mouth in the dust, if so be there may be hope.

30Jod . He shall give his cheek to him that striketh him he shall be filled with reproaches.

31Caph . For the Lord will not cast off for ever.

32Caph . For if he hath cast off, he will also have mercy, according to the multitude of his mercies.

33Caph . For he hath not willingly afflicted nor cast off the children of men.

34Lamed . To crush under his feet all the prisoners of the land,

35Lamed . To turn aside the judgment of a man before the face of the most High,

36Lamed . To destroy a man wrongfully in his judgment, the Lord hath not approved.

37Mem . Who is he that hath commanded a thing to be done, when the Lord commandeth it not?

38Mem . Shall not both evil and good proceed out of the mouth of the Highest?

39Mem . Why hath a living man murmured, man suffering for his sins?

40Nun . Let us search our ways, and seek and return to the Lord.

41Nun . Let us lift up our hearts with our hands to the Lord in the heavens.

42Nun . We have done wickedly and provoked thee to wrath: therefore thou art inexorable.

43Samech . Thou hast covered in thy wrath and hast struck us: thou hast killed and hast not spared.

44Samech . Thou hast set a cloud before thee, that our prayer may not pass through.

45Samech . Thou hast made me as an outcast and refuse in the midst of the people.

46Phe . All our enemies have opened their mouths against us.

47Phe . Prophecy is become to us a fear and a snare and destruction.

48Phe . My eye hath run down with streams of water for the destruction of the daughter of my people.

49Ain . My eye is afflicted and hath not been quiet, because there was no rest:

50Ain . Till the Lord regarded and looked down from the heavens.

51Ain . My eye hath wasted my soul, because of all the daughters of my city.

52Sade . My enemies have chased me and caught me like a bird, without cause.

53Sade . My life is fallen into the pit, and they have laid a stone over me.

54Sade . Waters have flowed over my head. I said: I am cut off.

55Coph . I have called upon thy name, O Lord, from the lowest pit.

56Coph . Thou hast heard my voice: turn not away thy ear from my sighs and cries.

57Coph . Thou drewest near in the day when I called upon thee. Thou saidst: Fear not.

58Res . Thou hast judged, O Lord, the cause of my soul, thou the Redeemer of my life.

59Res . Thou hast seen, O Lord, their iniquity against me: judge thou my judgment.

60Res . Thou hast seen all their fury and all their thoughts against me.

61Sin . Thou hast heard their reproach, O Lord, all their imaginations against me:

62Sin . The lips of them that rise up against me and their devices against me all the day.

63Sin . Behold their sitting down and their rising up, I am their song.

64Thau . Thou shalt render them a recompense, O Lord, according to the works of their hands.

65Thau . Thou shalt give them a buckler of heart, thy labour.

66Thau . Thou shalt persecute them in anger, and shalt destroy them from under the heavens, O Lord.

An historical text. In 1955 the Douay-Rheims Challoner Bible received the Imprimatur ✠ of the English Catholic Church from the Archbishop of Westminster.
Published by: British & Foreign Bible Society