Lamentations 3 - Douy-Rheims Bible Challoner Revision

¹ Ghimel. He hath shut up my ways with square stones, he hath turned my paths upside down.

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

³ 1 Daleth. He hath turned aside my paths, and hath broken me in pieces, he hath made me desolate.

⁴ 2 Daleth. He hath bent his bow, and set me as a mark for his arrows.

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

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

⁷ 5 He. He hath filled me with bitterness, he hath inebriated me with wormwood.

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

⁹ 7 Vau. And my soul is removed far off from peace, I have forgotten good things.

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

¹¹ 9 Zain. Remember my poverty, and transgression, the wormwood, and the gall.

¹² 0 Zain. I will be mindful and remember, and my soul shall languish within me.

¹³ 1 Zain. These things I shall think over in my heart, therefore will I hope.

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

¹⁵ 3 Heth. They are new every morning, great is thy faithfulness.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

²³ 1 Caph. For the Lord will not cast off for ever.

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

²⁵ 3 Caph. For he hath not willingly afflicted, nor cast off the children of men.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

³⁸ 6 Phe. All our enemies have opened their mouths against us.

³⁹ 7 Phe. Prophecy is become to us a fear, and a snare, and destruction.

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

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

⁴² 0 Ain. Till the Lord regarded and looked down from the heavens.

⁴³ 1 Ain. My eye hath wasted my soul because of all the daughters of my city.

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

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

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

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

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

⁴⁹ 7 Coph. Thou drewest near in the day, when I called upon thee, thou saidst: Fear not.

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

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

⁵² 0 Res. Thou hast seen all their fury, and all their thoughts against me.

⁵³ 1 Sin. Thou hast heard their reproach, O Lord, all their imaginations against me.

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

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

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

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

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

⁵⁹ Aleph. How is the gold become dim, the finest colour is changed, the stones of the sanctuary are scattered in the top of every street?

⁶⁰ Beth. The noble sons of Sion, and they that were clothed with the best gold: how are they esteemed as earthen vessels, the work of the potter's hands?

⁶¹ Ghimel. Even the sea monsters have drawn out the breast, they have given suck to their young: the daughter of my people is cruel, like the ostrich in the desert.

⁶² Daleth. The tongue of the sucking child hath stuck to the roof of his mouth for thirst: the little ones have asked for bread, and there was none to break it unto them.

⁶³ He. They that were fed delicately have died in the streets; they that were brought up in scarlet have embraced the dung.

⁶⁴ Vau. And the iniquity of the daughter of my people is made greater than the sin of Sodom, which was overthrown in a moment, and hands took nothing in her.

⁶⁵ Zain. Her Nazarites were whiter than snow, purer than milk, more ruddy than the old ivory, fairer than the sapphire.

⁶⁶ Heth. Their face is now made blacker than coals, and they are not known in the streets: their skin hath stuck to their bones, it is withered, and is become like wood.