New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures — With References (Rbi8, en_US, 1984)
Lamentations
Lamentations, 3
א [ʼAʹleph]*1
1 I am the able-bodied man that has seen affliction because of the staff of his fury.
2 It is I whom he has led and makes to walk in darkness and not in light.
3 Indeed, it is against me that he repeatedly turns his hand all day long.
ב [Behth]
4 He has caused my flesh and my skin to wear away. He has broken my bones.
5 He has built against me, that he may encircle [me] with poisonous plant and hardship.
6 In dark places he has made me sit like men dead for a long time.
ג [Giʹmel]
7 He has blocked me up as with a stone wall, that I may not go forth. He has made my copper fetters heavy.
8 Also, when I call for aid and cry for help, he actually hampers my prayer.
9 He has blocked up my ways with hewn stone. My roadways he has twisted.
ד [Daʹleth]
10 As a bear lying in wait he is to me, as a lion in places of concealment.
11 My ways he has disarranged, and he makes me lie fallow.*1 He has made me one laid desolate.
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12 He has trodden his bow, and he sets me up as the target for the arrow.
ה [Heʼ]
13 He has brought into my kidneys the sons of his quiver.
14 I have become an object of laughter to all people against me,*1 the theme of their song all day long.
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15 He has given me a sufficiency of bitter things. He has saturated me with wormwood.
ו [Waw]
16 And with gravel he makes my teeth get broken. He has made me cower in the ashes.
17 You also do a casting off so that there is no peace for my soul. I have lost memory of what good is.
18 And I keep saying: “My excellency has perished, and my expectation from Jehovah.”
ז [Zaʹyin]
19 Remember my affliction and my homeless state, the wormwood and the poisonous plant.
20 Without fail your*1 soul will remember and bow low over me.
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21 This is what I shall bring back to my heart. That is why I shall show a waiting attitude.
ח [Chehth]
22 It is the acts of loving-kindness*1 of Jehovah that we have not come to our finish, because his mercies will certainly not come to an end.
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23 They are new each morning. Your faithfulness is abundant.
24 “Jehovah is my share,” my soul has said, “that is why I shall show a waiting attitude for him.”
ט [Tehth]
25 Good is Jehovah to the one hoping in him, to the soul that keeps seeking for him.
26 Good it is that one should wait, even silently, for the salvation of Jehovah.
27 Good it is for an able-bodied man that he should carry the yoke during his youth.
י [Yohdh]
28 Let him sit solitary and keep silent, because he has laid [something] upon him.
29 Let him put his mouth in the very dust. Perhaps there exists a hope.
30 Let him give [his] cheek to the very one striking him. Let him have his sufficiency of reproach.
כ [Kaph]
31 For not to time indefinite will Jehovah*1 keep on casting off.
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32 For although he has caused grief, he will also certainly show mercy according to the abundance of his loving-kindness.
33 For not out of his own heart has he afflicted or does he grieve the sons of men.*1
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ל [Laʹmedh]
34 For crushing beneath one’s feet all the prisoners of the earth,
35 For turning aside the judgment of an able-bodied man before the face of the Most High,
36 For making a man*1 crooked in his legal case, Jehovah*2 himself has had no countenance.
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מ [Mem]
37 Who, now, has said that something should occur [when] Jehovah*1 himself has not commanded?
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38 From the mouth of the Most High bad things and what is good do not go forth.
39 How can a living man*1 indulge in complaints, an able-bodied man on account of his sin?
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נ [Nun]
40 Do let us search out our ways and explore them, and do let us return clear to Jehovah.
41 Let us raise our heart along with [our] palms to God*1 in the heavens:
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42 “We ourselves have transgressed, and we have behaved rebelliously. You yourself have not forgiven.
ס [Saʹmekh]
43 You have blocked approach with anger, and you keep pursuing us. You have killed; you have shown no compassion.
44 You have blocked approach to yourself with a cloud mass, that prayer may not pass through.
45 You make us mere offscouring and refuse in the midst of the peoples.”
פ [Peʼ]*1
46 Against us all our enemies have opened their mouth.
47 Dread and the hollow themselves have become ours, desolateness and breakdown.
48 With streams of water my eye keeps running down on account of the breakdown of the daughter of my people.
ע [ʽAʹyin]
49 My very eye has been poured forth and will not keep still, so that there are no pauses,
50 Until Jehovah looks down and sees from heaven.
51 My own eye has dealt severely with my soul, because of all the daughters*1 of my city.
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צ [Tsa·dhehʹ]
52 My enemies have positively hunted for me just as for a bird, for no cause.
53 They have silenced my life in the pit itself, and they kept hurling stones at me.
54 Waters have flowed over my head. I have said: “I shall certainly be cut off!”
ק [Qohph]
55 I have called out your name, O Jehovah, from a pit of the lowest sort.
56 My voice you must hear. Do not hide your ear to my relief, to my cry for help.
57 You have drawn near in the day that I kept calling you. You said: “Do not be afraid.”
ר [Rehsh]
58 You have taken up, O Jehovah,*1 the contests of my soul. You have repurchased my life.
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59 You have seen, O Jehovah, the wrong done to me. O do conduct the judgment for me.
60 You have seen all their vengeance, all their thoughts against me.
ש [Sin] or [Shin]
61 You have heard their reproach, O Jehovah, all their thoughts against me,
62 The lips of those rising up against me and their whispering against me all day long.
63 Do look at their very sitting down and their rising up. I am the subject of their song.
ת [Taw]
64 You will give back to them a treatment, O Jehovah, according to the work of their hands.
65 You will give to them the insolence of heart, your curse to them.
66 You will pursue in anger and annihilate them from under the heavens of Jehovah.