Lamentations 3:1-9 ▼

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.