*א (Alef) I am the man who has experienced affliction from the rod of his wrath.*He drove me into captivity and made me walk in darkness and not light.*He repeatedly attacks me, he turns his hand against me all day long. *ב (Bet) He has made my mortal skin waste away; he has broken my bones.*He has besieged and surrounded me with bitter hardship. *He has made me reside in deepest darkness like those who died long ago.*ג (Gimel) He has walled me in so that I cannot get out; he has weighted me down with heavy prison chains. *Also, when I cry out desperately for help, he has shut out my prayer. *He has blocked every road I take with a wall of hewn stones; he has made every path impassable. *ד (Dalet) To me he is like a bear lying in ambush, like a hidden lion stalking its prey. *He has obstructed my paths and torn me to pieces; he has made me desolate.*He drew his bow and made me the target for his arrow.*ה (He) He shot his arrows into my heart. *I have become the laughingstock of all people, their mocking song all day long. *He has given me my fill of bitter herbs and made me drunk with bitterness. *ו (Vav) He ground my teeth in gravel; he trampled me in the dust.*I am deprived of peace; I have forgotten what happiness is.*So I said, “My endurance has expired; I have lost all hope of deliverance from the Lord.”*ז (Zayin) Remember my impoverished and homeless condition, which is a bitter poison. *I continually think about this, and I am depressed. *But this I call to mind; therefore I have hope:*ח (Khet) The Lord’s loyal kindness never ceases; his compassions never end.*They are fresh every morning; your faithfulness is abundant! *“My portion is the Lord,” I have said to myself, so I will put my hope in him.*ט (Tet) The Lord is good to those who trust in him, to the one who seeks him.*It is good to wait patiently for deliverance from the Lord. *It is good for a man to bear the yoke while he is young. *י (Yod) Let a person sit alone in silence, when the Lord is disciplining him. *Let him bury his face in the dust; perhaps there is hope.*Let him offer his cheek to the one who hits him; let him have his fill of insults.*כ (Kaf) For the Lord will not reject us forever. *Though he causes us grief, he then has compassion on us according to the abundance of his loyal kindness. *For he is not predisposed to afflict or to grieve people. *ל (Lamed) To crush underfoot all the earth’s prisoners, *to deprive a person of his rights in the presence of the Most High,*to defraud a person in a lawsuit – the Lord does not approve of such things!*מ (Mem) Whose command was ever fulfilled unless the Lord decreed it?*Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that everything comes – both calamity and blessing? *Why should any living person complain when punished for his sins? *נ (Nun) Let us carefully examine our ways, and let us return to the Lord.*Let us lift up our hearts and our hands to God in heaven:*“We have blatantly rebelled; you have not forgiven.”*ס (Samek) You shrouded yourself with anger and then pursued us; you killed without mercy.*You shrouded yourself with a cloud so that no prayer can get through.*You make us like filthy scum in the estimation of the nations.*פ (Pe) All our enemies have gloated over us; *Panic and pitfall have come upon us, devastation and destruction. *Streams of tears flow from my eyes because my people are destroyed. *ע (Ayin) Tears flow from my eyes and will not stop; there will be no break *until the Lord looks down from heaven and sees what has happened. *What my eyes see grieves me – all the suffering of the daughters in my city. *צ (Tsade) For no good reason my enemies hunted me down like a bird.*They shut me up in a pit and threw stones at me.*The waters closed over my head; I thought I was about to die. *ק (Qof) I have called on your name, O Lord, from the deepest pit. *You heard my plea: “Do not close your ears to my cry for relief!” *You came near on the day I called to you; you said, “Do not fear!”*ר (Resh) O Lord, you championed my cause, you redeemed my life.*You have seen the wrong done to me, O Lord; pronounce judgment on my behalf! *You have seen all their vengeance, all their plots against me. *ש (Sin/Shin) You have heard their taunts, O Lord, all their plots against me.*My assailants revile and conspire against me all day long.*Watch them from morning to evening; I am the object of their mocking songs.*ת (Tav) Pay them back what they deserve, O Lord, according to what they have done. *Give them a distraught heart; may your curse be on them!*Pursue them in anger and eradicate them from under the Lord’s heaven.
