25 August - Lamentations 1-3:36

Jude Thu Aug 16, 2018 9:28 pm

My soul doth magnify my YAH, and my spirit hath rejoiced in EL my Saviour; For HE that is mighty hath done to me great things; and Holy is HIS Name. Now unto HIM who is ever present in my helpless estate; who is able to keep me from falling and to present me faultless before the presence of His Glory with exceeding joy, unto the King Eternal, Immortal, Invisible, the only wise EL our Saviour be honour and glory and majesty, dominion and power both now and for ever Halleluyah!

LAMENTATIONS 1

1How alone she sits, The city once great with people! Like a widow she has become, One great among the nations! A princess among provinces has become a slave!

2She weeps bitterly at night, And her tears are upon her cheeks. Among all her lovers there is no comforter for her. All her friends have betrayed her, They have become her enemies.

3Yehuḏah has gone into exile, Because of affliction and because of harsh labour. She has dwelt among gentiles, She has found no rest. All her pursuers have overtaken her Between narrow places.

4The ways to Tsiyon mourn For no one comes to the appointed timesa. All her gates are deserted, Her priests sigh, her maidens are afflicted, And she has bitterness.

5Her adversaries have become chief, Her enemies have become at ease. For יהוה has afflicted her Because of her many transgressions. Her children have gone into captivity before the enemy.

6And all the splendour has departed From the daughter of Tsiyon. Her rulers have become like buck, They have found no pasture, And they go powerless before the pursuer.

7In the days of her affliction and wandering, Yerushalayim remembered all her precious matters She had in the days of old. When her people fell into the hand of the enemy, With no one to help her, The adversaries saw her, They mocked at her Sabbaths.

8Yerushalayim has sinned greatly, Therefore she has become defiled. All who esteemed her despised her Because they have seen her nakedness. She herself has sighed and turned away.

9Her uncleanness is in her skirts. She did not keep in mind her latter end, And has gone down appallingly, There was no one to comfort her. “See, O יהוה, my affliction, For the enemy has made himself great!”

10The adversary has spread his hand Over all her precious matters; Indeed, she has seen: The gentiles have entered her set-apart placea, Those whom You commanded not to enter Your assembly.

11All her people are sighing, seeking bread. They have given their precious matters For food, to bring back life. “See, O יהוה, and look, For I have become despised.”

12“Is it naught to you, All you who pass by? Look and see if there is any pain like my pain, Which has been brought on me, Which יהוה has inflicted on me In the day of His burning displeasure.

13“From above He has sent fire into my bones, And it overpowered them; He has spread a net for my feet and turned me back; He has laid me waste and faint all the day.

14“The yoke of my transgressions Has been bound by His hand, Woven together and thrust upon my neck. He has made my strength stumble, יהוה has given me into hands Which I am unable to withstand.

15“יהוה has trodden down all my strong men in my midst, He has called an appointed time Against me to crush my young men. יהוה has trodden down as in a winepress The maiden daughter of Yehuḏah.

16“This is why I weep. My eye, my eye is running down with water, Because the comforter, Who could bring back my life, Has been far from me. My children are stunned, For the enemy has prevailed.”

17Tsiyon spreads out her hands, There is no comforter for her. יהוה has commanded concerning Ya‛aqoḇ, His neighbours are his adversaries. Yerushalayim has become an uncleanness among them.

18יהוה is righteous, for I rebelled against His mouth. Hear now, all peoples, and see my pain. My maidens and my young men have gone into captivity.

19I called for my lovers, but they deceived me. My priests and my elders breathed their last in the city, While they sought food to bring back their life.

20“See, O יהוה, that I am in distress. My inward parts are boiling up, My heart is overturned within me, For I have been very rebellious. From without the sword has bereaved, At home it is like death.

21“They have heard that I sighed, With no one to comfort me. All my enemies have heard of my calamity, They have rejoiced that You have done it. You shall bring on the day that You have announced, So let them become like me.

22“Let all their evil come before You, And do to them as You have done to me For all my transgressions. For my sighs are many, and my heart is faint.”

LAMENTATIONS 2

1How יהוה in His displeasure Has covered the daughter of Tsiyon with a cloud! He has cast down from the heavens to the earth The comeliness of Yisra’ĕl, And has not remembered His footstool in the day of His displeasure.

2יהוה has swallowed up, without compassion, All the pastures of Ya‛aqoḇ. In His wrath He has thrown down The strongholds of the daughter of Yehuḏah. He has brought them down to the ground. He has profaned the reign and its rulers.

3In the heat of displeasure He has cut off every horn of Yisra’ĕl. He has withdrawn His right hand from before the enemy. And He burns against Ya‛aqoḇ Like a flaming fire, consuming all around.

4He has bent His bow like an enemy. He has set His right hand like an adversary. And He slays all who delighted the eye. In the tent of the daughter of Tsiyon, He has poured out His wrath like fire.

5יהוה has been like an enemy. He has swallowed up Yisra’ĕl, He has swallowed up all her palaces, He has destroyed her strongholds. And He increases mourning and lamentation In the daughter of Yehuḏah.

6He has demolished His booth like a garden, He has destroyed His place of meeting. יהוה has made the appointed timesa and Sabbaths To be forgotten in Tsiyon, And despises sovereign and priest In His raging displeasure.

7יהוה has cast off His altar, He has rejected His set-apart place, He has delivered the walls of her palaces Into the hand of the enemy. They have made a noise in the House of יהוה As on the day of an appointed time.

8יהוה has planned to destroy The wall of the daughter of Tsiyon. He has stretched out a line. He has not turned back His hand from destroying. And He has made the rampart and wall to lament; Together they have languished.

9Her gates have sunk into the ground. He has destroyed and broken her bars. Her sovereign and her rulers are among the gentiles. The Torah is no more, And her prophets have found no vision from יהוה.

10The elders of the daughter of Tsiyon Sit on the ground, are silent. They have thrown dust on their heads, They have girded themselves with sackcloth. The maidens of Yerushalayim Have let their heads hang to the ground.

11My eyes are spent with tears, My inward parts ferment, My bile has been poured on the ground Because of the destruction of the daughter of my people, As children and the infants languish In the streets of the city.

12They say to their mothers, “Where is grain and wine?” As they languish like the wounded In the streets of the city, As their life is poured out in their mothers’ bosom.

13How shall I admonish you, To what shall I compare you, O daughter of Yerushalayim? To what shall I liken you to comfort you, O maiden daughter of Tsiyon? For your breach is as great as the sea. Who shall heal you?

14Your prophets have seen Falsehood and folly for you, And have not shown you your crookedness, To turn back your captivity. But their visions for you Are false and misleading messages.

15All who pass by have clapped their hands at you. They have whistled, And they shake their heads At the daughter of Yerushalayim, “Is this the city that is called ‘The perfection of loveliness, The joy of all the earth’?”

16All your enemies have opened Their mouth against you; They have whistled and they gnash their teeth. They say, “We have swallowed her up! This is certainly the day we waited for; We have found it, we have seen it.”

17יהוה has done what He planned, He has filled His word Which He commanded in days of old. He has torn down, without compassion, And He has let your enemy rejoice over you. He has exalted the horn of your adversaries.

18Their heart cried out to יהוה, “O wall of the daughter of Tsiyon, Let tears run down like a river day and night. Give yourself no numbness, Let your eyes have no rest.

19“Arise, cry out in the night, At the beginning of the watches, Pour out your heart like water Before the face of יהוה. Lift your hands toward Him For the life of your young children, Who languish from hunger At the head of every street.

20“See, O יהוה, and look attentively To whom have You done thus. Should the women eat their offspring, Infants of a hand breadth? Should the priest and prophet be slain In the set-apart place of יהוה?

21“Young and old lie on the ground in the streets. My maidens and my young men have fallen by the sword. You have slain them in the day of Your displeasure, You have slaughtered without compassion.

22“Would You proclaim, as in a day of appointed time, The fears that surround me? And no one escaped or survived In the day of the displeasure of יהוה. Those whom I have nursed and brought up My enemy has destroyed.”

LAMENTATIONS 3:1-36

1I am the man who has seen affliction By the rod of His wrath.

2He has led me and made me walk In darkness and not light.

3Indeed, He has turned back, He has turned His hand against me all the day.

4He has worn out my flesh and my skin, He has broken my bones.

5He has piled up against me, And surrounded me with bitterness and hardship.

6He has made me dwell in dark places Like the dead of old.

7He has hedged me in and I do not go out, He has made my chain heavy.

8Also, when I cry and shout, He shuts out my prayer.

9He has blocked my ways with hewn stone, He has made my paths crooked.

10He is to me like a bear lying in wait, A lion in hiding.

11He has turned aside my ways And torn me in pieces, He has laid me waste.

12He has bent His bow And set me up as a target for the arrow.

13He made the arrows of His quiver pierce my kidneys.

14I have been a mockery to all my people, Their mocking song all the day.

15He has filled me with bitterness, He drenched me with wormwood.

16And He has broken my teeth with gravel, He has covered me with ashes.

17And You have removed my being far from peace, I have forgotten goodness.

18And I said, “My strength and my expectancy Have perished from יהוה.”

19Remember my affliction and my anguish, The wormwood and the gall.

20Your being indeed remembers And bows down upon me.

21This I recall to my mind, therefore I wait:

22The kindnesses of יהוה! For we have not been consumed, For His compassions have not ended.

23They are new every morning, Great is Your trustworthiness.

24“יהוה is my Portion,” says my being, “Therefore I wait for Him!”

25יהוה is good to those waiting for Him, To the being who seeks Him.

26It is good – both to wait and to be silent, For the deliverance of יהוה.

27It is good for a man to bear a yoke in his youth.

28Let him sit alone and be silent, Because He has laid it on him.

29Let him put his mouth in the dust, There might yet be expectancy.

30Let him give his cheek To the one who smites him – He is filled with reproach.

31For יהוה does not cast off forever.

32For though He afflicted, Yet He shall show compassion According to the greatness of His kindnesses.

33For He has not afflicted from His heart, Nor does He grieve the children of men.

34To crush under His feet All the prisoners of the earth,

35To turn aside the right-ruling of man Before the face of the Most High,

36Or wrong a man in his cause – This יהוה does not approve.