Jeremiah’s Heavy Chain
א Aleph
I am the man who has aseen affliction
Because of the rod of His wrath.
2 He has driven me and made me walk
In adarkness and not in light.
3 Surely against me He has aturned His hand
Repeatedly all the day.
ב Beth
4 He has caused my aflesh and my skin to waste away;
He has bbroken my bones.
5 He has abesieged and encompassed me with bgall and hardship.
6 aDark places He has made me inhabit,
Like those who have long been dead.
ג Gimel
7 He has awalled me in so that I cannot go out;
He has made my bchain heavy.
8 Even when I cry out and call for help,
He ashuts out my prayer.
9 He has ablocked my ways with cut stone;
He has made my paths crooked.
ד Daleth
10 He is to me like a bear lying in wait,
Like a lion in secret places.
11 He has turned aside my ways and atorn me to pieces;
He has made me desolate.
12 He abent His bow
And bset me as a target for the arrow.
ה He
13 He made the arrows of His aquiver
To enter into my inward parts.
14 I have become a alaughingstock to all my people,
Their bmusic of mockery all the day.
15 He has asaturated me with bitterness;
He has sated me with wormwood.
ו Vav
16 He has abroken my teeth with bgravel;
He has made me cower in the cdust.
17 My soul has been rejected afrom peace;
I have forgotten goodness.
18 So I say, “My strength has perished,
As well as my ahopeful waiting which comes from Yahweh.”
The Lord Will Not Reject Forever
ז Zayin
19 Remember my affliction and my homelessness, the awormwood and gall.
20 Surely amy soul remembers
And is bbowed down within me.
21 This I will return to my heart;
Therefore I will await in hope.
ח Heth
22 The alovingkindnesses of Yahweh indeed never cease,
bFor His compassions never fail.
23 They are new aevery morning;
Great is bYour faithfulness.
24 “Yahweh is my aportion,” says my soul,
“Therefore I bwait for Him.”
ט Teth
25 Yahweh is good to those who ahope in Him,
To the soul who bseeks Him.
26 It is good that he awaits silently
For the salvation of Yahweh.
27 It is good for a man that he should bear
The yoke in his youth.
י Yodh
28 Let him asit alone and be silent
Since He has laid it on him.
29 Let him put his mouth in the adust;
Perhaps there is bhope.
30 Let him give his acheek to the one who strikes him;
Let him be saturated with reproach.
כ Kaph
31 For the Lord will anot reject forever,
32 For if He causes grief,
Then He will have acompassion
According to His abundant lovingkindness.
33 For He adoes not afflict from His heart
Or grieve the sons of men.
ל Lamedh
34 To crush under His feet
All the prisoners of the land,
35 To deprive a man of ajustice
In the presence of the Most High,
36 To adefraud a man in his legal case—
These things the Lord does not see with approval.
מ Mem
37 Who is there who speaks and it ahappens,
Unless the Lord has commanded it?
38 Is it not from the mouth of the Most High
That aboth calamities and good go forth?
39 Why should any living person or any man
aComplain because of his sins?
נ Nun
40 Let us asearch out and examine our ways,
And let us return to Yahweh.
41 We alift up our heart to our hands
Toward God in heaven;
42 We have atransgressed and rebelled;
You have bnot pardoned.
ס Samekh
43 You have covered Yourself with aanger
And bpursued us;
You have killed and chave not spared.
44 You have acovered Yourself with a cloud
So that bno prayer can pass through.
45 You have made us mere ascum and refuse
In the midst of the peoples.
פ Pe
46 All our enemies have aopened their mouths against us.
47 aPanic and pitfall have befallen us,
Devastation and destruction;
48 My aeyes run down with streams of water
Because of the destruction of the daughter of my people.
ע Ayin
49 My eyes pour down aunceasingly,
Without stopping,
50 Until Yahweh alooks down
And sees from heaven.
51 My eyes deal severely with my soul
Because of all the daughters of my city.
צ Tsadhe
52 My enemies awithout cause
Hunted me down blike a bird;
53 They have silenced my life ain the pit
And have bplaced a stone on me.
54 Waters flowed aover my head;
I said, “I am cut off!”
ק Qoph
55 I acalled on Your name, O Yahweh,
Out of the lowest pit.
56 You have aheard my voice,
“bDo not hide Your ear from my prayer for relief,
From my cry for help.”
57 You adrew near when I called on You;
You said, “bDo not fear!”
ר Resh
58 O Lord, You ahave pleaded my soul’s cause;
You have bredeemed my life.
59 O Yahweh, You have aseen my oppression;
bJudge my case.
60 You have seen all their vengeance,
All their apurposes against me.
שׂ Sin - שׁ Shin
61 You have heard their areproach, O Yahweh,
All their purposes against me.
62 The alips of those who rise against me and their whispering
Are against me all day long.
63 Look on their asitting and their rising;
bI am their mocking song.
ת Tav
64 You will arecompense them, O Yahweh,
According to the work of their hands.
65 You will give them adullness of heart;
Your curse will be on them.
66 You will apursue them in anger and destroy them
From under the bheavens of Yahweh!