I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.
He hath led me and caused me to walk in darkness, {Or, without light}and not in light.
Surely against me he turneth his hand again and again all the day.
My flesh and my skin hath he {Or, worn out}made old; he hath broken my bones.
He hath builded against me, and compassed me with gall and travail.
He hath made me to dwell in dark places, as those that have been long dead.
He hath walled me about, that I cannot go forth; he hath made my chain heavy.
Yea, when I cry, and call for help, he shutteth out my prayer.
He hath walled up my ways with hewn stone; he hath made my paths crooked.
He is unto me as a bear lying in wait, as a lion in secret places.
He hath turned aside my ways, and pulled me in pieces; he hath made me desolate.
He hath bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow.
He hath caused the {Hebrew: sons.}shafts of his quiver to enter into my reins.
I am become a derision to all my people, and their song all the day.
He hath filled me with bitterness, he hath sated me with wormwood.
He hath also broken my teeth with gravel stones; he hath covered me with ashes.
And thou hast {Or, cast off}removed my soul far off from peace; I forgat prosperity.
And I said, My strength is perished, and mine expectation from Jehovah.
Remember mine affliction and my {Or, wandering}misery, the wormwood and the gall.
My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is bowed down within me.
This I recall to my mind; therefore have I hope.
It is of Jehovah's lovingkindnesses that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.
They are new every morning; great is thy faithfulness.
Jehovah is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him.
Jehovah is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him.
It is good that a man should hope and quietly wait for the salvation of Jehovah.
It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.
{Or, he sitteth &c. (so through verse 28-30)}Let him sit alone and keep silence, because he hath laid it upon him.
Let him put his mouth in the dust, if so be there may be hope.
Let him give his cheek to him that smiteth him; let him be filled full with reproach.
For the Lord will not cast off for ever.
For though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his lovingkindnesses.
For he doth not afflict {Hebrew: from his heart.}willingly, nor grieve the children of men.
To crush under foot all the prisoners of the earth,
To turn aside the right of a man before the face of the Most High,
To subvert a man in his cause, the Lord {Hebrew: seeth not.}approveth not.
Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth it not?
Out of the mouth of the Most High cometh there not evil and good?
Wherefore doth a living man complain, {Or, a man that is in his sins}a man for the punishment of his sins?
Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to Jehovah.
Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens.
We have transgressed and have rebelled; thou hast not pardoned.
Thou hast {Or, covered thyself}covered with anger and pursued us; thou hast slain, thou hast not pitied.
Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud, so that no prayer can pass through.
Thou hast made us an offscouring and refuse in the midst of the peoples.
All our enemies have opened their mouth wide against us.
Fear and the pit are come upon us, {Or, tumult}devastation and destruction.
Mine eye runneth down with streams of water, for the destruction of the daughter of my people.
Mine eye poureth down, and ceaseth not, without any intermission,
Till Jehovah look down, and behold from heaven.
Mine eye affecteth my soul, because of all the daughters of my city.
They have chased me sore like a bird, they that are mine enemies without cause.
They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and have cast a stone upon me.
Waters flowed over my head; I said, I am cut off.
I called upon thy name, O Jehovah, out of the lowest dungeon.
Thou heardest my voice; hide not thine ear at my breathing, at my cry.
Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee; thou saidst, Fear not.
O Lord, thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul; thou hast redeemed my life.
O Jehovah, thou hast seen my wrong; judge thou my cause.
Thou hast seen all their vengeance and all their devices against me.
Thou hast heard their reproach, O Jehovah, and all their devices against me,
The lips of those that rose up against me, and their device against me all the day.
Behold thou their sitting down, and their rising up; I am their song.
Thou wilt render unto them a recompense, O Jehovah, according to the work of their hands.
Thou wilt give them {Or, blindness Hebrew: covering.}hardness of heart, thy curse unto them.
Thou wilt pursue them in anger, and destroy them from under the heavens of Jehovah.
Querverweise zu Klagelieder 3,14 Klgl 3,14
Behold thou their sitting down, and their rising up; I am their song.
And he spake before his brethren and the army of Samaria, and said, What are these feeble Jews doing? {Or, will they leave to themselves aught? Or, will men let them alone?}will they fortify themselves? will they sacrifice? will they make an end in a day? will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish, seeing they are burned?
Now Tobiah the Ammonite was by him, and he said, Even that which they are building, if a {Or, jackel}fox go up, he shall break down their stone wall.
Hear, O our God; for we are despised: and turn back their reproach upon their own head, and give them up for a spoil in a land of captivity;
But now they that are younger than I have me in derision,Whose fathers I disdained to set with the dogs of my flock.
Yea, the strength of their hands, whereto should it profit me?Men in whom {Or, vigor}ripe age is perished.
They are gaunt with want and famine; {Or, They flee into the wilderness, into &c.}They gnaw the dry ground, {Or, which yesternight was Or, on the eve of}in the gloom of wasteness and desolation.
They pluck salt-wort by the bushes;And the roots of the broom are {Or, to warm them}their food.
They are driven forth from the midst of men;They cry after them as after a thief;
So that they dwell in frightful valleys,In holes of the earth and of the rocks.
Among the bushes they bray;Under the {Or, wild vetches}nettles they {Or, stretch themselves}are gathered together.
They are children of fools, yea, children of {Hebrew: men of no name.}base men;They {Or, are outcasts from the land}were scouraged out of the land.
And now I am become their song,Yea, I am a byword unto them.
But I am a worm, and no man;A reproach of men, and despised of the people.
All they that see me laugh me to scorn:They shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying,
But in {Hebrew: my limping.}mine adversity they rejoiced, and gathered themselves together:The {Or, smiters}abjects gathered themselves together against me, and {Or, those whom I keep not}I knew it not;They did tear me, and ceased not:
{Or, Among}Like the profane mockers in feasts,They gnashed upon me with their teeth.
Thou makest us a reproach to our neighbors,A scoffing and a derision to them that are round about us.
When I made sackcloth my clothing,I became a byword unto them.
They that sit in the gate talk of me;And I am the song of the drunkards.
We are become a reproach to our neighbors,A scoffing and derision to them that are round about us.
Have mercy upon us, O Jehovah, have mercy upon us;For we are exceedingly filled with contempt.
Our soul is exceedingly filledWith the scoffing of those that are at ease,And with the contempt of the proud.
For there they that led us captive required of us {Hebrew: words of song.}songs,And {Or, our tormentors}they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying,Sing us one of the songs of Zion.
O Jehovah, thou hast {Or, enticed}persuaded me, and I was persuaded; thou art stronger than I, and hast prevailed: I am become a laughing-stock all the day, every one mocketh me.
For was not Israel a derision unto thee? was he found among thieves? for as often as thou speakest of him, thou waggest the head.
And they that passed by railed on him, wagging their heads,
and saying, Thou that destroyest the {Or, sanctuary}temple, and buildest it in three days, save thyself: if thou art the Son of God, come down from the cross.
In like manner also the chief priests mocking him, with the scribes and elders, said,
He saved others; {Or, can he not save himself?}himself he cannot save. He is the King of Israel; let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe on him.
He trusteth on God; let him deliver him now, if he desireth him: for he said, I am the Son of God.
And the robbers also that were crucified with him cast upon him the same reproach.
For, I think, God hath set forth us the apostles last of all, as men doomed to death: for we are made a spectacle unto the world, {Or, and to angels, and to men}both to angels and men.
We are fools for Christ's sake, but ye are wise in Christ; we are weak, but ye are strong; ye have glory, but we have dishonor.
Even unto this present hour we both hunger, and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwelling-place;
and we toil, working with our own hands: being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we endure;
being defamed, we entreat: we are made as the {Or, refuse}filth of the world, the offscouring of all things, even until now.