Old/New Testament
Aleph
3 ¶ I am a man that sees affliction in the rod of his wrath.
Aleph
2 He has led me and brought me into darkness, but not into light.
Aleph
3 Surely he is turned against me; he turns his hand against me all the day.
Beth
4 My flesh and my skin he has made old; he has broken my bones.
Beth
5 He has built against me and compassed me with gall and travail.
Beth
6 He has set me in dark places as those that are dead for ever.
Gimel
7 He has hedged me about that I cannot get out; he has made my chain heavy.
Gimel
8 Even when I cried and shouted, he shut out my prayer.
Gimel
9 He has enclosed my ways with hewn stone; he has made my paths crooked.
Daleth
10 He was unto me as a bear lying in wait and as a lion in secret places.
Daleth
11 He has made my ways crooked and pulled me in pieces; he has made me desolate.
Daleth
12 He has bent his bow and set me as a mark for the arrow.
He
13 He has caused the arrows of his quiver to enter into my kidneys.
He
14 I was a derision to all my people and their song every day.
He
15 He has filled me with bitterness, he has made me drunk with wormwood.
Vau
16 He has broken my teeth with gravel stones; he has covered me with ashes.
Vau
17 My soul removed itself far from peace; I forgot about good.
Vau
18 And I said, My strength and my hope of the LORD is perished.
Zain
19 Remember my affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall.
Zain
20 My soul shall have them still in remembrance because it is humbled in me.
Zain
21 ¶ This shall go down into my heart; therefore I shall wait.
Cheth
22 It is of the LORD’s mercies that we are not consumed because his mercies never diminish.
Cheth
23 They are new every morning; great is thy faith.
Cheth
24 The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore I will wait for him.
Teth
25 The LORD is good unto those that wait in him, to the soul that seeks him.
Teth
26 It is good to wait quietly in the salvation of the LORD.
Teth
27 It is good for the man if he bears the yoke from his youth.
Jod
28 He shall sit alone and keep silence because he has borne it upon him.
Jod
29 He shall put his mouth in the dust; if so be there may be hope.
Jod
30 He shall turn his cheek unto him that smites him; he shall be filled with reproach.
Caph
31 For the Lord will not cast off for ever:
Caph
32 But though he causes grief, yet he will also have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies.
Caph
33 For he does not afflict nor grieve the sons of men from his heart.
Lamed
34 To crush under his feet all the prisoners of the earth,
Lamed
35 To turn aside the right of a man before the face of the most High,
Lamed
36 To subvert a man in his cause, the Lord does not approve.
37 ¶ Mem Who shall he be that saith that something comes which the Lord has not sent?
Mem
38 Out of the mouth of the most High proceeds not evil and good?
Mem
39 Why does the living man have pain, the man in his sins?
Nun
40 Let us search out our ways, and seek, and turn again to the LORD.
Nun
41 Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens.
Nun
42 ¶ We have rebelled and been disloyal; therefore thou hast not forgiven.
Samech
43 Thou hast unfurled anger and persecuted us; thou hast slain, thou hast not forgiven.
Samech
44 Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud that our prayer should not pass through.
Samech
45 Thou hast made us as the offscouring and abomination in the midst of the peoples.
Pe
46 All our enemies have opened their mouths upon us.
Pe
47 Fear and a snare is come upon us, desolation and destruction.
Pe
48 My eyes stream with rivers of water for the destruction of the daughter of my people.
Ain
49 My eyes run down, and cease not, for there is no relief,
Ain
50 Until the LORD looks down, and beholds from the heavens.
Ain
51 My eyes make my soul sad because of all the daughters of my city.
Tzaddi
52 My enemies hunted me like a bird, without cause.
Tzaddi
53 They bound up my life in the dungeon, and cast a stone upon me.
Tzaddi
54 Waters flowed over my head; then I said, I am dead.
Koph
55 ¶ I called upon thy name, O LORD, out of the low dungeon.
Koph
56 Thou hast heard my voice; do not hide thine ear at my cry that I might breath.
Koph
57 Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee; thou didst say, Fear not.
Resh
58 O Lord, thou hast pleaded the cause of my soul; thou hast redeemed my life.
Resh
59 O LORD, thou hast seen where I was wrong; plead thou my cause.
Resh
60 Thou hast seen all their vengeance and all their imaginations against me.
Schin
61 Thou hast heard their reproach, O LORD, and all their imaginations against me;
Schin
62 The words of those that rose up against me, and their design against me all the day.
Schin
63 Behold their sitting down, and their rising up; I am their music.
Tau
64 Render unto them a recompense, O LORD, according to the work of their hands.
Tau
65 Give them sorrow of heart; thy curse unto them.
Tau
66 Persecute them in thy anger and cut them off from under the heavens, oh LORD.
Aleph
4 ¶ How is the gold become dim! how is the most fine gold changed! the stones of the sanctuary are scattered through the crossings of every street.
Beth
2 The sons of Zion, precious and esteemed more than pure gold, how are they taken for earthen vessels, the work of the hands of the potter!
Gimel
3 Even the sea monsters draw out the breast; they give suck to their young ones; the daughter of my people is cruel like the ostriches in the wilderness.
Daleth
4 The tongue of the sucking child cleaves to the roof of his mouth for thirst; the young children ask for bread, and there was no one to break it unto them.
He
5 Those that did feed delicately are made desolate in the streets; those that were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghills.
Vau
6 For the iniquity of the daughter of my people has increased more than the sin of Sodom, that was overthrown as in a moment, and companies did not camp upon her.
Zain
7 Her Nazarites were whiter than snow; they were more radiant than milk; their composure had more fire than the precious stones cut from sapphire:
Cheth
8 Their visage is blacker than a coal; they are not known in the streets; their skin cleaves to their bones; it is withered; it is dry like a stick.
Teth
9 Those slain with the sword are better than those slain with hunger; for these pine away, stricken through for want of the fruits of the earth.
Jod
10 The hands of the compassionate women have cooked their own children; they were their food in the destruction of the daughter of my people.
Caph
11 The LORD has accomplished his fury; he has poured out his fierce anger and has kindled a fire in Zion, and it has devoured the foundations thereof.
Lamed
12 The kings of the earth and all the inhabitants of the world never believed that the adversary and the enemy would enter in through the gates of Jerusalem.
13 ¶ Mem For the sins of her prophets and the iniquities of her priests, that have shed the blood of the just in the midst of her,
Nun
14 They have wandered blindly in the streets; they were polluted in blood, so that no one could touch their garments.
Samech
15 They cried unto them, Depart ye; it is unclean; depart, depart, touch not because they were contaminated; and when they were thrust through, they said among the Gentiles, They shall never dwell here again.
Pe
16 The anger of the LORD has separated them; he will never look upon them again. They did not respect the countenance of the priests, nor did they have compassion on the elders.
Ain
17 As for us, our eyes have failed in seeking our vain help; in our watching we have watched for people that cannot save us.
Tzaddi
18 They hunt our steps that we cannot walk in our streets; our end came near; our days were fulfilled; for our end is come.
Koph
19 Our persecutors were swifter than the eagles of the heaven; they pursued us upon the mountains; they laid wait for us in the wilderness.
Resh
20 The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the LORD, was taken in their pits, of whom we had said, Under his shadow we shall live among the Gentiles.
21 ¶ Schin Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom that dwellest in the land of Uz; the cup shall also pass even unto thee; thou shalt be drunken and shalt vomit.
Tau
22 The punishment of thine iniquity is accomplished, O daughter of Zion; he will never cause thee to be carried away again; he will visit thine iniquity, O daughter of Edom; he will uncover thy sins.
5 ¶ Remember, O LORD, what is come upon us; look, and behold our reproach.
2 Our inheritance is turned to strangers, our houses to aliens.
3 We are orphans without father; our mothers are as widows.
4 We have drunk our water for money; our wood is sold unto us.
5 Our necks are under persecution; we are become tired and have no rest.
6 We have given the hand to the Egyptians and to the Assyrians to be satisfied with bread.
7 Our fathers have sinned and are dead; and we have borne their chastisements.
8 Slaves have ruled over us: there was no one to deliver us out of their hand.
9 We got our bread with the peril of our lives because of the sword of the wilderness.
10 Our skin became black like an oven because of the terrible famine.
11 They ravished the women in Zion and the virgins in the cities of Judah.
12 Princes were hanged up by their hand; the countenance of the elders was not honoured.
13 They took the young men to grind, and the children fell under the wood.
14 The elders have ceased from the gate, the young men from their music.
15 The joy of our heart is ceased; our dance is turned into mourning.
16 The crown is fallen from our head; woe now unto us, for we have sinned!
17 ¶ For this our heart is saddened; for these things our eyes are become dim.
18 Because of the mountain of Zion, which is desolate, the foxes walk upon it.
19 Thou, O LORD, shall remain for ever; thy throne from generation to generation.
20 Why should thou forget us for ever and forsake us for such a long time?
21 Turn us unto thee, O LORD, and we shall be turned; renew our days as at the beginning.
22 For in stepping back thou hast rejected us; thou hast become very angry against us.
19 ¶ Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus,
20 by a new and living way, which he has consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh;
21 and having that great priest over the house of God,
22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts purified from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water;
23 let us hold fast the profession of our hope without wavering (for he is faithful that promised).
24 And let us consider one another to provoke unto charity and unto good works,
25 not forsaking our gathering together, as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another and so much the more, when ye see that day approaching.
26 For if we sin wilfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remains no more sacrifice for sins,
27 but a certain fearful hope of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.
28 He that despised the law of Moses died without mercy under two or three witnesses:
29 Of how much greater punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who has trodden underfoot the Son of God and has counted the blood of the covenant, with which he was sanctified, an unholy thing and has done despite unto the Spirit of grace?
30 For we know who he is that has said, Vengeance belongs to me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge his people.
31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
32 But bring to memory the former days, in which, after ye received the light, ye endured a great fight of afflictions;
33 on the one hand ye were made a spectacle both by reproaches and tribulations, and on the other ye became companions of those that were so used.
34 For ye had compassion of me in my bonds and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing that in yourselves ye have a better substance in the heavens, and that abides.
35 Do not lose, therefore, this your confidence, which has great recompense of reward;
36 for patience is necessary, so that after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.
37 For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come and will not tarry.
38 Now the just shall live by faith, but if any man draws back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.
39 But we are not of those who draw back unto perdition, but faithful unto the saving of the soul.
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