Lamentations 3 Comparison: Catholic Public Domain vs King James Version

Lamentations 3

¹ALEPH. I am a man watching my own poverty by the rod of his indignation.

²ALEPH. He has driven me and led me into darkness, and not into light.

³ALEPH. Against me only, he has turned and turned again his hand, all day long.

⁴BETH. My skin and my flesh, he has made old; he has crushed my bones.

⁵BETH. He has built all around me, and he has encircled me with gall and hardship.

⁶BETH. He has gathered me into darkness, like those who are forever dead.

⁷GHIMEL. He has built against me all around, so that I may not depart. He has increased the burden of my confinement.

⁸GHIMEL. Yet even when I cry out and beg, he excludes my prayer.

⁹GHIMEL. He has enclosed my ways with square stones; he has subverted my paths.

¹⁰DALETH. He has become to me like a bear lying in ambush, like a lion in hiding.

¹¹DALETH. He has subverted my paths, and he has broken me. He has placed me in desolation.

¹²DALETH. He has bent his bow, and he has positioned me like a target for his arrows.

¹³HE. He has shot into my kidneys the daughters of his quiver.

¹⁴HE. I have become a derision to all my people, their song throughout the day.

¹⁵HE. He has filled me with bitterness; he has inebriated me with wormwood.

¹⁶VAU. And he has broken each one of my teeth; he has fed me with ashes.

¹⁷VAU. And my soul has been driven away from peace; I have forgotten what is good.

¹⁸VAU. And I said, “My end and my hope from the Lord has perished.”

¹⁹ZAIN. Remember my poverty and my transgression, the wormwood and the gall.

²⁰ZAIN. I will call to mind the past, and my soul shall languish within me.

²¹ZAIN. These recollections are in my heart; therefore, I shall hope.

²²HETH. By the mercies of the Lord, we are not consumed. For his compassion has not passed away.

²³HETH. I know it at first light; great is your faithfulness.

²⁴HETH. “The Lord is my portion,” said my soul. Because of this, I will wait for him.

²⁵TETH. The Lord is good to those who hope in him, to the soul that seeks him.

²⁶TETH. It is good to stand ready in silence for the salvation of God.

²⁷TETH. It is good for a man, when he has carried the yoke from his youth.

²⁸JOD. He shall sit solitary and silent. For he has lifted it upon himself.

²⁹JOD. He shall place his mouth in the dirt, if perhaps there may be hope.

³⁰JOD. He shall give his cheek to those who strike him; he shall be saturated with reproaches.

³¹CAPH. For the Lord will not rebuke forever.

³²CAPH. For, if he has cast down, he will also have compassion, according to the multitude of his mercies.

³³CAPH. For he has not humiliated from his heart, nor has he thrown aside the sons of men,

³⁴LAMED. as if to crush under his feet all the prisoners of the land,

³⁵LAMED. as if to turn aside the judgment of a man in the sight of the presence of the Most High,

³⁶LAMED. as if to pervert a man in his judgment: the Lord does not do this.

³⁷MEM. Who is this, who said to do what the Lord did not command?

³⁸MEM. Does not both misfortune and good proceed from the mouth of the Most High?

³⁹MEM. Why has a living man murmured, a man suffering for his sins?

⁴⁰NUN. Let us examine our ways, and seek out, and return to the Lord.

⁴¹NUN. Let us lift up our hearts, with our hands, toward the Lord in the heavens.

⁴²NUN. We have acted sinfully, and we have provoked to wrath. About this, you are relentless.

⁴³SAMECH. You have covered us in your fury, and you have struck us. You have killed, and have not spared.

⁴⁴SAMECH. You have set a cloud opposite you, lest our prayer pass through.

⁴⁵SAMECH. In the midst of the peoples, you have uprooted me and cast me out.

⁴⁶PHE. All our enemies have opened their mouths over us.

⁴⁷PHE. Prediction has become for us a dread, and a snare, and a grief.

⁴⁸PHE. My eye has brought forth streams of water at the contrition of the daughter of my people.

⁴⁹AIN. My eye has been afflicted, and it has not been quieted, because there would be no rest

⁵⁰AIN. until the Lord looked down and saw from the heavens.

⁵¹AIN. My eye has exhausted my soul over every one of the daughters of my city.

⁵²SADE. My enemies have chased me, and they have caught me like a bird, without reason.

⁵³SADE. My life has fallen into a pit, and they have placed a stone over me.

⁵⁴SADE. The waters have flooded over my head. I said, “I am lost.”

⁵⁵COPH. I called upon your name, O Lord, from the furthest pit.

⁵⁶COPH. You have heard my voice. Do not turn away your ear from my sobbing and my cries.

⁵⁷COPH. You drew near in the daytime, when I called upon you. You said, “Fear not.”

⁵⁸RES. You have judged, O Lord, the case of my soul. You are the Redeemer of my life.

⁵⁹RES. You have seen, O Lord, their iniquity against me. Judge my case.

⁶⁰RES. You have seen all their fury, every one of their thoughts is against me.

⁶¹SIN. You have heard their reproach, O Lord, all their thoughts are against me.

⁶²SIN. The lips of those who rise up against me, and their meditations, are against me all day long.

⁶³SIN. Watch their sitting down and their rising up: I am their psalm.

⁶⁴THAU. You shall pay a recompense to them, O Lord, according to the works of their hands.

⁶⁵THAU. You shall give them a heavy shield of the heart: your hardship.

⁶⁶THAU. You shall pursue them in fury, and you shall destroy them under the heavens, O Lord.

Lamentations 3

¹I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.

²He hath led me, and brought me into darkness, but not into light.

³Surely against me is he turned; he turneth his hand against me all the day.

⁴My flesh and my skin hath he made old; he hath broken my bones.

⁵He hath builded against me, and compassed me with gall and travail.

⁶He hath set me in dark places, as they that be dead of old.

⁷He hath hedged me about, that I cannot get out: he hath made my chain heavy.

⁸Also when I cry and shout, he shutteth out my prayer.

⁹He hath inclosed my ways with hewn stone, he hath made my paths crooked.

¹⁰He was unto me as a bear lying in wait, and as a lion in secret places.

¹¹He hath turned aside my ways, and pulled me in pieces: he hath made me desolate.

¹²He hath bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow.

¹³He hath caused the arrows of his quiver to enter into my reins.

¹⁴I was a derision to all my people; and their song all the day.

¹⁵He hath filled me with bitterness, he hath made me drunken with wormwood.

¹⁶He hath also broken my teeth with gravel stones, he hath covered me with ashes.

¹⁷And thou hast removed my soul far off from peace: I forgat prosperity.

¹⁸And I said, My strength and my hope is perished from the Lord:

¹⁹Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall.

²⁰My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me.

²¹This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope.

²²It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.

²³They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.

²⁴The Lord is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him.

²⁵The Lord is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him.

²⁶It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord.

²⁷It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.

²⁸He sitteth alone and keepeth silence, because he hath borne it upon him.

²⁹He putteth his mouth in the dust; if so be there may be hope.

³⁰He giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him: he is filled full with reproach.

³¹For the Lord will not cast off for ever:

³²But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies.

³³For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men.

³⁴To crush under his feet all the prisoners of the earth,

³⁵To turn aside the right of a man before the face of the most High,

³⁶To subvert a man in his cause, the Lord approveth not.

³⁷Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth it not?

³⁸Out of the mouth of the most High proceedeth not evil and good?

³⁹Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?

⁴⁰Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the Lord.

⁴¹Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens.

⁴²We have transgressed and have rebelled: thou hast not pardoned.

⁴³Thou hast covered with anger, and persecuted us: thou hast slain, thou hast not pitied.

⁴⁴Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud, that our prayer should not pass through.

⁴⁵Thou hast made us as the offscouring and refuse in the midst of the people.

⁴⁶All our enemies have opened their mouths against us.

⁴⁷Fear and a snare is come upon us, desolation and destruction.

⁴⁸Mine eye runneth down with rivers of water for the destruction of the daughter of my people.

⁴⁹Mine eye trickleth down, and ceaseth not, without any intermission,

⁵⁰Till the Lord look down, and behold from heaven.

⁵¹Mine eye affecteth mine heart because of all the daughters of my city.

⁵²Mine enemies chased me sore, like a bird, without cause.

⁵³They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and cast a stone upon me.

⁵⁴Waters flowed over mine head; then I said, I am cut off.

⁵⁵I called upon thy name, O Lord, out of the low dungeon.

⁵⁶Thou hast heard my voice: hide not thine ear at my breathing, at my cry.

⁵⁷Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee: thou saidst, Fear not.

⁵⁸O Lord, thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul; thou hast redeemed my life.

⁵⁹O Lord, thou hast seen my wrong: judge thou my cause.

⁶⁰Thou hast seen all their vengeance and all their imaginations against me.

⁶¹Thou hast heard their reproach, O Lord, and all their imaginations against me;

⁶²The lips of those that rose up against me, and their device against me all the day.

⁶³Behold their sitting down, and their rising up; I am their musick.

⁶⁴Render unto them a recompence, O Lord, according to the work of their hands.

⁶⁵Give them sorrow of heart, thy curse unto them.

⁶⁶Persecute and destroy them in anger from under the heavens of the Lord.