| 1 | ALEPH. I am a man watching my own poverty by the rod of his indignation. |
| 2 | ALEPH. He has driven me and led me into darkness, and not into light. |
| 3 | ALEPH. Against me only, he has turned and turned again his hand, all day long. |
| 4 | BETH. My skin and my flesh, he has made old; he has crushed my bones. |
| 5 | BETH. He has built all around me, and he has encircled me with gall and hardship. |
| 6 | BETH. He has gathered me into darkness, like those who are forever dead. |
| 7 | GHIMEL. He has built against me all around, so that I may not depart. He has increased the burden of my confinement. |
| 8 | GHIMEL. Yet even when I cry out and beg, he excludes my prayer. |
| 9 | GHIMEL. He has enclosed my ways with square stones; he has subverted my paths. |
| 10 | DALETH. He has become to me like a bear lying in ambush, like a lion in hiding. |
| 11 | DALETH. He has subverted my paths, and he has broken me. He has placed me in desolation. |
| 12 | DALETH. He has bent his bow, and he has positioned me like a target for his arrows. |
| 13 | HE. He has shot into my kidneys the daughters of his quiver. |
| 14 | HE. I have become a derision to all my people, their song throughout the day. |
| 15 | HE. He has filled me with bitterness; he has inebriated me with wormwood. |
| 16 | VAU. And he has broken each one of my teeth; he has fed me with ashes. |
| 17 | VAU. And my soul has been driven away from peace; I have forgotten what is good. |
| 18 | VAU. And I said, "My end and my hope from the Lord has perished." |
| 19 | ZAIN. Remember my poverty and my transgression, the wormwood and the gall. |
| 20 | ZAIN. I will call to mind the past, and my soul shall languish within me. |
| 21 | ZAIN. These recollections are in my heart; therefore, I shall hope. |
| 22 | HETH. By the mercies of the Lord, we are not consumed. For his compassion has not passed away. |
| 23 | HETH. I know it at first light; great is your faithfulness. |
| 24 | HETH. "The Lord is my portion," said my soul. Because of this, I will wait for him. |
| 25 | TETH. The Lord is good to those who hope in him, to the soul that seeks him. |
| 26 | TETH. It is good to stand ready in silence for the salvation of God. |
| 27 | TETH. It is good for a man, when he has carried the yoke from his youth. |
| 28 | JOD. He shall sit solitary and silent. For he has lifted it upon himself. |
| 29 | JOD. He shall place his mouth in the dirt, if perhaps there may be hope. |
| 30 | JOD. He shall give his cheek to those who strike him; he shall be saturated with reproaches. |
| 31 | CAPH. For the Lord will not rebuke forever. |
| 32 | CAPH. For, if he has cast down, he will also have compassion, according to the multitude of his mercies. |
| 33 | CAPH. For he has not humiliated from his heart, nor has he thrown aside the sons of men, |
| 34 | LAMED. as if to crush under his feet all the prisoners of the land, |
| 35 | LAMED. as if to turn aside the judgment of a man in the sight of the presence of the Most High, |
| 36 | LAMED. as if to pervert a man in his judgment: the Lord does not do this. |
| 37 | MEM. Who is this, who said to do what the Lord did not command? |
| 38 | MEM. Does not both misfortune and good proceed from the mouth of the Most High? |
| 39 | MEM. Why has a living man murmured, a man suffering for his sins? |
| 40 | NUN. Let us examine our ways, and seek out, and return to the Lord. |
| 41 | NUN. Let us lift up our hearts, with our hands, toward the Lord in the heavens. |
| 42 | NUN. We have acted sinfully, and we have provoked to wrath. About this, you are relentless. |
| 43 | SAMECH. You have covered us in your fury, and you have struck us. You have killed, and have not spared. |
| 44 | SAMECH. You have set a cloud opposite you, lest our prayer pass through. |
| 45 | SAMECH. In the midst of the peoples, you have uprooted me and cast me out. |
| 46 | PHE. All our enemies have opened their mouths over us. |
| 47 | PHE. Prediction has become for us a dread, and a snare, and a grief. |
| 48 | PHE. My eye has brought forth streams of water at the contrition of the daughter of my people. |
| 49 | AIN. My eye has been afflicted, and it has not been quieted, because there would be no rest |
| 50 | AIN. until the Lord looked down and saw from the heavens. |
| 51 | AIN. My eye has exhausted my soul over every one of the daughters of my city. |
| 52 | SADE. My enemies have chased me, and they have caught me like a bird, without reason. |
| 53 | SADE. My life has fallen into a pit, and they have placed a stone over me. |
| 54 | SADE. The waters have flooded over my head. I said, "I am lost." |
| 55 | COPH. I called upon your name, O Lord, from the furthest pit. |
| 56 | COPH. You have heard my voice. Do not turn away your ear from my sobbing and my cries. |
| 57 | COPH. You drew near in the daytime, when I called upon you. You said, "Fear not." |
| 58 | RES. You have judged, O Lord, the case of my soul. You are the Redeemer of my life. |
| 59 | RES. You have seen, O Lord, their iniquity against me. Judge my case. |
| 60 | RES. You have seen all their fury, every one of their thoughts is against me. |
| 61 | SIN. You have heard their reproach, O Lord, all their thoughts are against me. |
| 62 | SIN. The lips of those who rise up against me, and their meditations, are against me all day long. |
| 63 | SIN. Watch their sitting down and their rising up: I am their psalm. |
| 64 | THAU. You shall pay a recompense to them, O Lord, according to the works of their hands. |
| 65 | THAU. You shall give them a heavy shield of the heart: your hardship. |
| 66 | THAU. You shall pursue them in fury, and you shall destroy them under the heavens, O Lord. |
