Klagelieder 3

¹I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.
²Me hath he led, and brought into darkness, and not into light.
³Surely against me hath he turned again and again his hand all the day.
⁴My flesh and my skin hath he wasted away, he hath broken my bones.
⁵He hath built against me, and encompassed [ergänzt: me] with gall and toil.
⁶He hath made me to dwell in dark places as those that have been long dead.
⁷He hath hedged me about that I cannot get out: he hath made my chain heavy.
⁸Even 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 is unto me [ergänzt: as] a bear lying in wait, 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 am become a derision to all my people; their song all the day.
¹⁵He hath sated me with bitterness, he hath made me drunk 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 have forgotten prosperity.
¹⁸And I said, My strength is perished, and my hope in Jehovah.
¹⁹Remember thou mine affliction and my wandering, the wormwood and the gall.
²⁰My soul hath [ergänzt: them] constantly in remembrance, and is humbled in me.
²¹-- This I recall to heart, therefore have I hope.
²²It is of Jehovah's loving-kindness we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not;
²³they are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.
²⁴Jehovah is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him.
²⁵Jehovah is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul [ergänzt: that] seeketh him.
²⁶It is good that one should both wait, and that in silence, for the salvation of Jehovah.
²⁷It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth:
²⁸He sitteth solitary and keepeth silence, because he hath laid 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 if he have caused grief, he will have compassion according to the multitude of his loving-kindnesses:
³³for he doth not willingly afflict or grieve the children of men.
³⁴To crush under foot all the prisoners of the earth,
³⁵to turn aside the right of a man before the face of the Most High,
³⁶to wrong a man in his cause, -- will not the Lord see it?
³⁷Who is he that saith, and there cometh to pass, what the Lord hath not commanded?
³⁸Out of the mouth of the Most High doth not there proceed 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 Jehovah.
⁴¹Let us lift up our heart with [ergänzt: our] hands unto God in the heavens.
⁴²We have transgressed and have rebelled: thou hast not pardoned.
⁴³Thou hast covered thyself with anger, and pursued us; thou hast slain, thou hast not spared.
⁴⁴Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud, that prayer should not pass through.
⁴⁵Thou hast made us the offscouring and refuse in the midst of the peoples.
⁴⁶All our enemies have opened their mouth against us.
⁴⁷Fear and the pit are come upon us, devastation and ruin.
⁴⁸Mine eye runneth down with streams of water for the ruin of the daughter of my people.
⁴⁹Mine eye poureth down, and ceaseth not, without any intermission,
⁵⁰till Jehovah look down and behold from the heavens.
⁵¹Mine eye affecteth my soul, because of all the daughters of my city.
⁵²They that are mine enemies without cause have chased me sore like a bird.
⁵³They have cut off my life in a pit, and cast a stone upon me.
⁵⁴Waters streamed over my head; I said, I am cut off.
⁵⁵I called upon thy name, Jehovah, out of the lowest pit.
⁵⁶Thou hast heard my voice: hide not thine ear at my sighing, at my cry.
⁵⁷Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee; thou saidst, Fear not.
⁵⁸Lord, thou hast pleaded the cause of my soul, thou hast redeemed my life.
⁵⁹Jehovah, thou hast seen my wrong: judge thou my cause.
⁶⁰Thou hast seen all their vengeance, all their imaginations against me.
⁶¹Thou hast heard their reproach, O Jehovah, all their imaginations against me;
⁶²the lips of those that rise up against me and their meditation against me all the day.
⁶³Behold thou their sitting down and their rising up: I am their song.
⁶⁴Render unto them a recompence, O Jehovah, according to the work of their hands;
⁶⁵give them obduracy of heart, thy curse unto them;
⁶⁶pursue them in anger, and destroy them from under the heavens of Jehovah.

Kursiv gesetzte Wörter haben die Übersetzer ergänzt.

Public Domain