9He has walled in my ways with hewn blocks,
He has made my paths a maze.
10He is a lurking bear to me,
A lion in hiding;
11c-He has forced me off my way-c and mangled me,
He has left me numb.
12He has bent His bow and made me
The target of His arrows:
13He has shot into my vitals
The shafts of His quiver.
14I have become a laughingstock to all people,
The butt of their gibes all day long.
15He has filled me with bitterness,
Sated me with wormwood.
16He has broken my teeth on gravel,
Has ground me into the dust.
17My life was bereft of peace,
I forgot what happiness was.
18I thought my strength and hope
Had perished before the LORD.
19To recall my distress and my misery
Was wormwood and poison;
20Whenever I thought of them,
I was bowed low.
21But this do I call to mind,
Therefore I have hope:
22The kindness of the LORD has not ended,
His mercies are not spent.
23They are renewed every morning—
Ample is Your grace!
24“The LORD is my portion,” I say with full heart;
Therefore will I hope in Him.
25The LORD is good to those who trust in Him,
To the one who seeks Him;
26It is good to wait patiently
Till rescue comes from the LORD.
27It is good for a man, when young,
To bear a yoke;
28Let him sit alone and be patient,
When He has laid it upon him.
29Let him put his mouth to the dust—
There may yet be hope.
30Let him offer his cheek to the smiter;
Let him be surfeited with mockery.
31For the LORD does not
Reject forever,
32But first afflicts, then pardons
In His abundant kindness.
33For He does not willfully bring grief
Or affliction to man,
34Crushing under His feet
All the prisoners of the earth.
35To deny a man his rights
In the presence of the Most High,
36To wrong a man in his cause—
This the LORD does not choose.
37Whose decree was ever fulfilled,
Unless the LORD willed it?
38Is it not at the word of the Most High,
That weal and woe befall?
39Of what shall a living man complain?
Each one of his own sins!
40Let us search and examine our ways,
And turn back to the LORD;
41Let us lift up our hearts withd our hands
To God in heaven:
42We have transgressed and rebelled,
And You have not forgiven.
43You have clothed Yourself in anger and pursued us,
You have slain without pity.
44You have screened Yourself off with a cloud,
That no prayer may pass through.
45You have made us filth and refuse
In the midst of the peoples.
46All our enemies loudly
Rail against us.
47Panic and pitfall are our lot,
Death and destruction.
48My eyes shed streams of water
Over the ruin of my poore people.
49My eyes shall flow without cease,
Without respite,
50f-Until the LORD looks down
And beholds from heaven.
51My eyes have brought me grief-f
Over all the maidens of my city.
52My foes have snared me like a bird,
Without any cause.
53They have ended my life in a pit
And cast stones at me.
54Waters flowed over my head;
I said: I am lost!
55I have called on Your name, O LORD,
From the depths of the Pit.
56Hear my plea;
Do not shut Your ear
To my groan, to my cry!
57You have ever drawn nigh when I called You;
You have said, “Do not fear!”
58You championed my cause, O LORD,
You have redeemed my life.
59You have seen, O LORD, the wrong done me;
Oh, vindicate my right!
60You have seen all their malice,
All their designs against me;
61You have heard, O LORD, their taunts,
All their designs against me,
50 “Until the LORD looks down from heaven And beholds
51 my affliction.
The LORD has brought me grief.”
62The mouthings and pratings of my adversaries
Against me all day long.
63See how, at their ease or at work,
I am the butt of their gibes.
64Give them, O LORD, their deserts
According to their deeds.
65Give them anguishc of heart;
Your curse be upon them!
66Oh, pursue them in wrath and destroy them
From under the heavens of the LORD!
4
Alas!
The gold is dulled,a
Debased the finest gold!
The sacredb gems are spilled
At every street corner.
2The precious children of Zion;
Once valued as gold—
Alas, they are accounted as earthen pots,
Work of a potter’s hands!
3Even jackals offer the breast
And suckle their young;
But my poor people has turned cruel,
Like ostriches of the desert.
4The tongue of the suckling cleaves
To its palate for thirst.
Little children beg for bread;
None gives them a morsel.
5Those who feasted on dainties
Lie famished in the streets;
Those who were reared in purple
Have embraced refuse heaps.
6The guiltc of my poord people
Exceeded the iniquityc of Sodom,
Which was overthrown in a moment,
Without a hand striking it.
7Her elect were purer than snow,
Whiter than milk;
Their limbs were ruddier than coral,
Their bodiesa were like sapphire.
8Now their faces are blacker than soot,
They are not recognized in the streets;
Their skin has shriveled on their bones,
It has become dry as wood.
9Better off were the slain of the sword
Than those slain by famine,
a-Who pined away, [as though] wounded,
For lack of-a the fruits of the field.
10With their own hands, tenderhearted women
Have cooked their children;
Such became their fare,
In the disaster of my poord people.
11The LORD vented all His fury,
Poured out His blazing wrath;
He kindled a fire in Zion
Which consumed its foundations.
12The kings of the earth did not believe,
Nor any of the inhabitants of the world,
That foe or adversary could enter
The gates of Jerusalem.
13It was for the sins of her prophets,
The iniquities of her priests,
Who had shed in her midst
The blood of the just.
14They wandered blindly through the streets,
Defiled with blood,
So that no one was able
To touch their garments.
15“Away! Unclean!” people shouted at them,
“Away! Away! Touch not!”
So they wandered and wandered again;
For the nations had resolved:
“They shall stay here no longer.”
16eThe LORD’s countenance has turned away from them,
He will look on them no more.
They showed no regard for priests,
No favor to elders.
17Even now our eyes pine away
In vain for deliverance.
As we waited, still we wait
For a nation that cannot help.
18Our steps were checked,
We could not walk f-in our squares.-f
Our doom is near, our days are done—
Alas, our doom has come!
19Our pursuers were swifter
Than the eagles in the sky;
They chased us in the mountains,
Lay in wait for us in the wilderness.
20The breath of our life, the LORD’s anointed,
Was captured in their traps—
He in whose shade we had thought
To live among the nations.
21Rejoice and exult, Fair Edom,
Who dwell in the land of Uz!
To you, too, the cup shall pass,
You shall get drunk and expose your nakedness.
22Your iniquity, Fair Zion, is expiated;
He will exile you no longer.
Your iniquity, Fair Edom, He will note;
He will uncover your sins.
5
Remember, O LORD, what has befallen us;
Behold, and see our disgrace!
2Our heritage has passed to aliens,
Our homes to strangers.
3We have become orphans, fatherless;
Our mothers are like widows.
4We must pay to drink our own water,
Obtain our own kindling at a price.
5We are hotlya pursued;
Exhausted, we are given no rest.
6We hold out a hand to Egypt;
To Assyria, for our fill of bread.
7Our fathers sinned and are no more;
And we must bear their guilt.
8Slaves are ruling over us,
With none to rescue us from them.
9We get our bread at the peril of our lives,
Because of the b-sword of the wilderness.-b
10Our skin glows like an oven,
With the fever of famine.
11Theyc have ravished women in Zion,
Maidens in the towns of Judah.
12Princes have been hanged by them;c
No respect has been shown to elders.
13Young men must carry millstones,
And youths stagger under loads of wood.
14The old men are gone from the gate,
The young men from their music.
15Gone is the joy of our hearts;
Our dancing is turned into mourning.
16The crown has fallen from our head;
Woe to us that we have sinned!
17Because of this our hearts are sick,
Because of these our eyes are dimmed:
18Because of Mount Zion, which lies desolate;
Jackals prowl over it.
19But You, O LORD, are enthroned forever,
Your throne endures through the ages.
20Why have You forgotten us utterly,
Forsaken us for all time?
21Take us back, O LORD, to Yourself,
And let us come back;
Renew our days as of old!
22For truly, You have rejected us,
Bitterly raged against us.
Take us back, O LORD, to Yourself,
And let us come back;
Renew our days as of old!
a Chaps. 1–4 are alphabetical acrostics, i.e., the verses begin with the successive letters of the Heb. alphabet. Chap. 3 is a triple acrostic. In chaps. 2–4 the letter pe precedes the ‘ayin.
b-b Meaning of Heb. uncertain.
c-c Or (ironically) “What a glutton”; cf. Prov. 23.20–21.
d Meaning of parts of vv. 14 and 15 uncertain.
e-e Lit. “My heart has turned over within me”; cf. Exod. 14.5; Hos. 11.8.
f-f Emendation yields “Oh, bring on them what befell me, / And let them become like me!”
a Meaning of Heb. uncertain.
b I.e., the Temple.
c Lit. “(Tent of) Meeting.”
d-d I.e., He made His plans.
e-e Lit. “among the nations.”
f Heb. torah, here priestly instruction; cf. Jer. 18.18; Hab. 2.11; Mal. 2.6.
g-g Lit. “My liver spills on the ground.”
h-h Lit. “the daughter of my people”; so elsewhere in poetry.
i-i Emendation yields “compare.”
j These gestures were intended to ward off the calamity from the viewer; cf., e.g., Jer. 18.16 and note; Job 27.23.
k-k Lit. “We have attained, we have seen.”
l-l Emendation yields “Cry aloud.”
m The root has this meaning in Arabic; others “dandled.”
a-a Emendation yields “whom the Lord has shepherded with.”
b Taking rosh as equivalent to resh.
c-c Meaning of Heb. uncertain.
d Lit. “to”; emendation yields “rather than”; cf. Joel 2.13.
e Lit. “the daughter of my”; so frequently in poetry.
f-f Emendation yields:
a Meaning of Heb. uncertain.
b Emendation yields “precious.”
c I.e., punishment.
d See note at 3.48.
e Meaning of line uncertain.
f-f Or “With long strides.”
a Lit. “on our neck”; meaning of Heb. uncertain.
b-b Or “heat (cf. Deut. 28.22) of the wilderness”; meaning of Heb. uncertain.
c I.e., the slaves of v. 8.
Ecclesiastes
1 The words of Koheletha son of David, king in Jerusalem.
2Utter futility!— said Koheleth—
Utter futility! All is futile!
3What real value is there for a man
In all the gainsb he makes beneath the sun?
4One generation goes, another comes,
But the earth remains the same forever.
5The sun rises, and the sun sets—
And glidesc back to where it rises.
6Southward blowing,
Turning northward,
Ever turning blows the wind;
On its rounds the wind returns.
7All streams flow into the sea,
Yet the sea is
