The Bible, Douay-Rheims Part 529

2:13. Mem. To what shall I compare thee? or to what shall I liken thee, O daughter of Jerusalem? to what shall I equal thee, that I may comfort thee, O virgin daughter of Sion? for great as the sea is thy destruction: who shall heal thee?

2:14. Nun. Thy prophets have seen false and foolish things for thee: and they have not laid open thy iniquity, to excite thee to penance: but they have seen for thee false revelations and banishments.

2:15. Samech. All they that pa.s.sed by the way have clapped their hands at thee: they have hissed, and wagged their heads at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying: Is this the city of perfect beauty, the joy of all the earth?

2:16. Phe. All thy enemies have opened their month against thee: they have hissed, and gnashed with the teeth, and have said: We will swallow her up: lo, this is the day which we looked for: we have found it, we have seen it.

2:17. Ain. The Lord hath done that which he purposed, he hath fulfilled his word, which he commanded in the days of old: he hath destroyed, and hath not spared, and he hath caused the enemy to rejoice over thee, and hath set up the horn of thy adversaries.

2:18. Sade. Their heart cried to the Lord upon the walls of the daughter of Sion: Let tears run down like a torrent day and night: give thyself no rest, and let not the apple of thy eye cease.

2:19. Coph. Arise, give praise in the night, in the beginning of the watches: pour out thy heart like water, before the face of the Lord: lift up thy hands to him for the life of thy little children, that have fainted for hunger at the top of all the streets.

2:20. Res. Behold, O Lord, and consider whom thou hast thus dealt with: shall women then eat their own fruit, their children of a span long?

shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord?

2:21. Sin. The child and the old man lie without on the ground: my virgins and my young men are fallen by the sword: thou hast slain them in the day of thy wrath: thou hast killed, and shewn them no pity.

2:22. Thau. Thou hast called as to a festival, those that should terrify me round about, and there was none in the day of the wrath of the Lord that escaped and was left: those that I brought up, and nourished, my enemy hath consumed them.

Lamentations Chapter 3

3:1. Aleph. I am the man that see my poverty by the rod of his indignation.

3:2. Aleph. He hath led me, and brought me into darkness, and not into light. 3:3. Aleph. Only against me he hath turned, and turned again his hand all the day.

3:4. Beth. My skin and my flesh he hath made old, he hath broken my bones.

3:5. Beth. He hath built round about me, and he hath compa.s.sed me with gall, and labour.

3:6. Beth. He hath set me in dark places as those that are dead for ever.

3:7. Ghimel. He hath built against me round about, that I may not get out: he hath made my fetters heavy.

3:8. Ghimel. Yea, and when I cry, and entreat, he hath shut out my prayer.

3:9. Ghimel. He hath shut up my ways with square stones, he hath turned my paths upside down.

3:10. Daleth. He is become to me as a bear lying in wait: as a lion in secret places.

3:11. Daleth. He hath turned aside my paths, and hath broken me in pieces, he hath made me desolate.

3:12. Daleth. He hath bent his bow, and set me as a mark for his arrows.

3:13. He. He hath shot into my reins the daughters of his quiver.

3:14. He. I am made a derision to all my people, their song all the day long.

3:15. He. He hath filled me with bitterness, he hath inebriated me with wormwood.

3:16. Vau. And he hath broken my teeth one by one, he hath fed me with ashes.

3:17. Vau. And my soul is removed far off from peace, I have forgotten good things.

3:18. Vau. And I said: My end and my hope is perished from the Lord.

3:19. Zain. Remember my poverty, and transgression, the wormwood and the gall.

3:20. Zain. I will be mindful and remember, and my soul shall languish within me.

3:21. Zain. These things I shall think over in my heart, therefore will I hope.

3:22. Heth. The mercies of the Lord that we are not consumed: because his commiserations have not failed.

3:23. Heth. They are new every morning, great is thy faithfulness.

3:24. Heth. The Lord is my portion, said my soul: therefore will I wait for him.

3:25. Teth. The Lord is good to them that hope in him, to the soul that seeketh him.

3:26. Teth. It is good to wait with silence for the salvation of G.o.d.

3:27. Teth. It is good for a man, when he hath borne the yoke from his youth.

3:28. Jod. He shall sit solitary, and hold his peace: because he hath taken it up upon himself.

3:29. Jod. He shall put his mouth in the dust, if so be there may be hope.

3:30. Jod. He shall give his cheek to him that striketh him, he shall be filled with reproaches.

3:31. Caph. For the Lord will not cast off for ever.

3:32. Caph. For if he hath cast off, he will also have mercy, according to the mult.i.tude of his mercies.

3:33. Caph. For he hath not willingly afflicted, nor cast off the children of men.

3:34. Lamed. To crush under his feet all the prisoners of the land,

3:35. Lamed. To turn aside the judgment of a man before the face of the most High,

3:36. Lamed. To destroy a man wrongfully in his judgment, the Lord hath not approved.

3:37. Mem. Who is he that hath commanded a thing to be done, when the Lord commandeth it not?

3:38. Mem. Shall not both evil and good proceed out of the mouth of the Highest?

3:39. Mem. Why hath a living man murmured, man suffering for his sins?