Jeremiah’s Heavy Chain
Aleph
3 I am the man who has seen affliction
Because of the rod of His wrath.
2 He has driven me and made me walk
In darkness and not in light.
3 Surely against me He has turned His hand
Repeatedly all the day.
Beth
4 He has caused my flesh and my skin to waste away;
He has broken my bones.
5 He has besieged and encompassed me with gall and hardship.
6 Dark places He has made me inhabit,
Like those who have long been dead.
Gimel
7 He has walled me in so that I cannot go out;
He has made my chain heavy.
8 Even when I cry out and call for help,
He shuts out my prayer.
9 He has blocked my ways with cut stone;
He has made my paths crooked.
Daleth
10 He is to me like a bear lying in wait,
Like a lion in secret places.
11 He has turned aside my ways and torn me to pieces;
He has made me desolate.
12 He bent His bow
And set me as a target for the arrow.
He
13 He made the arrows of His quiver
To enter into my inward parts.
14 I have become a laughingstock to all my people,
Their music of mockery all the day.
15 He has saturated me with bitterness;
He has sated me with wormwood.
Vav
16 He has broken my teeth with gravel;
He has made me cower in the dust.
17 My soul has been rejected from peace;
I have forgotten goodness.
18 So I say, “My strength has perished,
As well as my hopeful waiting which comes from Yahweh.”
