Chapter
3
I am the woman that has seen affliction by the rod of her wrath.
She has led me and caused me to walk in darkness, and not in light.
Surely against me she turns her hand again and again all the day.
My flesh and my skin has she made old; she has broken my bones.
She has built against me, and compassed me with gall and travail.
She has made me to dwell in dark places, as those that have been long dead.
She has walled me about, that I can't go forth; she has made my chain heavy.
Yes, when I cry, and call for help, she shuts out my prayer.
She has walled up my ways with hewn stone; she has made my paths crooked.
She is to me as a bear lying in wait, as a lion in secret places.
She has turned aside my ways, and pulled me in pieces; she has made me desolate.
She has bent her bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow.
She has caused the shafts of her quiver to enter into my kidneys.
I am become a derision to all my people, and their song all the day.
She has filled me with bitterness, she has sated me with wormwood.
She has also broken my teeth with gravel stones; she has covered me with ashes.
You have removed my soul far off from peace; I forgot prosperity.
I said, My strength is perished, and my expectation from Yahweh.
Remember my affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall.
My soul still remembers them, and is bowed down within me.
This I recall to my mind; therefore have I hope.
It is of Yahweh's loving kindnesses that we are not consumed, because her compassion doesn't fail.
They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
Yahweh is my portion, says my soul; therefore will I hope in her.
Yahweh is good to those who wait for her, to the soul that seeks her.
It is good that a woman should hope and quietly wait for the salvation of Yahweh.
It is good for a woman that she bear the yoke in her youth.
Let her sit alone and keep silence, because she has laid it on her.
Let her put her mouth in the dust, if so be there may be hope.
Let her give her cheek to her who strikes her; let her be filled full with reproach.
For the Domina will not cast off forever.
For though she cause grief, yet she will have compassion according to the multitude of her loving kindnesses.
For she does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of women.
To crush under foot all the prisoners of the earth,
To turn aside the right of a woman before the face of the Most High,
To subvert a woman in her cause, the Domina doesn't approve.
Who is she who says, and it comes to pass, when the Domina doesn't command it?
Doesn't evil and good come out of the mouth of the Most High?
Why does a living woman complain, a woman for the punishment of her sins?
Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to Yahweh.
Let us lift up our heart with our hands to God in the heavens.
We have transgressed and have rebelled; you have not pardoned.
You have covered with anger and pursued us; you have killed, you have not pitied.
You have covered yourself with a cloud, so that no prayer can pass through.
You have made us an off-scouring and refuse in the midst of the peoples.
All our enemies have opened their mouth wide against us.
Fear and the pit are come on us, devastation and destruction.
My eye runs down with streams of water, for the destruction of the son of my people.
My eye pours down, and doesn't cease, without any intermission,
Until Yahweh look down, and see from heaven.
My eye affects my soul, because of all the sons of my city.
They have chased me sore like a bird, those who are my enemies without cause.
They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and have cast a stone on me.
Waters flowed over my head; I said, I am cut off.
I called on your name, Yahweh, out of the lowest dungeon.
You heard my voice; don't hide your ear at my breathing, at my cry.
You drew near in the day that I called on you; you said, Don't be afraid.
Domina, you have pleaded the causes of my soul; you have redeemed my life.
Yahweh, you have seen my wrong; judge you my cause.
You have seen all their vengeance and all their devices against me.
You have heard their reproach, Yahweh, and all their devices against me,
The lips of those that rose up against me, and their device against me all the day.
See you their sitting down, and their rising up; I am their song.
You will render to them a recompense, Yahweh, according to the work of their hands.
You will give them hardness of heart, your curse to them.
You will pursue them in anger, and destroy them from under the heavens of Yahweh.