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Zion Lays Desolate
Aleph
1 How (A)lonely sits the city
That was (B)great with people!
She has become like a (C)widow
Who was once (D)great among the nations!
She who was a princess among the [a]provinces
Has become a (E)forced laborer!
Beth
2 She (F)weeps bitterly in the night,
And her tears are on her cheeks;
She has none to comfort her
Among all her (G)lovers.
All her friends have (H)dealt treacherously with her;
They have become her enemies.
Gimel
3 (I)Judah has gone into exile because of affliction
And because of great slavery;
She sits (J)among the nations,
But she has found no rest;
All (K)her pursuers have overtaken her
In the midst of [b]distress.
Daleth
4 The roads [c]of Zion are in mourning
Because (L)no one comes to the appointed times.
All her gates are (M)desolate;
Her priests are sighing,
Her (N)virgins are grieving,
And she herself [d]is (O)bitter.
He
5 Her adversaries have become [e]her masters;
Her enemies are complacent;
For [f]Yahweh has (P)caused her grief
Because of the greatness of her transgressions;
Her infants have gone away
As captives before the adversary.
Vav
6 So all her (Q)majesty
Has gone out from the daughter of Zion;
Her princes have become like deer
That have found no pasture;
So they have [g](R)fled without strength
Before the pursuer.
Zayin
7 In the days of her affliction and homelessness
(S)Jerusalem remembers all her precious things
That were from the days of old,
When her people fell into the hand of the adversary
And (T)no one helped her.
The adversaries saw her;
They (U)laughed at her [h]ruin.
Heth
8 Jerusalem sinned (V)greatly;
Therefore (W)she has become an impure thing.
All who honored her despise her
Because they have seen her nakedness;
Even (X)she herself sighs and turns away.
Teth
9 Her (Y)uncleanness was in her skirts;
She did not remember her (Z)future.
Therefore she has (AA)gone down astonishingly;
(AB)She has no comforter.
“(AC)See, O Yahweh, my affliction,
For the enemy has (AD)magnified himself!”
Yodh
10 The adversary has stretched out his hand
Over all her desirable things,
For she has seen the (AE)nations enter her sanctuary,
The ones whom You commanded
That they should (AF)not enter into Your assembly.
Kaph
11 All her people are sighing, (AG)seeking bread;
They have given their desirable things for food
To (AH)restore their souls.
“See, O Yahweh, and look,
For I am (AI)despised.”
Lamedh
12 “Is (AJ)it nothing to all you who pass this way?
Look and see if there is any [i]pain like my [j]pain
Which was dealt severely to me,
Which (AK)Yahweh grieved me with on the day of His (AL)burning anger.
Mem
13 From on high He sent fire into my (AM)bones,
And it dominated them.
He has spread a (AN)net for my feet;
He has turned me back;
He has made me (AO)desolate,
[k]Faint all day long.
Nun
14 The (AP)yoke of my transgressions is bound;
By His hand they are knit together.
They have (AQ)come upon my neck;
He has made my strength stumble.
The Lord (AR)has given me into the hands
Of those against whom I am not able to stand.
Samekh
15 The (AS)Lord has rejected all my mighty men
In my midst;
He has called an appointed time against me
To break my (AT)young men;
The Lord has (AU)trodden as in a wine press
The virgin daughter of Judah.
Ayin
16 For these things I (AV)am weeping;
[l]My eyes run down with water;
Because far from me is a (AW)comforter,
One who restores my soul.
My children are desolate
Because the enemy has prevailed.”
Pe
17 Zion (AX)stretches out her hands;
There is no one to comfort her;
Yahweh has (AY)commanded concerning Jacob
That the ones round about him should be his adversaries;
(AZ)Jerusalem has become an impure thing among them.
Tsadhe
18 “Yahweh is (BA)righteous;
For I have (BB)rebelled against His [m]command;
Hear now, all peoples,
And (BC)behold my [n]pain;
(BD)My virgins and my young men
Have gone into captivity.
Qoph
19 I (BE)called to my lovers, but they deceived me;
My (BF)priests and my elders breathed their last in the city
While they sought food for themselves in order to (BG)restore their souls.
Resh
20 See, O Yahweh, for I am in distress;
My [o](BH)inmost being is greatly disturbed;
My heart is overturned within me,
For I have been very (BI)rebellious.
In the street the sword bereaves;
In the house it is like death.
Shin
21 They have heard that I (BJ)am sighing;
There is no one to comfort me;
All my enemies have heard of the [p]evil done to me;
They (BK)rejoice that You have done it.
You have brought the day which You have proclaimed,
So that they will become (BL)like me.
Tav
22 Let all their evil come before You;
And (BM)deal severely with them as You have dealt severely with me
For all my transgressions;
For my groans are great and my heart is faint.”
The Anger of Yahweh
Aleph
2 How the Lord has (BN)covered the daughter of Zion
With a cloud in His anger!
He has (BO)cast from heaven to earth
The (BP)beauty of Israel,
And has not remembered the (BQ)footstool of His feet
In the day of His anger.
Beth
2 The Lord has (BR)swallowed up; He has not spared
All the habitations of Jacob.
In His wrath He has (BS)pulled down
The strongholds of the daughter of Judah;
He has (BT)brought them down to the ground;
He has (BU)profaned the kingdom and its princes.
Gimel
3 In [q]hot anger He has cut in pieces
[r]All the (BV)strength of Israel;
He has (BW)turned back His right hand
From before the enemy.
And He has (BX)burned in Jacob like a flaming fire
Devouring round about.
Daleth
4 He has bent His (BY)bow like an enemy;
He has set His right hand like an adversary
And killed all that were (BZ)desirable to the eye;
In the tent of the daughter of Zion
He has (CA)poured out His wrath like fire.
He
5 The Lord has become like an (CB)enemy.
He has (CC)swallowed up Israel;
He has swallowed up all its (CD)palaces;
He has brought its strongholds to ruin
And (CE)multiplied in the daughter of Judah
Mourning and moaning.
Vav
6 And He has violently treated His [s]tabernacle like a garden booth;
He has (CF)brought His appointed [t]meeting place to ruin.
Yahweh has (CG)caused to be forgotten
The appointed time and sabbath in Zion,
And He has (CH)spurned king and priest
In the indignation of His anger.
Zayin
7 The Lord has (CI)rejected His altar;
He has abandoned His sanctuary;
He (CJ)has delivered into the hand of the enemy
The walls of her palaces.
They have made a (CK)noise in the house of Yahweh
As in the day of an appointed time.
Heth
8 Yahweh [u]determined to bring to ruin
The wall of the daughter of Zion.
He has (CL)stretched out a line;
He has not turned His hand back from swallowing up,
And He has (CM)caused rampart and wall to mourn;
They have languished together.
Teth
9 Her (CN)gates have sunk into the ground;
He has destroyed and broken her bars.
Her king and her princes are among the nations;
The (CO)law is no more.
Also, her prophets find
(CP)No vision from Yahweh.
Yodh
10 The elders of the daughter of Zion
(CQ)Sit on the ground; they (CR)are silent.
They have thrown (CS)dust up on their heads;
They have girded themselves with (CT)sackcloth.
The (CU)virgins of Jerusalem
Have bowed their heads down to the ground.
Kaph
11 My (CV)eyes fail because of tears;
My [v](CW)inmost being is greatly disturbed;
My [w](CX)heart is poured out on the earth
(CY)Because of the [x]destruction of the daughter of my people,
When (CZ)infants and nursing babies faint
In the open squares of the city.
Lamedh
12 They say to their mothers,
“(DA)Where is grain and wine?”
As they faint like a wounded man
In the open squares of the city,
As their (DB)life is poured out
On their mothers’ bosom.
Mem
13 What shall I testify about you?
To what (DC)shall I equate you,
O daughter of Jerusalem?
To what shall I liken you as I comfort you,
O (DD)virgin daughter of Zion?
For your [y]destruction is as vast as the sea;
Who can (DE)heal you?
Nun
14 Your (DF)prophets have beheld for you
Worthless and ineffective visions;
And they have not (DG)uncovered your iniquity
So as to [z]return you from captivity,
But they have (DH)beheld for you worthless and misleading [aa]oracles.
Samekh
15 All who pass along the way
(DI)Clap their hands in derision at you;
They (DJ)hiss and shake their heads
At the daughter of Jerusalem,
“Is this the city of which they said,
‘(DK)The perfection of beauty,
(DL)The joy of the whole earth’?”
Pe
16 All (DM)your enemies
Have opened their mouths wide against you;
They hiss and (DN)gnash their teeth.
They say, “We have (DO)swallowed her up!
Surely this is the (DP)day for which we have hoped;
We have found it, we have seen it.”
Ayin
17 Yahweh has (DQ)done what He purposed;
He has completed His word
Which He commanded from days of old.
He has pulled down (DR)without sparing,
And He has caused the enemy to (DS)be glad over you;
He has (DT)exalted the [ab]might of your adversaries.
Tsadhe
18 Their (DU)heart cried out to the Lord,
“O (DV)wall of the daughter of Zion,
Let your (DW)tears run down like a river day and night;
Give yourself no relief;
Let [ac]your eyes not be still.
Qoph
19 Arise, cry aloud in the (DX)night
At the head of the night watches;
(DY)Pour out your heart like water
Before the presence of the Lord;
Lift up your hands to Him
For the (DZ)life of your infants
Who are (EA)faint because of hunger
At the head of every street.”
Resh
20 See, O Yahweh, and look!
With (EB)whom have You dealt thus?
Should women (EC)eat their [ad]offspring,
The infants who were [ae]born healthy?
Should (ED)priest and prophet be killed
In the sanctuary of the Lord?
Shin
21 On the ground in the streets
Lie (EE)young and old;
My (EF)virgins and my young men
Have fallen by the sword.
You have killed them in the day of Your anger;
You have slaughtered, (EG)not sparing.
Tav
Philemon’s Love and Faith
1 (A)Paul, (B)a prisoner of (C)Christ Jesus, and (D)Timothy [a]our brother,
To Philemon our beloved brother and (E)fellow worker, 2 and to Apphia [b](F)our sister, and to (G)Archippus our (H)fellow soldier, and to (I)the church in your house: 3 (J)Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
4 (K)I thank my God, always making mention of you in my prayers, 5 because I (L)hear of your love and of the faith which you have toward the Lord Jesus and toward all the [c]saints; 6 and I pray that the fellowship of your faith may become effective [d]through the (M)full knowledge of every good thing which is in you [e]for the sake of Christ. 7 For I have come to have much (N)joy and comfort in your love, because the [f]hearts of the [g]saints have been (O)refreshed through you, brother.
8 Therefore, (P)though I have much boldness in Christ to command you to do what is (Q)proper, 9 yet for love’s sake I rather (R)plead with you—since I am such a person as Paul, [h]the (S)aged, and now also (T)a prisoner of (U)Christ Jesus—
Plea for Onesimus
10 I (V)plead with you for my (W)child [i](X)Onesimus, of whom I became a [j]father in my chains, 11 who formerly was useless to you, but now is useful both to you and to me. 12 I have sent him back to you in person, that is, my very heart, 13 whom I intended to keep with me, so that on your behalf he might minister to me in my (Y)chains for the gospel, 14 but without your consent I did not want to do anything, so that your goodness would (Z)not be, in effect, by compulsion but voluntary. 15 For perhaps (AA)he was for this reason separated from you for a while, that you would have him back forever, 16 (AB)no longer as a slave, but more than a slave, (AC)a beloved brother, especially to me, but how much more to you, both (AD)in the flesh and in the Lord.
17 If then you regard me a (AE)partner, accept him as you would accept me. 18 But if he has wronged you in any way or owes you anything, charge that to my account. 19 (AF)I, Paul, am writing this with my own hand, I will repay it ((AG)not to [k]mention to you that you owe to me even your own self as well). 20 Yes, brother, let me benefit from you in the Lord. (AH)Refresh my heart in Christ!
21 (AI)Having confidence in your obedience, I write to you, since I know that you will do even more than what I say.
22 And at the same time also prepare me a (AJ)lodging, for (AK)I hope that through (AL)your prayers (AM)I will be graciously given to you.
23 (AN)Epaphras, my (AO)fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, greets you, 24 as do (AP)Mark, (AQ)Aristarchus, (AR)Demas, (AS)Luke, my (AT)fellow workers.
25 (AU)The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be (AV)with your spirit.[l]
Consider the Way of the Blameless
Of David. A Psalm.
101 I will (A)sing of lovingkindness and [a]justice,
To You, O Yahweh, I will sing praises.
2 I will [b](B)consider the way of the blameless.
When will You come to me?
I will walk within my house in the [c](C)integrity of my heart.
3 I will set no (D)vile thing before my eyes;
I hate the [d]work of those who (E)fall away;
It shall not cling to me.
4 A (F)crooked heart shall depart from me;
I will know no evil.
5 Whoever secretly (G)slanders his neighbor, him I will [e]destroy;
Whoever has a (H)haughty look and an arrogant heart, I will not endure.
6 My eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land, that they may abide with me;
He who walks in the (I)way of the blameless is the one who will minister to me.
7 He who (J)practices deceit shall not dwell within my house;
He who speaks lies (K)shall not be established before my eyes.
8 (L)Every morning I will [f](M)destroy all the wicked of the land,
To (N)cut off from the (O)city of Yahweh all the workers of iniquity.
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