< 耶利米哀歌 3 >

1 在上主盛怒的鞭責下,我成了受盡痛苦的人;
I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.
2 他引我走入黑暗,不見光明;
He has led me and caused me to walk in darkness, and not in light.
3 且終日再三再四,伸手與我為敵;
Surely he turns his hand against me again and again all day long.
4 他使我肌膚枯瘦,折斷我的骨頭;
He has made my flesh and my skin old. He has broken my bones.
5 他在我四周築起圍牆,用毒草和痛苦環繞我,
He has built against me, and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship.
6 讓我居住在黑暗之中,好像久已死去的人。
He has made me dwell in dark places, as those who have been long dead.
7 他用垣牆圍困我,不能逃脫;並且加重我的桎梏;
He has walled me about, so that I can’t go out. He has made my chain heavy.
8 我呼籲求救時,他卻掩耳不聽我的祈禱。
Yes, when I cry, and call for help, he shuts out my prayer.
9 他用方石堵住了我的去路,阻塞了我的行徑。
He has walled up my ways with cut stone. He has made my paths crooked.
10 上主之於我,像是一隻潛伏的狗熊,是一頭藏匿的獅子,
He is to me as a bear lying in wait, as a lion in hiding.
11 他把我拖到路旁,撲捉撕裂,加以摧殘;
He has turned away my path, and pulled me in pieces. He has made me desolate.
12 又拉開他的弓,瞄準我,把我當作眾矢之的。
He has bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow.
13 他用箭囊的箭,射殺了我的雙腰;
He has caused the shafts of his quiver to enter into my kidneys.
14 使我成了萬民的笑柄,終日受他們的嘲笑;
I have become a derision to all my people, and their song all day long.
15 他使我飽食苦菜,醉飲苦酒。
He has filled me with bitterness. He has stuffed me with wormwood.
16 他用砂礫破碎我的牙齒,用灰塵給我充饑。
He has also broken my teeth with gravel. He has covered me with ashes.
17 他除去了我心中的平安,我已經忘記了一切幸福;
You have removed my soul far away from peace. I forgot prosperity.
18 於是我說:「我的光榮已經消逝,對上主的希望也已經幻滅。」
I said, “My strength has perished, along with my expectation from the LORD.”
19 我回憶著我的困厄和痛苦,盡是茹苦含辛!
Remember my affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the bitterness.
20 我的心越回想,越覺沮喪。
My soul still remembers them, and is bowed down within me.
21 但是我必要追念這事,以求獲得希望:
This I recall to my mind; therefore I have hope.
22 上主的慈愛,永無止境;他的仁慈,無窮無盡。
It is because of the LORD’s loving kindnesses that we are not consumed, because his mercies don’t fail.
23 你的仁慈,朝朝常新;你的忠信,浩大無垠!
They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness.
24 我心中知道:上主是我的福分;因此,我必信賴他。
“The LORD is my portion,” says my soul. “Therefore I will hope in him.”
25 上主對信賴他和尋求他的人,是慈善的。
The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.
26 最好是靜待上主的救援,
It is good that a man should hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD.
27 最好是自幼背負上主的重軛,
It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.
28 默然獨坐,因為是上主加於他的軛;
Let him sit alone and keep silence, because he has laid it on him.
29 他該把自己的口貼近塵埃,這樣或者還有希望;
Let him put his mouth in the dust, if it is so that there may be hope.
30 向打他的人,送上面頰,飽受凌辱。
Let him give his cheek to him who strikes him. Let him be filled full of reproach.
31 因為上主決不會永遠把人遺棄;
For the Lord will not cast off forever.
32 縱使懲罰,他必按照自己豐厚的慈愛,而加以憐憫。
For though he causes grief, yet he will have compassion according to the multitude of his loving kindnesses.
33 因為他苛待和懲罰世人,原不是出於他的心願。
For he does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men.
34 將世上所有的俘虜,都踐踏在腳下,
To crush under foot all the prisoners of the earth,
35 在至上者前剝奪人的權利,
to turn away the right of a man before the face of the Most High,
36 與人爭訟時,欺壓他人:難道上主看不見﹖
to subvert a man in his cause, the Lord doesn’t approve.
37 若非上主有命,誰能言出即成呢﹖
Who is he who says, and it comes to pass, when the Lord doesn’t command it?
38 吉凶禍福,難道不是出自至上者之口﹖
Doesn’t evil and good come out of the mouth of the Most High?
39 人生在世,為自己的罪受罰,為什麼還叫苦﹖
Why should a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?
40 我們應檢討考察我們的行為,回頭歸向上主!
Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the LORD.
41 應向天上的大主,雙手奉上我們的心!
Let’s lift up our heart with our hands to God in the heavens.
42 正因為我們犯罪背命,你纔沒有寬恕。
“We have transgressed and have rebelled. You have not pardoned.
43 你藏在盛怒之中,追擊我們,殺死我們,毫不留情。
“You have covered us with anger and pursued us. You have killed. You have not pitied.
44 你隱在濃雲深處,哀禱不能上達。
You have covered yourself with a cloud, so that no prayer can pass through.
45 你使我們在萬民中,成了塵垢和廢物。
You have made us an off-scouring and refuse in the middle of the peoples.
46 我們所有的仇人,都向我們大張其口。
“All our enemies have opened their mouth wide against us.
47 為我們只有恐怖和陷阱,破壞和滅亡。
Terror and the pit have come on us, devastation and destruction.”
48 為了我女兒──人民的滅亡,我的眼淚湧流如江河。
My eye runs down with streams of water, for the destruction of the daughter of my people.
49 我的眼淚湧流不止,始終不停,
My eye pours down and doesn’t cease, without any intermission,
50 直到上主從天垂顧憐視,
until the LORD looks down, and sees from heaven.
51 因我城中的一切女兒,使我觸目傷心。
My eye affects my soul, because of all the daughters of my city.
52 我的仇人無故追捕我,像獵取飛鳥一樣;
They have chased me relentlessly like a bird, those who are my enemies without cause.
53 他們將我投入坑穴之中,把石塊擲在我身上;
They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and have cast a stone on me.
54 水淹沒了我的頭頂,我想:「我要死了! 」
Waters flowed over my head. I said, “I am cut off.”
55 上主,我從坑穴深處,呼號你的聖名;
I called on your name, LORD, out of the lowest dungeon.
56 你曾俯聽過我的呼聲,對我的哀禱,不要掩耳不聞。
You heard my voice: “Don’t hide your ear from my sighing, and my cry.”
57 在我呼號你的那一天,願你走近而對我說:「不要害怕! 」
You came near in the day that I called on you. You said, “Don’t be afraid.”
58 上主,你辯護了我的案件,贖回我的性命。
Lord, you have pleaded the causes of my soul. You have redeemed my life.
59 上主,你見我遭受冤屈,你替我伸了冤,
LORD, you have seen my wrong. Judge my cause.
60 你看見了他們對我的種種仇恨和陰謀。
You have seen all their vengeance and all their plans against me.
61 上主,你聽見了他們加於我的種種侮辱和陰謀,
You have heard their reproach, LORD, and all their plans against me,
62 你也聽見了反對我者的誹謗,和他們終日對我的企圖。
the lips of those that rose up against me, and their plots against me all day long.
63 你看! 他們或坐或立,我始終是他們嘲笑的對象。
You see their sitting down and their rising up. I am their song.
64 上主,求你按照他們雙手的作為,報復他們;
You will pay them back, LORD, according to the work of their hands.
65 求你使他們的心思頑固,並詛咒他們。
You will give them hardness of heart, your curse to them.
66 上主,求你憤怒地追擊他們,將他們由普天之下除掉。
You will pursue them in anger, and destroy them from under the heavens of the LORD.

< 耶利米哀歌 3 >