Study Desk

All your enemiesHave opened their mouths wide against you;They hiss and gnash their teeth.They say, "We have swallowed her up!Surely this is the day for which we have hoped;We have found it, we have seen it."

Even when I cry out and call for help,He shuts out my prayer.

He bent His bowAnd set me as a target for the arrow.

The lovingkindnesses of Yahweh indeed never cease,For His compassions never fail.

"Yahweh is my portion," says my soul,"Therefore I wait for Him."

It is good for a man that he should bearThe yoke in his youth.

For the Lord will not reject forever,

For if He causes grief,Then He will have compassionAccording to His abundant lovingkindness.

For He does not afflict from His heartOr grieve the sons of men.

You have heard my voice,"Do not hide Your ear from my prayer for relief,From my cry for help."

The tongue of the nursing baby cleavesTo the roof of its mouth because of thirst;The infants ask for bread,But no one breaks it for them.

Better are those pierced through with the swordThan those pierced through with hunger;For their life flows away, being strickenFor lack of the produce of the field.

The hands of compassionate womenBoiled their own children;They became food for themBecause of the destruction of the daughter of my people.

Yet our eyes were spent,Looking for help was vanity;In our watching we have watchedFor a nation that could not save.

They hunted our stepsSo that we could not walk in our open squares;Our end drew near,Our days were finished,For our end had come.

Our pursuers were swifterThan the eagles of the sky;They hotly pursued us on the mountains;They waited in ambush for us in the wilderness.

Our pursuers are at our necks;We are worn out; there is no rest for us.

The crown has fallen from our head;Woe to us, for we have sinned!

And under their wings on their four sides were hands of a man. As for the faces and wings of the four of them,

And as for the likeness of their faces, each had the face of a man; all four had the face of a lion on the right and the face of a bull on the left, and all four had the face of an eagle.