You pick me up on the wind and make me ride on it; ¹  you toss me about ²  in the storm. ³ 

He is like ¹  a tree planted by flowing streams; ²  it ³  yields ⁴  its fruit at the proper time, ⁵  and its leaves never fall off. ⁶  He succeeds in everything he attempts. ⁷ 

I am exhausted as I groan; all night long I drench my bed in tears; ¹  my tears saturate the cushion beneath me. ² 

because of what the enemy says, ¹  and because of how the wicked ²  pressure me, ³  for they hurl trouble ⁴  down upon me ⁵  and angrily attack me.

You keep track of my misery. ¹  Put my tears in your leather container! ²  Are they not recorded in your scroll? ³ 

Though a thousand may fall beside you, and a multitude on your right side, it ¹  will not reach you.

For he is our God; we are the people of his pasture, the sheep he owns. ¹  Today, if only you would obey him! ² 

The land ¹  dries up ²  and withers away; the forest of Lebanon shrivels up ³  and decays. Sharon ⁴  is like the desert; ⁵  Bashan and Carmel ⁶  are parched. ⁷ 

I said, “Indeed, ¹  let them come quickly and sing a song of mourning for us. Let them wail loudly until tears stream from our own eyes and our eyelids overflow with water.

‘Death has climbed in ¹  through our windows. It has entered into our fortified houses. It has taken away our children who play in the streets. It has taken away our young men who gather in the city squares.’

א (Alef) ¹ Alas! ²  Gold has lost its luster; ³  pure gold loses value. ⁴  Jewels ⁵  are scattered on every street corner. ⁶ 

When they moved, I heard the sound of their wings – it was like the sound of rushing waters, or the voice of the Almighty, ¹  or the tumult ²  of an army. When they stood still, they lowered their wings.

Tell the ones who coat it with whitewash that it will fall. When there is a deluge of rain, hailstones ¹  will fall and a violent wind will break out. ² 

You will drain it dry, ¹  gnaw its pieces, ²  and tear out your breasts, ³  for I have spoken, declares the sovereign Lord.

“Son of man, realize that I am about to take the delight of your eyes away from you with a jolt, ¹  but you must not mourn or weep or shed tears.

I will send a plague into the city ¹  and bloodshed into its streets; the slain will fall within it, by the sword that attacks it ²  from every side. Then they will know that I am the Lord.

I will judge him with plague and bloodshed. I will rain down on him, his troops and the many peoples who are with him a torrential downpour, hailstones, fire, and brimstone.

So those men were tied up while still wearing their cloaks, trousers, turbans, and other clothes, ¹  and were thrown into the furnace ²  of blazing fire.

“For look, I am giving a command and I will shake the family of Israel together with all the nations. It will resemble a sieve being shaken, when not even a pebble falls to the ground. ¹ 

I struck all the products of your labor ¹  with blight, disease, and hail, and yet you brought nothing to me,’ ²  says the Lord.