Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Learning to Lament in Tongues

A friend of mine gave me a passage of Scripture that he told me to meditate on. It is a passage I've read and meditated on often in the past, and so this time I decided to write it down in Spanish (since the Spanish Bible is the one I read out of the most).

Lamentaciones 3:19-33, 37-38, 40
Acuérdate de mi aflicción y de mi abatimiento, del ajenjo y de la hiel;
[Remember my affliction and my dejection, the wormwood and the gall;]
Lo tendré aún en memoria, porque mi alma está abatida dentro de mí;
[I will remember it still, because my soul is cast down within me;]
Esto recapacitaré en mi corazón, por lo tanto esperaré.
[This I will recall in my heart, therefore I will hope.]
Por la misericordia de Jehová no hemos sido consumidos, porque nunca decayeron sus misericordias.
[By the mercy of Jehovah we have not been consumed, for his mercies never diminish.]
Nuevas son cada mañana; grande es tu fidelidad.
[They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.]
Mi porción es Jehová, dijo mi alma; por tanto, en él esperaré.
[My portion is Jehovah, said my soul; therefore, in him will I hope.]
Bueno es Jehová a los que en él esperan, al alma que le busca.
[Jehovah is good to those that hope in him, to the soul that seeks him.]
Bueno es esperar en silencio la salvación de Jehová.
[It is good to wait in silence for the salvation of Jehovah.]
Bueno le es al hombre llevar el yugo desde su juventud.
[To him it is good for a man to carry the yoke from his youth.]
Que se siente solo y calle, porque es Dios quien se lo impuso;
[That he sits alone and quiet, for it is God who imposed it on him.]
Ponga su boca en el polvo, por si aún hay esperanza;
[Let him put his mouth in the dust, for if yet there is hope;]
Dé la mejilla al que le hiere, y sea colmado de afrentas.
[Let him give the cheek to him that wounds him, and let him be heaped with insults.]
Porque el Señor no desecha para siempre;
[Because the Lord does not cast off forever;]
Antes si aflige, también se compadece según la multitud de sus misericordias;
[For if he afflicts, he also sympathizes according to the multitude of his mercies;]
Porque no aflige ni entristece voluntariamente a los hijos de los hombres.
[For he does not afflict nor sadden voluntarily to the children of men.]

¿Quién será aquel que diga que sucedió algo que el Señor no mandó?
[Who will that be who says that something succeeded which the Lord did not command?]
¿De la boca del Altísimo no sale lo malo y lo bueno?
[From the mouth of the Most High goes not out the bad and the good?]

Escrudriñemos nuestros caminos, y busquemos, y volvámonos a Jehová;
[Let us examine our ways, and let us search, and let us return to Jehovah;]

Amen.