Lamentations 3:52-54

צ (Tsade)

3:52 For no good reason ¹  my enemies

hunted me down ²  like a bird.

3:53 They shut me ³  up in a pit

and threw stones at me.

3:54 The waters closed over my head;

I thought ⁴  I was about to die. ⁵ 

[3:52]  ¹ tn Heb “without cause.”

[3:52]  ² tn The construction צוֹד צָדוּנִי (tsod tsaduni, “they have hunted me down”) is emphatic: Qal infinitive absolute of the same root of Qal perfect 3rd person common plural + 1st person common singular suffix.

[3:53]  ³ tn Heb “my life.”

[3:54]  ⁴ tn Heb “I said,” meaning “I said to myself” = “I thought.”

[3:54]  ⁵ tn Heb “I was about to be cut off.” The verb נִגְזָרְתִּי (nigzarti), Niphal perfect 1st person common singular from גָּזַר (gazar, “to be cut off”), functions in an ingressive sense: “about to be cut off.” It is used in reference to the threat of death (e.g., Ezek 37:11). To be “cut off” from the hand of the living means to experience death (Ps 88:6).