Lamentations 3:53-54

3:53 They shut me ¹  up in a pit

and threw stones at me.

3:54 The waters closed over my head;

I thought ²  I was about to die. ³ 

[3:53]  ¹ tn Heb “my life.”

[3:54]  ² tn Heb “I said,” meaning “I said to myself” = “I thought.”

[3:54]  ³ 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).