Lamentations 3:54-56 New English Translation

⁵⁴The waters closed over my head;
I thought^[a] I was about to die.^[b]

⁵⁵I have called on your name, O Lord,
from the deepest pit.^[c]
⁵⁶You heard^[d] my plea:^[e]
“Do not close your ears to my cry for relief!”^[f]

Lamentations 3:54 tn Heb “I said,” meaning “I said to myself” = “I thought.”
Lamentations 3:54 tn Heb “I was about to be cut off.” The verb נִגְזָרְתִּי (nigzarti), Niphal perfect first 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; Ps 88:5). To be “cut off” from the land of the living means to experience death (Isa 53:8).
Lamentations 3:55 tn Heb “from a pit of lowest places.”
Lamentations 3:56 tn The verb could be understood as a precative (“Hear my plea”) parallel to the following volitive verb, “do not close.”
Lamentations 3:56 tn Heb “my voice.”
Lamentations 3:56 tn The preposition ל (lamed) continues syntactically from “my plea” in the previous line (e.g. Ex 5:2; Josh 22:2; 1 Sam 8:7; 12:1; Jer 43:4).

New English Translation (NET)