Lamentations

Jerusalem in Affliction

1 How lonely sits the city

That was full of people!

aHow like a widow is she,

Who was great among the nations!

The bprincess among the provinces

Has become a 1slave!

2 She cweeps bitterly in the dnight,

Her tears are on her cheeks;

Among all her lovers

She has none to comfort her.

All her friends have dealt treacherously with her;

They have become her enemies.

3 eJudah has gone into captivity,

Under affliction and hard servitude;

fShe dwells among the 2nations,

She finds no grest;

All her persecutors overtake her in dire straits.

4 The roads to Zion mourn

Because no one comes to the 3set feasts.

All her gates are hdesolate;

Her priests sigh,

Her virgins are afflicted,

And she is in bitterness.

5 Her adversaries ihave become 4the master,

Her enemies prosper;

For the Lord has afflicted her

jBecause of the multitude of her transgressions.

Her kchildren have gone into captivity before the enemy.

6 And from the daughter of Zion

All her splendor has departed.

Her princes have become like deer

That find no pasture,

That 5flee without strength

Before the pursuer.

7 In the days of her affliction and roaming,

Jerusalem lremembers all her pleasant things

That she had in the days of old.

When her people fell into the hand of the enemy,

With no one to help her,

The adversaries saw her

And mocked at her 6downfall.

8 mJerusalem has sinned gravely,

Therefore she has become 7vile.

All who honored her despise her

Because nthey have seen her nakedness;

Yes, she sighs and turns away.

9 Her uncleanness is in her skirts;

She odid not consider her destiny;

Therefore her collapse was awesome;

She had no comforter.

“O Lord, behold my affliction,

For the enemy is exalted!”

10 The adversary has spread his hand

Over all her 8pleasant things;

For she has seen pthe nations enter her 9sanctuary,

Those whom You commanded

qNot to enter Your assembly.

11 All her people sigh,

rThey 1seek bread;

They have given their 2valuables for food to restore life.

“See, O Lord, and consider,

For I am scorned.”

12 “Is it nothing to you, all you who 3pass by?

Behold and see

sIf there is any sorrow like my sorrow,

Which has been brought on me,

Which the Lord has inflicted

In the day of His fierce anger.

13 “From above He has sent fire into my bones,

And it overpowered them;

He has tspread a net for my feet

And turned me back;

He has made me desolate

And faint all the day.

14 “The uyoke of my transgressions was 4bound;

They were woven together by His hands,

And thrust upon my neck.

He made my strength fail;

The Lord delivered me into the hands of those whom I am not able to withstand.

15 “The Lord has trampled underfoot all my mighty men in my midst;

He has called an assembly against me

To crush my young men;

vThe Lord trampled as in a winepress

The virgin daughter of Judah.

16 “For these things I weep;

My eye, wmy eye overflows with water;

Because the comforter, who should restore my life,

Is far from me.

My children are desolate

Because the enemy prevailed.”

17 xZion 5spreads out her hands,

But no one comforts her;

The Lord has commanded concerning Jacob

That those yaround him become his adversaries;

Jerusalem has become an unclean thing among them.

18 “The Lord is zrighteous,

For I arebelled against His 6commandment.

Hear now, all peoples,

And behold my sorrow;

My virgins and my young men

Have gone into captivity.

19 “I called for my lovers,

But they deceived me;

My priests and my elders

Breathed their last in the city,

While they sought food

To restore their life.

20 “See, O Lord, that I am in distress;

My bsoul 7is troubled;

My heart is overturned within me,

For I have been very rebellious.

cOutside the sword bereaves,

At home it is like death.

21 “They have heard that I sigh,

But no one comforts me.

All my enemies have heard of my trouble;

They are dglad that You have done it.

Bring on ethe day You have 8announced,

That they may become like me.

22 “Let fall their wickedness come before You,

And do to them as You have done to me

For all my transgressions;

For my sighs are many,

And my heart is faint.”

God’s Anger with Jerusalem

2 How the Lord has covered the daughter of Zion

With a acloud in His anger!

bHe cast down from heaven to the earth

cThe beauty of Israel,

And did not remember dHis footstool

In the day of His anger.

2 The Lord has swallowed up and has enot pitied

All the dwelling places of Jacob.

He has thrown down in His wrath

The strongholds of the daughter of Judah;

He has brought them down to the ground;

fHe has profaned the kingdom and its princes.

3 He has cut off in fierce anger

Every 1horn of Israel;

gHe has drawn back His right hand

From before the enemy.

hHe has blazed against Jacob like a flaming fire

Devouring all around.

4 iStanding like an enemy, He has bent His bow;

With His right hand, like an adversary,

He has slain jall who were pleasing to His eye;

On the tent of the daughter of Zion,

He has poured out His fury like fire.

5 kThe Lord was like an enemy.

He has swallowed up Israel,

He has swallowed up all her palaces;

lHe has destroyed her strongholds,

And has increased mourning and lamentation

In the daughter of Judah.

6 He has done violence mto His 2tabernacle,

nAs if it were a garden;

He has destroyed His place of assembly;

The Lord has caused

The appointed feasts and Sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion.

In His burning indignation He has ospurned the king and the priest.

7 The Lord has spurned His altar,

He has pabandoned His sanctuary;

He has 3given up the walls of her palaces

Into the hand of the enemy.

qThey have made a noise in the house of the Lord

As on the day of a set feast.

8 The Lord has 4purposed to destroy

The rwall of the daughter of Zion.

sHe has stretched out a line;

He has not withdrawn His hand from destroying;

Therefore He has caused the rampart and wall to lament;

They languished together.

9 Her gates have sunk into the ground;

He has destroyed and tbroken her bars.

uHer king and her princes are among the 5nations;

vThe Law is no more,

And her wprophets find no 6vision from the Lord.

10 The elders of the daughter of Zion

xSit on the ground and keep silence;

7They ythrow dust on their heads

And zgird themselves with sackcloth.

The virgins of Jerusalem

Bow their heads to the ground.

11 aMy eyes fail with tears,

My 8heart is troubled;

bMy 9bile is poured on the ground

Because of the destruction of the daughter of my people,

Because cthe children and the infants

Faint in the streets of the city.

12 They say to their mothers,

“Where is grain and wine?”

As they swoon like the wounded

In the streets of the city,

As their life is poured out

In their mothers’ bosom.

13 How shall I dconsole 1you?

To what shall I liken you,

O daughter of Jerusalem?

What shall I compare with you, that I may comfort you,

O virgin daughter of Zion?

For your ruin is spread wide as the sea;

Who can heal you?

14 Your eprophets have seen for you

False and deceptive visions;

They have not funcovered your iniquity,

To bring back your captives,

But have envisioned for you false gprophecies and delusions.

15 All who 2pass by hclap their hands at you;

They hiss iand shake their heads

At the daughter of Jerusalem:

“Is this the city that is called

j‘The perfection of beauty,

The joy of the whole earth’?”

16 kAll your enemies have opened their mouth against you;

They hiss and gnash their teeth.

They say, l“We have swallowed her up!

Surely this is the mday we have waited for;

We have found it, nwe have seen it!”

17 The Lord has done what He opurposed;

He has fulfilled His word

Which He commanded in days of old.

He has thrown down and has not pitied,

And He has caused an enemy to prejoice over you;

He has exalted the 3horn of your adversaries.

18 Their heart cried out to the Lord,

“O wall of the daughter of Zion,

qLet tears run down like a river day and night;

Give yourself no relief;

Give 4your eyes no rest.

19 “Arise, rcry out in the night,

At the beginning of the watches;

sPour out your heart like water before the face of the Lord.

Lift your hands toward Him

For the life of your young children,

Who faint from hunger tat the head of every street.”

20 “See, O Lord, and consider!

To whom have You done this?

uShould the women eat their offspring,

The children 5they have cuddled?

Should the priest and prophet be slain

In the sanctuary of the Lord?

21 “Young vand old lie

On the ground in the streets;

My virgins and my young men

Have fallen by the wsword;

You have slain them in the day of Your anger,

You have slaughtered and not pitied.

22 “You have invited as to a feast day

xThe terrors that surround me.

In the day of the Lord’s anger

There was no refugee or survivor.

yThose whom I have borne and brought up

My enemies have zdestroyed.”

The Prophet’s Anguish and Hope

3 I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of His wrath.

2 He has led me and made me walk

In darkness and not in light.

3 Surely He has turned His hand against me

Time and time again throughout the day.

4 He has aged amy flesh and my skin,

And bbroken my bones.

5 He has besieged me

And surrounded me with bitterness and 1woe.

6 cHe has set me in dark places

Like the dead of long ago.

7 dHe has hedged me in so that I cannot get out;

He has made my chain heavy.

8 Even ewhen I cry and shout,

He shuts out my prayer.

9 He has blocked my ways with hewn stone;

He has made my paths crooked.

10 fHe has been to me a bear lying in wait,

Like a lion in 2ambush.

11 He has turned aside my ways and gtorn me in pieces;

He has made me desolate.

12 He has bent His bow

And hset me up as a target for the arrow.

13 He has caused ithe 3arrows of His quiver

To pierce my 4loins.

14 I have become the jridicule of all my people—

kTheir taunting song all the day.

15 lHe has filled me with bitterness,

He has made me drink wormwood.

16 He has also broken my teeth mwith gravel,

And 5covered me with ashes.

17 You have moved my soul far from peace;

I have forgotten 6prosperity.

18 nAnd I said, “My strength and my hope

Have perished from the Lord.”

19 Remember my affliction and roaming,

oThe wormwood and the 7gall.

20 My soul still remembers

And 8sinks within me.

21 This I recall to my mind,

Therefore I have phope.

22 qThrough the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed,

Because His compassions rfail not.

23 They are new severy morning;

Great is Your faithfulness.

24 “The Lord is my tportion,” says my soul,

“Therefore I uhope in Him!”

25 The Lord is good to those who vwait for Him,

To the soul who seeks Him.

26 It is good that one should whope xand wait quietly

For the salvation of the Lord.

27 yIt is good for a man to bear

The yoke in his youth.

28 zLet him sit alone and keep silent,

Because God has laid it on him;

29 aLet him put his mouth in the dust—

There may yet be hope.

30 bLet him give his cheek to the one who strikes him,

And be full of reproach.

31 cFor the Lord will not cast off forever.

32 Though He causes grief,

Yet He will show compassion

According to the multitude of His mercies.

33 For dHe does not afflict 9willingly,

Nor grieve the children of men.

34 To crush under one’s feet

All the prisoners of the earth,

35 To turn aside the justice due a man

Before the face of the Most High,

36 Or subvert a man in his cause—

eThe Lord does not approve.

37 Who is he fwho speaks and it comes to pass,

When the Lord has not commanded it?

38 Is it not from the mouth of the Most High

That gwoe and well-being proceed?

39 hWhy should a living man 1complain,

iA man for the punishment of his sins?

40 Let us search out and examine our ways,

And turn back to the Lord;

41 jLet us lift our hearts and hands

To God in heaven.

42 kWe have transgressed and rebelled;

You have not pardoned.

43 You have covered Yourself with anger

And pursued us;

You have slain and not pitied.

44 You have covered Yourself with a cloud,

That prayer should not pass through.

45 You have made us an loffscouring and refuse

In the midst of the peoples.

46 mAll our enemies

Have opened their mouths against us.

47 nFear and a snare have come upon us,

oDesolation and destruction.

48 pMy eyes overflow with rivers of water

For the destruction of the daughter of my people.

49 qMy eyes flow and do not cease,

Without interruption,

50 Till the Lord from heaven

rLooks down and sees.

51 My eyes bring suffering to my soul

Because of all the daughters of my city.

52 My enemies swithout cause

Hunted me down like a bird.

53 They 2silenced my life tin the pit

And uthrew 3stones at me.

54 vThe waters flowed over my head;

wI said, “I am cut off!”

55 xI called on Your name, O Lord,

From the lowest ypit.

56 zYou have heard my voice:

“Do not hide Your ear

From my sighing, from my cry for help.”

57 You adrew near on the day I called on You,

And said, b“Do not fear!”

58 O Lord, You have cpleaded the case for my soul;

dYou have redeemed my life.

59 O Lord, You have seen 4how I am wronged;

eJudge my case.

60 You have seen all their vengeance,

All their fschemes against me.

61 You have heard their reproach, O Lord,

All their schemes against me,

62 The lips of my enemies

And their whispering against me all the day.

63 Look at their gsitting down and their rising up;

I am their taunting song.

64 hRepay them, O Lord,

According to the work of their hands.

65 Give them 5a veiled heart;

Your curse be upon them!

66 In Your anger,

Pursue and destroy them

iFrom under the heavens of the jLord.

The Degradation of Zion

4 How the gold has become dim!

How changed the fine gold!

The stones of the sanctuary are 1scattered

At the head of every street.

2 The precious sons of Zion,

2Valuable as fine gold,

How they are 3regarded aas clay pots,

The work of the hands of the potter!

3 Even the jackals present their breasts

To nurse their young;

But the daughter of my people is cruel,

bLike ostriches in the wilderness.

4 The tongue of the infant clings

To the roof of its mouth for thirst;

cThe young children ask for bread,

But no one breaks it for them.

5 Those who ate delicacies

Are desolate in the streets;

Those who were brought up in scarlet

dEmbrace ash heaps.

6 The punishment of the iniquity of the daughter of my people

Is greater than the punishment of the esin of Sodom,

Which was foverthrown in a moment,

With no hand to help her!

7 Her 4Nazirites were 5brighter than snow

And whiter than milk;

They were more ruddy in body than rubies,

Like sapphire in their 6appearance.

8 Now their appearance is blacker than soot;

They go unrecognized in the streets;

gTheir skin clings to their bones,

It has become as dry as wood.

9 Those slain by the sword are better off

Than those who die of hunger;

For these hpine away,

Stricken for lack of the fruits of the ifield.

10 The hands of the jcompassionate women

Have 7cooked their kown children;

They became lfood for them

In the destruction of the daughter of my people.

11 The Lord has fulfilled His fury,

mHe has poured out His fierce anger.

nHe kindled a fire in Zion,

And it has devoured its foundations.

12 The kings of the earth,

And all inhabitants of the world,

Would not have believed

That the adversary and the enemy

Could oenter the gates of Jerusalem—

13 pBecause of the sins of her prophets

And the iniquities of her priests,

qWho shed in her midst

The blood of the just.

14 They wandered blind in the streets;

rThey have defiled themselves with blood,

sSo that no one would touch their garments.

15 They cried out to them,

“Go away, tunclean!

Go away, go away,

Do not touch us!”

When they fled and wandered,

Those among the nations said,

“They shall no longer dwell here.”

16 The 8face of the Lord scattered them;

He no longer regards them.

uThe people do not respect the priests

Nor show favor to the elders.

17 Still vour eyes failed us,

Watching vainly for our help;

In our watching we watched

For a nation that could not save us.

18 wThey 9tracked our steps

So that we could not walk in our streets.

xOur end was near;

Our days were over,

For our end had come.

19 Our pursuers were yswifter

Than the eagles of the heavens.

They pursued us on the mountains

And lay in wait for us in the wilderness.

20 The zbreath of our nostrils, the anointed of the Lord,

aWas caught in their pits,

Of whom we said, “Under his shadow

We shall live among the nations.”

21 Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of bEdom,

You who dwell in the land of Uz!

cThe cup shall also pass over to you

And you shall become drunk and make yourself naked.

22 dThe punishment of your iniquity 1is accomplished,

O daughter of Zion;

He will no longer send you into captivity.

eHe will punish your iniquity,

O daughter of Edom;

He will uncover your sins!