Lamentations 1–4

CHAPTER 1

Zion Lays Desolate

Aleph

¹How ^alonely sits the city

That was ^bgreat with people!

She has become like a ^cwidow

Who was once ^dgreat among the nations!

She who was a princess among the ¹provinces

Has become a ^eforced laborer!

Beth

²She ^aweeps bitterly in the night,

And her tears are on her cheeks;

She has none to comfort her

Among all her ^blovers.

All her friends have ^cdealt treacherously with her;

They have become her enemies.

Gimel

^3aJudah has gone into exile because of affliction

And because of great slavery;

She sits ^bamong the nations,

But she has found no rest;

All ^cher pursuers have overtaken her

In the midst of ¹distress.

Daleth

⁴The roads ¹of Zion are in mourning

Because ^ano one comes to the appointed times.

All her gates are ^bdesolate;

Her priests are sighing,

Her ^cvirgins are grieving,

And she herself ²is ^dbitter.

He

⁵Her adversaries have become ¹her masters;

Her enemies are complacent;

For ²Yahweh has ^acaused her grief

Because of the greatness of her transgressions;

Her infants have gone away

As captives before the adversary.

Vav

⁶So all her ^amajesty

Has gone out from the daughter of Zion;

Her princes have become like deer

That have found no pasture;

So they have ^1bfled without strength

Before the pursuer.

Zayin

⁷In the days of her affliction and homelessness

^aJerusalem remembers all her precious things

That were from the days of old,

When her people fell into the hand of the adversary

And ^bno one helped her.

The adversaries saw her;

They ^claughed at her ¹ruin.

Heth

⁸Jerusalem sinned ^agreatly;

Therefore ^bshe has become an impure thing.

All who honored her despise her

Because they have seen her nakedness;

Even ^cshe herself sighs and turns away.

Teth

⁹Her ^auncleanness was in her skirts;

She did not remember her ^bfuture.

Therefore she has ^cgone down astonishingly;

^dShe has no comforter.

“^eSee, O Yahweh, my affliction,

For the enemy has ^fmagnified himself!”

Yodh

¹⁰The adversary has stretched out his hand

Over all her desirable things,

For she has seen the ^anations enter her sanctuary,

The ones whom You commanded

That they should ^bnot enter into Your assembly.

Kaph

¹¹All her people are sighing, ^aseeking bread;

They have given their desirable things for food

To ^brestore their souls.

“See, O Yahweh, and look,

For I am ^cdespised.”

Lamedh

¹²“Is ^ait nothing to all you who pass this way?

Look and see if there is any ¹pain like my ²pain

Which was dealt severely to me,

Which ^bYahweh grieved me with on the day of His ^cburning anger.

Mem

¹³“From on high He sent fire into my ^abones,

And it dominated them.

He has spread a ^bnet for my feet;

He has turned me back;

He has made me ^cdesolate,

¹Faint all day long.

Nun

¹⁴“The ^ayoke of my transgressions is bound;

By His hand they are knit together.

They have ^bcome upon my neck;

He has made my strength stumble.

The Lord ^chas given me into the hands

Of those against whom I am not able to stand.

Samekh

¹⁵“The ^aLord has rejected all my mighty men

In my midst;

He has called an appointed time against me

To break my ^byoung men;

The Lord has ^ctrodden as in a wine press

The virgin daughter of Judah.

Ayin

¹⁶“For these things I ^aam weeping;

¹My eyes run down with water;

Because far from me is a ^bcomforter,

One who restores my soul.

My children are desolate

Because the enemy has prevailed.”

Pe

¹⁷Zion ^astretches out her hands;

There is no one to comfort her;

Yahweh has ^bcommanded concerning Jacob

That the ones round about him should be his adversaries;

^cJerusalem has become an impure thing among them.

Tsadhe

¹⁸“Yahweh is ^arighteous;

For I have ^brebelled against His ¹command;

Hear now, all peoples,

And ^cbehold my ²pain;

^dMy virgins and my young men

Have gone into captivity.

Qoph

¹⁹“I ^acalled to my lovers, but they deceived me;

My ^bpriests and my elders breathed their last in the city

While they sought food for themselves in order to ^crestore their souls.

Resh

²⁰“See, O Yahweh, for I am in distress;

My ^1ainmost being is greatly disturbed;

My heart is overturned within me,

For I have been very ^brebellious.

In the street the sword bereaves;

In the house it is like death.

Shin

²¹“They have heard that I ^aam sighing;

There is no one to comfort me;

All my enemies have heard of the ¹evil done to me;

They ^brejoice that You have done it.

You have brought the day which You have proclaimed,

So that they will become ^clike me.

Tav

²²“Let all their evil come before You;

And ^adeal severely with them as You have dealt severely with me

For all my transgressions;

For my groans are great and my heart is faint.”

CHAPTER 2

The Anger of Yahweh

Aleph

¹How the Lord has ^acovered the daughter of Zion

With a cloud in His anger!

He has ^bcast from heaven to earth

The ^cbeauty of Israel,

And has not remembered the ^dfootstool of His feet

In the day of His anger.

Beth

²The Lord has ^aswallowed up; He has not spared

All the habitations of Jacob.

In His wrath He has ^bpulled down

The strongholds of the daughter of Judah;

He has ^cbrought them down to the ground;

He has ^dprofaned the kingdom and its princes.

Gimel

³In ¹hot anger He has cut in pieces

²All the ^astrength of Israel;

He has ^bturned back His right hand

From before the enemy.

And He has ^cburned in Jacob like a flaming fire

Devouring round about.

Daleth

⁴He has bent His ^abow like an enemy;

He has set His right hand like an adversary

And killed all that were ^bdesirable to the eye;

In the tent of the daughter of Zion

He has ^cpoured out His wrath like fire.

He

⁵The Lord has become like an ^aenemy.

He has ^bswallowed up Israel;

He has swallowed up all its ^cpalaces;

He has brought its strongholds to ruin

And ^dmultiplied in the daughter of Judah

Mourning and moaning.

Vav

⁶And He has violently treated His ¹tabernacle like a garden booth;

He has ^abrought His appointed ²meeting place to ruin.

Yahweh has ^bcaused to be forgotten

The appointed time and sabbath in Zion,

And He has ^cspurned king and priest

In the indignation of His anger.

Zayin

⁷The Lord has ^arejected His altar;

He has abandoned His sanctuary;

He ^bhas delivered into the hand of the enemy

The walls of her palaces.

They have made a ^cnoise in the house of Yahweh

As in the day of an appointed time.

Heth

⁸Yahweh ¹determined to bring to ruin

The wall of the daughter of Zion.

He has ^astretched out a line;

He has not turned His hand back from swallowing up,

And He has ^bcaused rampart and wall to mourn;

They have languished together.

Teth

⁹Her ^agates have sunk into the ground;

He has destroyed and broken her bars.

Her king and her princes are among the nations;

The ^blaw is no more.

Also, her prophets find

^cNo vision from Yahweh.

Yodh

¹⁰The elders of the daughter of Zion

^aSit on the ground; they ^bare silent.

They have thrown ^cdust up on their heads;

They have girded themselves with ^dsackcloth.

The ^evirgins of Jerusalem

Have bowed their heads down to the ground.

Kaph

¹¹My ^aeyes fail because of tears;

My ^1binmost being is greatly disturbed;

My ^2cheart is poured out on the earth

^dBecause of the ³destruction of the daughter of my people,

When ^einfants and nursing babies faint

In the open squares of the city.

Lamedh

¹²They say to their mothers,

“^aWhere is grain and wine?”

As they faint like a wounded man

In the open squares of the city,

As their ^blife is poured out

On their mothers’ bosom.

Mem

¹³What shall I testify about you?

To what ^ashall I equate you,

O daughter of Jerusalem?

To what shall I liken you as I comfort you,

O ^bvirgin daughter of Zion?

For your ¹destruction is as vast as the sea;

Who can ^cheal you?

Nun

¹⁴Your ^aprophets have beheld for you

Worthless and ineffective visions;

And they have not ^buncovered your iniquity

So as to ¹return you from captivity,

But they have ^cbeheld for you worthless and misleading ²oracles.

Samekh

¹⁵All who pass along the way

^aClap their hands in derision at you;

They ^bhiss and shake their heads

At the daughter of Jerusalem,

“Is this the city of which they said,

‘^cThe perfection of beauty,

^dThe joy of the whole earth’?”

Pe

¹⁶All ^ayour enemies

Have opened their mouths wide against you;

They hiss and ^bgnash their teeth.

They say, “We have ^cswallowed her up!

Surely this is the ^dday for which we have hoped;

We have found it, we have seen it.”

Ayin

¹⁷Yahweh has ^adone what He purposed;

He has completed His word

Which He commanded from days of old.

He has pulled down ^bwithout sparing,

And He has caused the enemy to ^cbe glad over you;

He has ^dexalted the ¹might of your adversaries.

Tsadhe

¹⁸Their ^aheart cried out to the Lord,

“O ^bwall of the daughter of Zion,

Let your ^ctears run down like a river day and night;

Give yourself no relief;

Let ¹your eyes not be still.

Qoph

¹⁹“Arise, cry aloud in the ^anight

At the head of the night watches;

^bPour out your heart like water

Before the presence of the Lord;

Lift up your hands to Him

For the ^clife of your infants

Who are ^dfaint because of hunger

At the head of every street.”

Resh

²⁰See, O Yahweh, and look!

With ^awhom have You dealt thus?

Should women ^beat their ¹offspring,

The infants who were ²born healthy?

Should ^cpriest and prophet be killed

In the sanctuary of the Lord?

Shin

²¹On the ground in the streets

Lie ^ayoung and old;

My ^bvirgins and my young men

Have fallen by the sword.

You have killed them in the day of Your anger;

You have slaughtered, ^cnot sparing.

Tav

²²You called as in the day of an appointed time

My ^aterrors on every side;

And there was ^bno one who escaped or survived

In the day of Yahweh’s anger.

Those ^cwhom I ¹gave birth to and reared,

My enemy consumed them.

CHAPTER 3

Jeremiah’s Heavy Chain

Aleph

¹I am the man who has ^aseen affliction

Because of the rod of His wrath.

²He has driven me and made me walk

In ^adarkness and not in light.

³Surely against me He has ^aturned His hand

Repeatedly all the day.

Beth

⁴He has caused my ^aflesh and my skin to waste away;

He has ^bbroken my bones.

⁵He has ^abesieged and encompassed me with ^bgall and hardship.

^6aDark places He has made me inhabit,

Like those who have long been dead.

Gimel

⁷He has ^awalled me in so that I cannot go out;

He has made my ^1bchain heavy.

⁸Even when I cry out and call for help,

He ^ashuts out my prayer.

⁹He has ^ablocked my ways…