Lamentations 1:1–11

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.”