THE LAMENTATIONS

of Jeremiah

Chapter 1

The Sorrows of Zion

1 How alonely sits the city

That was bfull of 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!

2 She 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.

3 aJudah has gone into exile 1under affliction

And 1under 2harsh servitude;

She dwells bamong the nations,

But she has found no rest;

All cher pursuers have overtaken her

In the midst of 3distress.

4 The roads 1of Zion are in mourning

Because ano one comes to the appointed feasts.

All her gates are bdesolate;

Her priests are groaning,

Her cvirgins are afflicted,

And she herself 2is dbitter.

5 Her adversaries have become 1her masters,

Her enemies 2prosper;

For the Lord has acaused her grief

Because of the multitude of her transgressions;

Her little ones have gone away

As captives before the adversary.

6 All her amajesty

Has departed from the daughter of Zion;

Her princes have become like deer

That have found no pasture;

And they have 1bfled without strength

Before the pursuer.

7 In 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 cmocked at her 1ruin.

8 Jerusalem sinned agreatly,

Therefore bshe has become an unclean thing.

All who honored her despise her

Because they have seen her nakedness;

Even cshe herself groans and turns away.

9 Her auncleanness was in her skirts;

She 1did not consider her bfuture.

Therefore she has 2cfallen astonishingly;

dShe has no comforter.

“eSee, O Lord, my affliction,

For the enemy has fmagnified himself!”

10 The adversary has stretched out his hand

Over all her precious things,

For she has seen the anations enter her sanctuary,

The ones whom You commanded

That they should bnot enter into Your congregation.

11 All her people groan aseeking bread;

They have given their precious things for food

To brestore their 1lives themselves.

“See, O Lord, and look,

For I am cdespised.”

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

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

Which was severely dealt out to me,

Which the bLord inflicted on the day of His cfierce anger.

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

And it 1prevailed over them.

He has spread a bnet for my feet;

He has turned me back;

He has made me cdesolate,

2Faint all day long.

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 1fail.

The Lord chas given me into the hands

Of those against whom I am not able to stand.

15 “The aLord has rejected all my strong men

In my midst;

He has called an appointed 1time against me

To crush my byoung men;

The Lord has ctrodden as in a wine press

The virgin daughter of Judah.

16 “For these things I aweep;

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.”

17 Zion astretches out her hands;

There is no one to comfort her;

The Lord has bcommanded concerning Jacob

That the ones round about him should be his adversaries;

cJerusalem has become an unclean thing among them.

18 “The Lord 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.

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

My bpriests and my elders perished in the city

While they sought food to crestore 1their strength themselves.

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

My 1aspirit is greatly troubled;

My heart is overturned within me,

For I have been very brebellious.

In the street the sword 2slays;

In the house it is like death.

21 “They have heard that I agroan;

There is no one to comfort me;

All my enemies have heard of my 1calamity;

They are bglad that You have done it.

Oh, that You would bring the day which You have proclaimed,

That they may become clike me.

22 “Let all their wickedness come before You;

And adeal with them as You have dealt with me

For all my transgressions;

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

Chapter 2

God’s Anger over Israel

1 How the Lord has acovered the daughter of Zion

With a cloud in His anger!

He has bcast from heaven to earth

The cglory of Israel,

And has not remembered His dfootstool

In the day of His anger.

2 The Lord has aswallowed up; He has not spared

All the habitations of Jacob.

In His wrath He has bthrown down

The strongholds of the daughter of Judah;

He has cbrought them down to the ground;

He has dprofaned the kingdom and its princes.

3 In fierce anger He has cut off

1All the astrength of Israel;

He has bdrawn back His right hand

From before the enemy.

And He has cburned in Jacob like a flaming fire

Consuming round about.

4 He has bent His abow like an enemy;

He has set His right hand like an adversary

And slain all that were bpleasant to the eye;

In the tent of the daughter of Zion

He has cpoured out His wrath like fire.

5 The Lord has become like an aenemy.

He has bswallowed up Israel;

He has swallowed up all its cpalaces,

He has destroyed its strongholds

And dmultiplied in the daughter of Judah

Mourning and moaning.

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

He has adestroyed His appointed 2meeting place.

The Lord has bcaused to be forgotten

The appointed feast and sabbath in Zion,

And He has cdespised king and priest

In the indignation of His anger.

7 The 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 the Lord

As in the day of an appointed feast.

8 The Lord 1determined to destroy

The wall of the daughter of Zion.

He has astretched out a line,

He has not restrained His hand from 2destroying,

And He has bcaused rampart and wall to lament;

They have languished together.

9 Her 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 the Lord.

10 The elders of the daughter of Zion

aSit on the ground, they bare silent.

They have thrown cdust on their heads;

They have girded themselves with dsackcloth.

The evirgins of Jerusalem

Have bowed their heads to the ground.

11 My aeyes fail because of tears,

My 1bspirit is greatly troubled;

My 2cheart is poured out on the earth

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

When elittle ones and infants faint

In the streets of the city.

12 They say to their mothers,

“aWhere is grain and wine?”

As they faint like a wounded man

In the streets of the city,

As their blife is poured out

On their mothers’ bosom.

13 How shall I admonish you?

To what ashall I compare you,

O daughter of Jerusalem?

To what shall I liken you as I comfort you,

O bvirgin daughter of Zion?

For your 1ruin is as vast as the sea;

Who can cheal you?

14 Your aprophets have seen for you

False and foolish visions;

And they have not bexposed your iniquity

So as to restore you from captivity,

But they have cseen for you false and misleading 1oracles.

15 All 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,

dA joy to all the earth’?”

16 All 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 waited;

We have reached it, we have seen it.”

17 The Lord has adone what He purposed;

He has accomplished His word

Which He commanded from days of old.

He has thrown down bwithout sparing,

And He has caused the enemy to crejoice over you;

He has dexalted the 1might of your adversaries.

18 Their 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 have no rest.

19 “Arise, cry aloud in the anight

At the beginning 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 little ones

Who are dfaint because of hunger

At the head of every street.”

20 See, O Lord, and look!

With awhom have You dealt thus?

Should women beat their 1offspring,

The little ones who were 2born healthy?

Should cpriest and prophet be slain

In the sanctuary of the Lord?

21 On the ground in the streets

Lie ayoung and old;

My bvirgins and my young men

Have fallen by the sword.

You have slain them in the day of Your anger,

You have slaughtered, cnot sparing.

22 You called as in the day of an appointed feast

My aterrors on every side;

And there was bno one who escaped or survived

In the day of the Lord’s anger.

Those cwhom I 1bore and reared,

My enemy annihilated them.

Chapter 3

Jeremiah Shares Israel’s Affliction

1 I am the man who has aseen affliction

Because of the rod of His wrath.

2 He has driven me and made me walk

In adarkness and not in light.

3 Surely against me He has aturned His hand

Repeatedly all the day.

4 He has caused my aflesh and my skin to waste away,

He has bbroken my bones.

5 He has abesieged and encompassed me with bbitterness and hardship.

6 In adark places He has made me dwell,

Like those who have long been dead.

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

He has made my 1bchain heavy.

8 Even when I cry out and call for help,

He ashuts out my prayer.

9 He has ablocked my ways with hewn stone;

He has made my paths crooked.

10 He is to me like a bear lying in wait,

Like a lion in secret places.

11 He has turned aside my ways and atorn me to pieces;

He has made me desolate.

12 He abent His bow

And bset me as a target for the arrow.

13 He made the 1arrows …