Lamentations 1–4

Chapter 1

The Sorrows of Zion

¹How ^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!

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.

^3aJudah has gone into exile ¹under affliction

And under ²harsh servitude;

She dwells ^bamong the nations,

But she has found no rest;

All ^cher pursuers have overtaken her

In the midst of ³distress.

⁴The 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.

⁵Her 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.

⁶All 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.

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 ^cmocked at her ¹ruin.

⁸Jerusalem 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.

⁹Her ^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!”

¹⁰The 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.

¹¹All 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 pain

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.”

¹⁷Zion ^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

¹How 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.

²The 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.

³In 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.

⁴He 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.

⁵The 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.

⁶And 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.

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 the Lord

As in the day of an appointed feast.

⁸The 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.

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 the Lord.

¹⁰The 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.

¹¹My ^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.

¹²They 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.

¹³How 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?

¹⁴Your ^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.

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,

^dA joy to all the earth’?”

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 waited;

We have reached it, we have seen it.”

¹⁷The 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.

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 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.”

²⁰See, 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?

²¹On 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.

²²You 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

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.

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

He has ^bbroken my bones.

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

⁶In ^adark places He has made me dwell,

Like those who have long been dead.

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 with hewn stone;

He has made my paths crooked.

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

Like a lion in secret places.

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

He has made me desolate.

¹²He ^abent His bow

And ^bset me as a target for the arrow.

¹³He made the ¹arrows of His ^aquiver

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