Lamentations 1–4

1^aHow deserted^a lies the city,

once so full of people!^b

How like a widow^c is she,

who once was great^d among the nations!

She who was queen among the provinces

has now become a slave.^e

²Bitterly she weeps^f at night,

tears are on her cheeks.

Among all her lovers^g

there is no one to comfort her.

All her friends have betrayed^h her;

they have become her enemies.ⁱ

³After affliction and harsh labor,

Judah has gone into exile.^j

She dwells among the nations;

she finds no resting place.^k

All who pursue her have overtaken her^l

in the midst of her distress.

⁴The roads to Zion mourn,^m

for no one comes to her appointed festivals.

All her gateways are desolate,ⁿ

her priests groan,

her young women grieve,

and she is in bitter anguish.^o

⁵Her foes have become her masters;

her enemies are at ease.

The Lord has brought her grief^p

because of her many sins.^q

Her children have gone into exile,^r

captive before the foe.^s

⁶All the splendor has departed

from Daughter Zion.^t

Her princes are like deer

that find no pasture;

in weakness they have fled^u

before the pursuer.

⁷In the days of her affliction and wandering

Jerusalem remembers all the treasures

that were hers in days of old.

When her people fell into enemy hands,

there was no one to help her.^v

Her enemies looked at her

and laughed^w at her destruction.

⁸Jerusalem has sinned^x greatly

and so has become unclean.^y

All who honored her despise her,

for they have all seen her naked;^z

she herself groans^a

and turns away.

⁹Her filthiness clung to her skirts;

she did not consider her future.^b

Her fall^c was astounding;

there was none to comfort^d her.

“Look, Lord, on my affliction,^e

for the enemy has triumphed.”

¹⁰The enemy laid hands

on all her treasures;^f

she saw pagan nations

enter her sanctuary^g—

those you had forbidden^h

to enter your assembly.

¹¹All her people groanⁱ

as they search for bread;^j

they barter their treasures for food

to keep themselves alive.

“Look, Lord, and consider,

for I am despised.”

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

Look around and see.

Is any suffering like my suffering^l

that was inflicted on me,

that the Lord brought on me

in the day of his fierce anger?^m

¹³“From on high he sent fire,

sent it down into my bones.ⁿ

He spread a net^o for my feet

and turned me back.

He made me desolate,^p

faint^q all the day long.

¹⁴“My sins have been bound into a yoke^b;^r

by his hands they were woven together.

They have been hung on my neck,

and the Lord has sapped my strength.

He has given me into the hands^s

of those I cannot withstand.

¹⁵“The Lord has rejected

all the warriors in my midst;^t

he has summoned an army^u against me

to^c crush my young men.^v

In his winepress^w the Lord has trampled^x

Virgin Daughter^y Judah.

¹⁶“This is why I weep

and my eyes overflow with tears.^z

No one is near to comfort^a me,

no one to restore my spirit.

My children are destitute

because the enemy has prevailed.”^b

¹⁷Zion stretches out her hands,^c

but there is no one to comfort her.

The Lord has decreed for Jacob

that his neighbors become his foes;^d

Jerusalem has become

an unclean^e thing^f among them.

¹⁸“The Lord is righteous,^g

yet I rebelled^h against his command.

Listen, all you peoples;

look on my suffering.ⁱ

My young men and young women

have gone into exile.^j

¹⁹“I called to my allies^k

but they betrayed me.

My priests and my elders

perished^l in the city

while they searched for food

to keep themselves alive.

²⁰“See, Lord, how distressed^m I am!

I am in tormentⁿ within,

and in my heart I am disturbed,^o

for I have been most rebellious.^p

Outside, the sword bereaves;

inside, there is only death.^q

²¹“People have heard my groaning,^r

but there is no one to comfort me.^s

All my enemies have heard of my distress;

they rejoice^t at what you have done.

May you bring the day^u you have announced

so they may become like me.

²²“Let all their wickedness come before you;

deal with them

as you have dealt with me

because of all my sins.^v

My groans^w are many

and my heart is faint.”

2^aHow the Lord has covered Daughter Zion

with the cloud of his anger^b!^x

He has hurled down the splendor of Israel

from heaven to earth;

he has not remembered his footstool^y

in the day of his anger.^z

²Without pity^a the Lord has swallowed^b up

all the dwellings of Jacob;

in his wrath he has torn down

the strongholds^c of Daughter Judah.

He has brought her kingdom and its princes

down to the ground^d in dishonor.

³In fierce anger he has cut off

every horn^cde of Israel.

He has withdrawn his right hand^f

at the approach of the enemy.

He has burned in Jacob like a flaming fire

that consumes everything around it.^g

⁴Like an enemy he has strung his bow;^h

his right hand is ready.

Like a foe he has slain

all who were pleasing to the eye;ⁱ

he has poured out his wrath^j like fire^k

on the tent^l of Daughter Zion.

⁵The Lord is like an enemy;^m

he has swallowed up Israel.

He has swallowed up all her palaces

and destroyed her strongholds.ⁿ

He has multiplied mourning and lamentation^o

for Daughter Judah.^p

⁶He has laid waste his dwelling like a garden;

he has destroyed^q his place of meeting.^r

The Lord has made Zion forget

her appointed festivals and her Sabbaths;^s

in his fierce anger he has spurned

both king and priest.^t

⁷The Lord has rejected his altar

and abandoned his sanctuary.^u

He has given the walls of her palaces^v

into the hands of the enemy;

they have raised a shout in the house of the Lord

as on the day of an appointed festival.^w

⁸The Lord determined to tear down

the wall around Daughter Zion.^x

He stretched out a measuring line^y

and did not withhold his hand from destroying.

He made ramparts^z and walls lament;

together they wasted away.^a

⁹Her gates^b have sunk into the ground;

their bars^c he has broken and destroyed.

Her king and her princes are exiled^d among the nations,

the law^e is no more,

and her prophets^f no longer find

visions^g from the Lord.

¹⁰The elders of Daughter Zion

sit on the ground in silence;^h

they have sprinkled dustⁱ on their heads^j

and put on sackcloth.^k

The young women of Jerusalem

have bowed their heads to the ground.^l

¹¹My eyes fail from weeping,^m

I am in torment withinⁿ;

my heart^o is poured out^p on the ground

because my people are destroyed,^q

because children and infants faint^r

in the streets of the city.

¹²They say to their mothers,

“Where is bread and wine?”^s

as they faint like the wounded

in the streets of the city,

as their lives ebb away^t

in their mothers’ arms.^u

¹³What can I say for you?^v

With what can I compare you,

Daughter^w Jerusalem?

To what can I liken you,

that I may comfort you,

Virgin Daughter Zion?^x

Your wound is as deep as the sea.^y

Who can heal you?

¹⁴The visions of your prophets

were false^z and worthless;

they did not expose your sin

to ward off your captivity.^a

The prophecies they gave you

were false and misleading.^b

¹⁵All who pass your way

clap their hands at you;^c

they scoff^d and shake their heads^e

at Daughter Jerusalem:^f

“Is this the city that was called

the perfection of beauty,^g

the joy of the whole earth?”^h

¹⁶All your enemies open their mouths

wide against you;ⁱ

they scoff and gnash their teeth^j

and say, “We have swallowed her up.^k

This is the day we have waited for;

we have lived to see it.”^l

¹⁷The Lord has done what he planned;

he has fulfilled^m his word,

which he decreed long ago.ⁿ

He has overthrown you without pity,^o

he has let the enemy gloat over you,^p

he has exalted the horn^e of your foes.^q

¹⁸The hearts of the people

cry out to the Lord.^r

You walls of Daughter Zion,^s

let your tears^t flow like a river

day and night;^u

give yourself no relief,

your eyes no rest.^v

¹⁹Arise, cry out in the night,

as the watches of the night begin;

pour out your heart^w like water

in the presence of the Lord.^x

Lift up your hands^y to him

for the lives of your children,

who faint^z from hunger

at every street corner.

²⁰“Look, Lord, and consider:

Whom have you ever treated like this?

Should women eat their offspring,^a

the children they have cared for?^b

Should priest and prophet be killed^c

in the sanctuary of the Lord?^d

²¹“Young and old lie together

in the dust of the streets;

my young men and young women

have fallen by the sword.^e

You have slain them in the day of your anger;

you have slaughtered them without pity.^f

²²“As you summon to a feast day,

so you summoned against me terrors^g on every side.

In the day of the Lord’s anger

no one escaped^h or survived;

those I cared for and rearedⁱ

my enemy has destroyed.”

3^aI am the man who has seen affliction^j

by the rod of the Lord’s wrath.^k

²He has driven me away and made me walk

in darkness^l rather than light;

³indeed, he has turned his hand against me^m

again and again, all day long.

⁴He has made my skin and my flesh grow oldⁿ

and has broken my bones.^o

⁵He has besieged me and surrounded me

with bitterness^p and hardship.^q

⁶He has made me dwell in darkness

like those long dead.^r

⁷He has walled me in so I cannot escape;^s

he has weighed me down with chains.^t

⁸Even when I call out or cry for help,^u

he shuts out my prayer.^v

⁹He has barred^w my way with blocks of stone;

he has made my paths crooked.^x

¹⁰Like a bear lying in wait,

like a lion^y in hiding,^z

¹¹he dragged me from the path and mangled^a me

and left me without help.

¹²He drew his bow^b

and made me the target^c for his arrows.^d

¹³He pierced^e my heart

with arrows from his quiver.^f

¹⁴I became the laughingstock^g of all my people;^h

they mock me in songⁱ all day long.

¹⁵He has filled me with bitter herbs

and given me gall to drink.^j

¹⁶He has broken my teeth with gravel;^k

he has trampled me in the dust.^l

¹⁷I have been deprived of peace;

I have forgotten what prosperity is.

¹⁸So I say, “My splendor is gone

and all that I had hoped from the Lord.”^m

¹⁹I remember my affliction and my wandering,

the bitternessⁿ and the gall.^o

²⁰I well remember them,

and my soul is downcast^p within me.^q

²¹Yet this I call to mind

and therefore I have hope:

²²Because of the Lord’s great love^r we are not consumed,^s

for his compassions never fail.^t

²³They are new every morning;

great is your faithfulness.^u

²⁴I say to…