Lamentations 1:1–11

Sorrow in Jerusalem

¹Jerusalem, once so full of people,

is now deserted.

She who was once great among the nations

now sits alone like a widow.

Once the queen of all the earth,

she is now a slave.

²She sobs through the night;

tears stream down her cheeks.

Among all her lovers,

there is no one left to comfort her.

All her friends have betrayed her

and become her enemies.

³Judah has been led away into captivity,

oppressed with cruel slavery.

She lives among foreign nations

and has no place of rest.

Her enemies have chased her down,

and she has nowhere to turn.

⁴The roads to Jerusalem are in mourning,

for crowds no longer come to celebrate the festivals.

The city gates are silent,

her priests groan,

her young women are crying—

how bitter is her fate!

⁵Her oppressors have become her masters,

and her enemies prosper,

for the Lord has punished Jerusalem

for her many sins.

Her children have been captured

and taken away to distant lands.

⁶All the majesty of beautiful Jerusalem

has been stripped away.

Her princes are like starving deer

searching for pasture.

They are too weak to run

from the pursuing enemy.

⁷In the midst of her sadness and wandering,

Jerusalem remembers her ancient splendor.

But now she has fallen to her enemy,

and there is no one to help her.

Her enemy struck her down

and laughed as she fell.

⁸Jerusalem has sinned greatly,

so she has been tossed away like a filthy rag.

All who once honored her now despise her,

for they have seen her stripped naked and humiliated.

All she can do is groan

and hide her face.

⁹She defiled herself with immorality

and gave no thought to her future.

Now she lies in the gutter

with no one to lift her out.

“Lord, see my misery,” she cries.

“The enemy has triumphed.”

¹⁰The enemy has plundered her completely,

taking every precious thing she owns.

She has seen foreigners violate her sacred Temple,

the place the Lord had forbidden them to enter.

¹¹Her people groan as they search for bread.

They have sold their treasures for food to stay alive.

“O Lord, look,” she mourns,

“and see how I am despised.