Lamentations

THE DESOLATION OF JERUSALEM

1How solitary sits the city,

once filled with people.

She who was great among the nations

is now like a widow.

Once a princess among the provinces,

now a toiling slave.

2She weeps incessantly in the night,

her cheeks damp with tears.

She has no one to comfort her

from all her lovers;

Her friends have all betrayed her,

and become her enemies.

3Judah has gone into exile,

after oppression and harsh labor;

She dwells among the nations,

yet finds no rest:

All her pursuers overtake her

in the narrow straits.

4The roads to Zion mourn,

empty of pilgrims to her feasts.

All her gateways are desolate,

her priests groan,

Her young women grieve;

her lot is bitter.

5Her foes have come out on top,

her enemies are secure;

Because the LORD has afflicted her

for her many rebellions.

Her children have gone away,

captive before the foe.

6From daughter Zion has gone

all her glory:

Her princes have become like rams

that find no pasture.

They have gone off exhausted

before their pursuers.

7Jerusalem remembers

in days of wretched homelessness,

All the precious things she once had

in days gone by.

But when her people fell into the hands of the foe,

and she had no help,

Her foes looked on and laughed

at her collapse.

8Jerusalem has sinned grievously,

therefore she has become a mockery;

Those who honored her now demean her,

for they saw her nakedness;

She herself groans out loud,

and turns away.

9Her uncleanness is on her skirt;

she has no thought of her future.

Her downfall is astonishing,

with no one to comfort her.

“Look, O LORD, at my misery;

how the enemy triumphs!”

10The foe stretched out his hands

to all her precious things;

She has seen the nations

enter her sanctuary,

Those you forbade to come

into your assembly.

11All her people groan,

searching for bread;

They give their precious things for food,

to retain the breath of life.

“Look, O LORD, and pay attention

to how I have been demeaned!

12Come, all who pass by the way,

pay attention and see:

Is there any pain like my pain,

which has been ruthlessly inflicted upon me,

With which the LORD has tormented me

on the day of his blazing wrath?

13From on high he hurled fire down

into my very bones;

He spread out a net for my feet,

and turned me back.

He has left me desolate,

in misery all day long.

14The yoke of my rebellions is bound together,

fastened by his hand.

His yoke is upon my neck;

he has made my strength fail.

The Lord has delivered me into the grip

of those I cannot resist.

15All my valiant warriors

my Lord has cast away;

He proclaimed a feast against me

to crush my young men;

My Lord has trodden in the wine press

virgin daughter Judah.

16For these things I weep—My eyes! My eyes!

They stream with tears!

How far from me is anyone to comfort,

anyone to restore my life.

My children are desolate;

the enemy has prevailed.”

17Zion stretches out her hands,

with no one to comfort her;

The LORD has ordered against Jacob

his foes all around;

Jerusalem has become in their midst

a thing unclean.

18“The LORD is in the right;

I had defied his command.

Listen, all you peoples,

and see my pain:

My young women and young men

have gone into captivity.

19I cried out to my lovers,

but they failed me.

My priests and my elders

perished in the city;

How desperately they searched for food,

to save their lives!

20Look, O LORD, at the anguish I suffer!

My stomach churns,

And my heart recoils within me:

How bitter I am!

Outside the sword bereaves—

indoors, there is death.

21Hear how I am groaning;

there is no one to comfort me.

All my enemies hear of my misery and rejoice

over what you have done.

Bring on the day you proclaimed,

and let them become like me!

22Let all their evil come before you

and deal with them

As you have so ruthlessly dealt with me

for all my rebellions.

My groans are many,

my heart is sick.”

THE LORD’S WRATH AND ZION’S RUIN

1How the Lord in his wrath

has abhorred daughter Zion,

Casting down from heaven to earth

the glory of Israel,

Not remembering his footstool

on the day of his wrath!

2The Lord has devoured without pity

all of Jacob’s dwellings;

In his fury he has razed

daughter Judah’s defenses,

Has brought to the ground in dishonor

a kingdom and its princes.

3In blazing wrath, he cut down entirely

the horn^* of Israel;

He withdrew the support of his right hand

when the enemy approached;

He burned against Jacob like a blazing fire

that consumes everything in its path.

4He bent his bow like an enemy;

the arrow in his right hand

Like a foe, he killed

all those held precious;

On the tent of daughter Zion

he poured out his wrath like fire.

5The Lord has become the enemy,

he has devoured Israel:

Devoured all its strongholds,

destroyed its defenses,

Multiplied moaning and groaning

throughout daughter Judah.

6He laid waste his booth like a garden,

destroyed his shrine;

The LORD has blotted out in Zion

feast day and sabbath,

Has scorned in fierce wrath

king and priest.

7The Lord has rejected his altar,

spurned his sanctuary;

He has handed over to the enemy

the walls of its strongholds.

They shout in the house of the LORD

as on a feast day.

8The LORD was bent on destroying

the wall of daughter Zion:

He stretched out the measuring line;

did not hesitate to devour,

Brought grief on rampart and wall

till both succumbed.

9Her gates sank into the ground;

he smashed her bars to bits.

Her king and her princes are among the nations;

instruction is wanting,

Even her prophets do not obtain

any vision from the LORD.

10The elders of daughter Zion

sit silently on the ground;

They cast dust^* on their heads

and dress in sackcloth;

The young women of Jerusalem

bow their heads to the ground.

11My eyes are spent with tears,

my stomach churns;

My bile is poured out on the ground

at the brokenness of the daughter of my people,

As children and infants collapse

in the streets of the town.

12They cry out to their mothers,

“Where is bread and wine?”

As they faint away like the wounded

in the streets of the city,

As their life is poured out

in their mothers’ arms.

13To what can I compare you—to what can I liken you—

O daughter Jerusalem?

What example can I give in order to comfort you,

virgin daughter Zion?

For your breach is vast as the sea;

who could heal you?

14Your prophets provided you visions

of whitewashed illusion;

They did not lay bare your guilt,

in order to restore your fortunes;

They saw for you only oracles

of empty deceit.

15All who pass by on the road,

clap their hands at you;

They hiss and wag their heads

over daughter Jerusalem:

“Is this the city they used to call

perfect in beauty and joy of all the earth?”

16They open their mouths against you,

all your enemies;

They hiss and gnash their teeth,

saying, “We have devoured her!

How we have waited for this day—

we have lived to see it!”

17The LORD has done what he planned.

He has fulfilled the threat

Decreed from days of old,

destroying without pity!

He let the enemy gloat over you

and exalted the horn of your foes.

18Cry out to the Lord from your heart,

wall of daughter Zion!

Let your tears flow like a torrent

day and night;

Give yourself no rest,

no relief for your eyes.

19Rise up! Wail in the night,

at the start of every watch;

Pour out your heart like water

before the Lord;

Lift up your hands to him

for the lives of your children,

Who collapse from hunger

at the corner of every street.

20“Look, O LORD, and pay attention:

to whom have you been so ruthless?

Must women eat their own offspring,

the very children they have borne?

Are priest and prophet to be slain

in the sanctuary of the Lord?^l

21They lie on the ground in the streets,

young and old alike;

Both my young women and young men

are cut down by the sword;

You killed them on the day of your wrath,

slaughtered without pity.

22You summoned as to a feast day

terrors on every side;

On the day of the LORD’s wrath,

none survived or escaped.

Those I have borne and nurtured,

my enemy has utterly destroyed.”

THE VOICE OF A SUFFERING INDIVIDUAL

1I am one who has known affliction

under the rod of God’s anger,

2One whom he has driven and forced to walk

in darkness, not in light;

3Against me alone he turns his hand—

again and again all day long.

4He has worn away my flesh and my skin,

he has broken my bones;

5He has besieged me all around

with poverty and hardship;

6He has left me to dwell in dark places

like those long dead.

7He has hemmed me in with no escape,

weighed me down with chains;

8Even when I cry for help,

he stops my prayer;

9He has hemmed in my ways with fitted stones,

and made my paths crooked.

10He has been a bear lying in wait for me,

a lion in hiding!

11He turned me aside and tore me apart,

leaving me ravaged.

12He bent his bow, and set me up

as a target for his arrow.

13He pierced my kidneys

with shafts from his quiver.

14I have become a laughingstock to all my people,

their taunt all day long;

15He has sated me with bitterness,

filled me with wormwood.

16He has made me eat gravel,

trampled me into the dust;

17My life is deprived of peace,

I have forgotten what happiness is;

18My enduring hope, I said,

has perished before the LORD.

19The thought of my wretched homelessness

is wormwood and poison;

20Remembering it over and over,

my soul is downcast.

21But this I will call to mind;

therefore I will hope:

22The LORD’s acts of mercy are not exhausted,

his compassion is not spent;

23They are renewed each morning—

great is your faithfulness!

24The LORD is my portion, I tell myself,

therefore I will hope in him.

25The LORD is good to those who trust in him,

to the one that seeks him;

26It is good to hope in silence

for the LORD’s deliverance.

27It is good for a person, when young,

to bear the yoke,

28To sit alone and in silence,

when its weight lies heavy,

29To put one’s mouth in the dust—

there may yet be hope—

30To offer one’s cheek to be struck,

to be filled with disgrace.

31For the Lord does not

reject forever;

32Though he brings grief, he takes pity,

according to the abundance of his mercy;

33He does not willingly afflict

or bring grief to human beings.

34That someone tramples underfoot

all the prisoners in the land,

35Or denies justice to anyone

in the very sight of the Most High,

36Or subverts a person’s lawsuit—

does the Lord not see?

37Who speaks so that it comes to pass,

unless the Lord commands it?

38Is it not at the word of the Most High

that both good and bad take place?

39What should the living complain about?

about their sins!

40Let us search and examine our ways,

and return to the LORD!

41Let us lift up our hearts as well as our hands

toward God in heaven!

42We have rebelled and been obstinate;

you have not forgiven us.

43You wrapped yourself in wrath and pursued us,

killing without pity;

44You wrapped yourself in a cloud,

which no prayer could pierce.

45You have made us filth and rubbish

among the peoples.

46They have opened their mouths against us,

all our enemies;

47Panic and the pit have been our lot,

desolation and destruction;

48^* My eyes stream with tears over the destruction

of the daughter of my people.

49My eyes will flow without ceasing,

without rest,

50Until the LORD from heaven

looks down and sees.

51I am tormented by the sight

of all the daughters of my city.

52Without cause, my enemies snared me

as though I were a bird;

53They tried to end my life in the pit,

pelting me with stones.

54The waters flowed over my head:

and I said, “I am lost!”

55I have called upon your name, O LORD,

from the bottom of the pit;

56You heard me call, “Do not let your ear be deaf

to my cry for help.”

57You drew near on the day I called you;

you said, “Do not fear!”

58You pleaded my case, Lord,

you redeemed my life.

59You see, LORD, how I am wronged;

do me justice!

60You see all their vindictiveness,

all their plots against me.

61You hear their reproach, LORD,

all their plots against me,

62The whispered murmurings of my adversaries,

against me all day long;

63Look! Whether they sit or stand,

I am the butt of their taunt.

64Give them what they deserve, LORD,

according to their deeds;

65Give them hardness of heart;

your curse be upon them;

66Pursue them in wrath and destroy them

from under the LORD’s heaven!

MISERIES OF THE BESIEGED CITY

1How the gold has lost its luster,

the noble metal changed;

Jewels lie scattered

at the corner of every street.

2And Zion’s precious children,

worth their weight in gold—

How they are treated like clay jugs,

the work of any potter!

3Even jackals offer their breasts

to nurse their young;

But the daughter of my people is as cruel

as the ostrich^* in the wilderness.

4The tongue of the infant cleaves

to the roof of its mouth in thirst;

Children beg for bread,

but no one gives them a piece.

5Those who feasted on delicacies

are abandoned in the streets;

Those who reclined on crimson

now embrace dung heaps.

6The punishment of the daughter of my people

surpassed the penalty of Sodom,

Which was overthrown in an instant

with no hand laid on it.

7Her princes were brighter than snow,

whiter than milk,

Their bodies more ruddy than coral,

their beauty like the sapphire.

8Now their appearance is blacker than soot,

they go unrecognized in the streets;

Their skin has shrunk on their bones,

and become dry as wood.

9Better for those pierced by the sword

than for those pierced by hunger,

Better for those who bleed from wounds

than for those who lack food.

10The hands of compassionate women

have boiled their own children!

They became their food

when the daughter of my people was shattered.

11The LORD has exhausted his anger,

poured out his blazing wrath;

He has kindled a fire in Zion

that has consumed her foundations.

12The kings of the earth did not believe,

nor any of the world’s inhabitants,

That foe or enemy could enter

the gates of Jerusalem.

13Except for the sins of her prophets

and the crimes of her priests,

Who poured out in her midst

the blood of the just.

14They staggered blindly in the streets,

defiled with blood,

So that people could not touch

even their garments:

15“Go away! Unclean!” they cried to them,

“Away, away, do not touch!”

If they went away and wandered,

it would be said among the nations,

“They can no longer live here!

16The presence of the LORD was their portion,

but he no longer looks upon them.

The priests are shown no regard,

the elders, no mercy.

17Even now our eyes are worn out,

searching in vain for help;

From our watchtower we have watched

for a nation unable to save.

18They dogged our every step,

we could not walk in our squares;

Our end drew near, our time was up;

yes, our end had come.

19Our pursuers were swifter

than eagles in the sky,

In the mountains they were hot on our trail,

they ambushed us in the wilderness.

20The LORD’s anointed—our very lifebreath!—

was caught in their snares,

He in whose shade we thought

to live among the nations.

21Rejoice and gloat, daughter Edom,

dwelling in the land of Uz,

The cup will pass to you as well;

you shall become drunk and strip yourself naked!

22Your punishment is completed, daughter Zion,

the Lord will not prolong your exile;

The Lord will punish your iniquity, daughter Edom,

will lay bare your sins.