Notre Dame de Paris, Paris France
How deserted she sits, the city once thronged with
people! Once the greatest of nations, she is now like a widow. Once the
princess of states, she is now put to forced labour.
All night long she is weeping, tears running down her cheeks. Not one
of all her lovers remains to comfort her. Her friends have all betrayed
her and become her enemies.
Judah has
gone into exile after much pain and toil. Living among the nations she
finds no respite; her persecutors all overtake her where there is no way
out.
The roads to Zion are in mourning; no one comes to her festivals now. Her gateways are all deserted; her priests groan; her young girls are grief-stricken; she suffers bitterly.
Her foes now have the upper hand, her enemies prosper, for Yahweh has made her suffer for her many, many crimes; her children have gone away into captivity driven in front of the oppressor.
And from the daughter of Zion all her
splendour has departed. Her princes were like stags which could find no
pasture, exhausted, as they flee before the hunter.
Jerusalem remembers her days of misery
and distress; when her people fell into the enemy's clutches there was
no one to help her. Her enemies looked on and laughed at her downfall.
Jerusalem has sinned so gravely that she has become a thing unclean. All who used to honour her despise her, having seen her nakedness; she herself groans aloud and turns her face away.
Her filth befouls her skirts -- she
never thought to end like this, and hence her astonishing fall with no
one to comfort her. Yahweh, look at my misery, for the enemy is
triumphant!
The enemy stretched out his hand for
everything she treasured; she saw the heathen enter her sanctuary, whom
you had forbidden to enter your Assembly.
All her people are groaning, looking for something to eat; they have
bartered their treasures for food, to keep themselves alive. Look,
Yahweh, and consider how despised I am!
All you who pass this way, look and see: is any sorrow like the sorrow inflicted on me, with which Yahweh struck me on the day of his burning anger?
He sent fire from on high deep into my
bones; he stretched a net for my feet, he pulled me back; he left me
shattered, sick all day long.
He has watched out for my offences, with his hand he enmeshes me, his yoke is on my neck, he has deprived me of strength. The Lord has put me into clutches which I am helpless to resist.
The Lord has rejected all my warriors within my walls, he has summoned a host against me to crush my young men; in the winepress the Lord trampled the young daughter of Judah.
And that is why I weep; my eyes stream with water, since a comforter who could revive me is far away. My children are shattered, for the enemy has proved too strong.
Zion stretches out her hands, with no one to comfort her. Yahweh has commanded Jacob's enemies to surround him; they treat Jerusalem as though she were unclean.
Yahweh is in the right, for I rebelled
against his command. Listen, all you peoples, and see my sorrow. My
young girls and my young men have gone into captivity.
I called to my lovers; they failed me.
My priests and my elders expired in the city, as they searched for food
to keep themselves alive.
Look, Yahweh. I am in distress! My
inmost being is in ferment; my heart turns over inside me -- how
rebellious I have been! Outside, the sword bereaves; inside it is like
death.
Listen, for I am groaning, with no one
to comfort me. All my enemies have heard of my disaster, they are glad
about what you have done. Bring the Day you once foretold, so that they
may be like me!
Let all their wickedness come before
you, and treat them as you have treated me for all my crimes; numberless
are my groans, and I am sick at heart.
In his anger, with what darkness has the Lord enveloped the daughter of Zion! He has flung the beauty of Israel from heaven to the ground, without regard for his footstool on the day of his anger.
The Lord pitilessly engulfed all the homes
of Jacob; in his fury he tore down the fortresses of the daughter of
Judah; he threw to the ground, he desecrated the kingdom and its
princes.
In his burning anger he broke all the might of Israel, withdrew his protecting right hand at the coming of the enemy, and blazed against Jacob like a fire that burns up everything near it.
Like an enemy he bent his bow, and his right
hand held firm; like a foe he slaughtered all those who were a delight
to see; on the tent of the daughter of Zion he poured out his fury like
fire.
The Lord
behaved like an enemy; he engulfed Israel, he engulfed all its
citadels, he destroyed its fortresses and for the daughter of Judah
multiplied weeping on wailing.
He wrecked his domain like a garden, destroyed his assembly-points, Yahweh erased the memory of festivals and Sabbaths in Zion; in the heat of his anger he treated king and priest with contempt.
The Lord has rejected his altar, he has come to loathe his sanctuary and has given her palace walls into the clutches of the enemy; from the uproar they made in Yahweh's temple it might have been a festival day!
Yahweh has resolved to destroy the walls
of the daughter of Zion, stretching out the line, not staying his hand
until he has engulfed everything, thus bringing mourning on wall and
rampart; alike they crumbled.
Her gates have sunk into the ground; he
has broken and shattered their bars. Her king and her princes are among
the gentiles, there is no instruction, furthermore her prophets cannot
find any vision from Yahweh.
Mute, they sit on the ground, the elders of the daughter of Zion; they
have put dust on their heads and wrapped themselves in sackcloth. The
young girls of Jerusalem bow their heads to the ground.
My eyes are worn out with weeping, my
inmost being is in ferment, my heart plummets at the destruction of my
young people, as the children and babies grow faint in the streets of the city.
They keep saying to their mothers,
'Where is some food?' as they faint like wounded men in the streets of
the city, as they breathe their last on their mothers' breasts.
To what can I compare or liken you,
daughter of Jerusalem? Who can rescue and comfort you, young daughter of
Zion? For huge as the sea is your ruin: who can heal you?
The visions your prophets had for you were deceptive whitewash; they did not lay bare your guilt so as to change your fortunes: the visions they told you were deceptive.
All who pass your way clap their hands
at the sight; they whistle and shake their heads over the daughter of
Jerusalem, 'Is this the city they call Perfection of Beauty, the joy of
the whole world?'
Your enemies open their mouths in
chorus against you; they whistle and grind their teeth; they say, 'We
have swallowed her up. This is the day we were waiting for; at last we
have seen it!'
Yahweh has done what he planned, has
carried out his threat, as he ordained long ago: he has destroyed
without pity, increasing the might of your foes -- and letting your foes
get the credit.
Cry then to the Lord, rampart of the
daughter of Zion; let your tears flow like a torrent, day and night;
allow yourself no respite, give your eyes no rest!
Up, cry out in the night-time as each
watch begins! Pour your heart out like water in Yahweh's presence! Raise
your hands to him for the lives of your children (who faint with hunger at the end of every street)!
Look, Yahweh, and consider: whom have you ever treated like this? Should women eat their little ones, the children they have nursed? Should priest and prophet be slaughtered in the Lord's sanctuary?
Children and old people are lying
on the ground in the streets; my young men and young girls have fallen
by the sword; you have killed them, on the day of your anger, you have
slaughtered them pitilessly.
As though to a festival you called together terrors from all sides, so that, on the day of Yahweh's anger, none escaped and none survived. Those whom I had nursed and reared, my enemy has annihilated them all.
I am the man familiar with misery under the rod of his fury.
He has led and guided me into darkness, not light.
Against none but me does he turn his hand, again and again, all day.
For me he is a lurking bear, a lion in hiding.
every morning they are renewed; great is his faithfulness!
For the Lord will not reject anyone for ever.
How the gold has tarnished, how the fine gold has changed! The sacred stones lie scattered at the corner of every street.
The children of Zion, as precious as finest gold -- to think that they should now be reckoned like crockery made by a potter!
The very jackals give the breast, and suckle their young: but the
daughter of my people is as cruel as the ostriches of the desert.
The tongue of the baby at the breast sticks to its palate for thirst; little children ask for bread, no one gives them any.
Those who used to eat only the best, now
lie dying in the streets; those who were reared in the purple claw at
the rubbish heaps,
for the wickedness of the daughter of my
people exceeded the sins of Sodom, which was overthrown in a moment
without a hand being laid on it.
Once her young people were brighter than snow, whiter than milk; rosier than coral their bodies, their hue like sapphire.
Now their faces are blacker than soot,
they are not recognised in the streets, the skin has shrunk over their
bones, as dry as a stick.
Happier those killed by the sword than those killed by famine: they waste away, sunken for lack of the fruits of the earth.
With their own hands, kindly women cooked their children; this was their food when the daughter of my people was ruined.
Yahweh indulged his fury, he vented his fierce anger, he lit a fire in Zion which devoured her foundations.
The kings
of the earth never believed, nor did any of the inhabitants of the
world, that foe or enemy would ever penetrate the gates of Jerusalem.
Owing to the sins of her prophets and the crimes of her priests, who
had shed the blood of the upright, in the heart of the city,
they wandered blindly through the streets, polluted with blood, so that no one dared to touch their clothes.
'Keep away! Unclean!' people shouted,
'Keep away! Keep away! Don't touch!' If they left and fled to the
nations, they were not allowed to stay there either.
The face of Yahweh destroyed them, he will look on them no more. There was no respect for the priests, no deference for the elders.
Continually we were wearing out our
eyes, watching for help -- in vain. From our towers we watched for a
nation which could not save us anyway.
Men dogged our steps, to keep us out of our streets. Our end was near, our days were done, our end had come.
Our pursuers were swifter than eagles
in the sky; they hounded our steps through the mountains, they lay in
ambush for us in the wilds.
The breath of our nostrils, Yahweh's
anointed, was caught in their traps, he of whom we said, 'In his shadow
we shall live among the nations.'
Rejoice, exult, daughter of Edom, you who reside in Uz! To you in turn the cup will pass; you will get drunk and strip yourself naked!
Your wickedness is atoned for, daughter of Zion, he will never banish you again. But your wickedness, daughter of Edom, will he punish, your sins he will lay bare!
Yahweh, remember what has happened to us; consider, and see our degradation.
The Book of Lamentations.
