1How deserted lies the city,
once so full of people!
How like a widow is she,
who once was great among the nations!
She who was queen among the provinces
has now become a slave.
2Bitterly she weeps at night,
tears are on her cheeks.
Among all her lovers
there is no one to comfort her.
All her friends have betrayed her;
they have become her enemies.
3After affliction and harsh labor,
Judah has gone into exile.
She dwells among the nations;
she finds no resting place.
All who pursue her have overtaken her
in the midst of her distress.
4The roads to Zion mourn,
for no one comes to her appointed festivals.
All her gateways are desolate,
her priests groan,
her young women grieve,
and she is in bitter anguish.
5Her foes have become her masters;
her enemies are at ease.
The LORD has brought her grief
because of her many sins.
Her children have gone into exile,
captive before the foe.
6All the splendor has departed
from Daughter Zion.
Her princes are like deer
that find no pasture;
in weakness they have fled
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.
Her enemies looked at her
and laughed at her destruction.
8Jerusalem has sinned greatly
and so has become unclean.
All who honored her despise her,
for they have all seen her naked;
she herself groans
and turns away.
9Her filthiness clung to her skirts;
she did not consider her future.
Her fall was astounding;
there was none to comfort her.
“Look, LORD, on my affliction,
for the enemy has triumphed.”
10The enemy laid hands
on all her treasures;
she saw pagan nations
enter her sanctuary—
those you had forbidden
to enter your assembly.
11All her people groan
as they search for bread;
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?
Look around and see.
Is any suffering like my suffering
that was inflicted on me,
that the LORD brought on me
in the day of his fierce anger?
13“From on high he sent fire,
sent it down into my bones.
He spread a net for my feet
and turned me back.
He made me desolate,
faint all the day long.
14“My sins have been bound into a yoke[2];
Sin often promises freedom from the rules. But here’s a reality check: sin actually ties you down and takes away your freedom. Are you falling for the sin trap?
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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
of those I cannot withstand.
15“The Lord has rejected
all the warriors in my midst;
he has summoned an army against me
to[3] crush my young men.
In his winepress the Lord has trampled
Virgin Daughter Judah.
16“This is why I weep
and my eyes overflow with tears.
No one is near to comfort me,
no one to restore my spirit.
My children are destitute
because the enemy has prevailed.”
17Zion stretches out her hands,
but there is no one to comfort her.
The LORD has decreed for Jacob
that his neighbors become his foes;
Jerusalem has become
an unclean thing among them.
18“The LORD is righteous,
yet I rebelled against his command.
Listen, all you peoples;
look on my suffering.
My young men and young women
have gone into exile.
19“I called to my allies
but they betrayed me.
My priests and my elders
perished in the city
while they searched for food
to keep themselves alive.
20“See, LORD, how distressed I am!
I am in torment within,
and in my heart I am disturbed,
for I have been most rebellious.
Outside, the sword bereaves;
inside, there is only death.
21“People have heard my groaning,
but there is no one to comfort me.
All my enemies have heard of my distress;
they rejoice at what you have done.
May you bring the day 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.
My groans are many
and my heart is faint.”
1How the Lord has covered Daughter Zion
with the cloud of his anger[5]!
He has hurled down the splendor of Israel
from heaven to earth;
he has not remembered his footstool
in the day of his anger.
2Without pity the Lord has swallowed up
all the dwellings of Jacob;
in his wrath he has torn down
the strongholds of Daughter Judah.
He has brought her kingdom and its princes
down to the ground in dishonor.
3In fierce anger he has cut off
He has withdrawn his right hand
at the approach of the enemy.
He has burned in Jacob like a flaming fire
that consumes everything around it.
4Like an enemy he has strung his bow;
his right hand is ready.
Like a foe he has slain
all who were pleasing to the eye;
he has poured out his wrath like fire
on the tent of Daughter Zion.
5The Lord is like an enemy;
he has swallowed up Israel.
He has swallowed up all her palaces
and destroyed her strongholds.
He has multiplied mourning and lamentation
for Daughter Judah.
6He has laid waste his dwelling like a garden;
he has destroyed his place of meeting.
The LORD has made Zion forget
her appointed festivals and her Sabbaths;
in his fierce anger he has spurned
both king and priest.
7The Lord has rejected his altar
and abandoned his sanctuary.
He has given the walls of her palaces
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.
8The LORD determined to tear down
the wall around Daughter Zion.
He stretched out a measuring line
and did not withhold his hand from destroying.
He made ramparts and walls lament;
together they wasted away.
9Her gates have sunk into the ground;
their bars he has broken and destroyed.
Her king and her princes are exiled among the nations,
the law is no more,
and her prophets no longer find
visions from the LORD.
10The elders of Daughter Zion
sit on the ground in silence;
they have sprinkled dust on their heads
and put on sackcloth.
The young women of Jerusalem
have bowed their heads to the ground.
11My eyes fail from weeping,
I am in torment within;
my heart is poured out on the ground
because my people are destroyed,
because children and infants faint
in the streets of the city.
12They say to their mothers,
“Where is bread and wine?”
as they faint like the wounded
in the streets of the city,
as their lives ebb away
in their mothers’ arms.
13What can I say for you?
With what can I compare you,
Daughter Jerusalem?
To what can I liken you,
that I may comfort you,
Virgin Daughter Zion?
Your wound is as deep as the sea.
Who can heal you?
14The visions of your prophets
were false and worthless;
they did not expose your sin
to ward off your captivity.
The prophecies they gave you
were false and misleading.
15All who pass your way
clap their hands at you;
they scoff and shake their heads
at Daughter Jerusalem:
“Is this the city that was called
the perfection of beauty,
the joy of the whole earth?”
16All your enemies open their mouths
wide against you;
they scoff and gnash their teeth
and say, “We have swallowed her up.
This is the day we have waited for;
we have lived to see it.”
17The LORD has done what he planned;
he has fulfilled his word,
which he decreed long ago.
He has overthrown you without pity,
he has let the enemy gloat over you,
he has exalted the horn[8] of your foes.
18The hearts of the people
cry out to the Lord.
You walls of Daughter Zion,
let your tears flow like a river
day and night;
give yourself no relief,
your eyes no rest.
19Arise, cry out in the night,
as the watches of the night begin;
pour out your heart like water
in the presence of the Lord.
Lift up your hands to him
for the lives of your children,
who faint from hunger
at every street corner.
20“Look, LORD, and consider:
Whom have you ever treated like this?
Should women eat their offspring,
the children they have cared for?
Should priest and prophet be killed
in the sanctuary of the Lord?
21“Young and old lie together
in the dust of the streets;
my young men and young women
have fallen by the sword.
You have slain them in the day of your anger;
you have slaughtered them without pity.
22“As you summon to a feast day,
so you summoned against me terrors on every side.
In the day of the LORD’s anger
no one escaped or survived;
those I cared for and reared
my enemy has destroyed.”
1I am the man who has seen affliction
by the rod of the LORD’s wrath.
2He has driven me away and made me walk
in darkness rather than light;
3indeed, he has turned his hand against me
again and again, all day long.
4He has made my skin and my flesh grow old
and has broken my bones.
5He has besieged me and surrounded me
with bitterness and hardship.
6He has made me dwell in darkness
like those long dead.
7He has walled me in so I cannot escape;
he has weighed me down with chains.
8Even when I call out or cry for help,
he shuts out my prayer.
9He has barred my way with blocks of stone;
he has made my paths crooked.
10Like a bear lying in wait,
like a lion in hiding,
11he dragged me from the path and mangled me
and left me without help.
12He drew his bow
and made me the target for his arrows.
13He pierced my heart
with arrows from his quiver.
14I became the laughingstock of all my people;
they mock me in song all day long.
15He has filled me with bitter herbs
and given me gall to drink.
16He has broken my teeth with gravel;
he has trampled me in the dust.
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.”
19I remember my affliction and my wandering,
the bitterness and the gall.
20I well remember them,
They didn’t name this book “Lamentations” for nothing! Have you ever felt completely alone and forgotten by God? Take comfort in the verses following this lament (3:21–24).
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and my soul is downcast within me.
21Yet this I call to mind
and therefore I have hope:
22Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
23They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
24I say to myself, “The LORD is my portion;
therefore I will wait for him.”
25The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him,
to the one who seeks him;
26it is good to wait quietly
for the salvation of the LORD.
27It is good for a man to bear the yoke
while he is young.
28Let him sit alone in silence,
for the LORD has laid it on him.
29Let him bury his face in the dust—
there may yet be hope.
30Let him offer his cheek to one who would strike him,
and let him be filled with disgrace.
31For no one is cast off
by the Lord forever.
32Though he brings grief, he will show compassion,
so great is his unfailing love.
33For he does not willingly bring affliction
or grief to anyone.
34To crush underfoot
all prisoners in the land,
35to deny people their rights
before the Most High,
36to deprive them of justice—
would not the Lord see such things?
37Who can speak and have it happen
if the Lord has not decreed it?
38Is it not from the mouth of the Most High
that both calamities and good things come?
39Why should the living complain
when punished for their sins?
40Let us examine our ways and test them,
and let us return to the LORD.
41Let us lift up our hearts and our hands
to God in heaven, and say:
42“We have sinned and rebelled
and you have not forgiven.
43“You have covered yourself with anger and pursued us;
you have slain without pity.
44You have covered yourself with a cloud
so that no prayer can get through.
45You have made us scum and refuse
among the nations.
46“All our enemies have opened their mouths
wide against us.
47We have suffered terror and pitfalls,
ruin and destruction.”
48Streams of tears flow from my eyes
because my people are destroyed.
49My eyes will flow unceasingly,
without relief,
50until the LORD looks down
from heaven and sees.
51What I see brings grief to my soul
because of all the women of my city.
52Those who were my enemies without cause
hunted me like a bird.
53They tried to end my life in a pit
and threw stones at me;
54the waters closed over my head,
and I thought I was about to perish.
55I called on your name, LORD,
from the depths of the pit.
56You heard my plea: “Do not close your ears
to my cry for relief.”
57You came near when I called you,
and you said, “Do not fear.”
58You, Lord, took up my case;
you redeemed my life.
59LORD, you have seen the wrong done to me.
Uphold my cause!
60You have seen the depth of their vengeance,
all their plots against me.
61LORD, you have heard their insults,
all their plots against me—
62what my enemies whisper and mutter
against me all day long.
63Look at them! Sitting or standing,
they mock me in their songs.
64Pay them back what they deserve, LORD,
for what their hands have done.
65Put a veil over their hearts,
and may your curse be on them!
66Pursue them in anger and destroy them
from under the heavens of the LORD.
What was the last thing that made you feel down in the dumps? Few people go through life on planet Earth without feeling the blues every now and then. Can you relate? Because of his people’s sin and their punishment, Jeremiah felt very depressed and hopeless. But remembering God’s faithfulness turned his hopelessness into hope. Feeling hopeless? How has God been faithful to you in the past? Since you know he helped you in the past, do you think that he’ll let you down now?
Child,
Just as the dawn brings with it the promise of a new day, so too does each new day bring with it the promise of my love and faithfulness. Let each morning be a reminder of my care and kindness toward you.
—Your compassionate Father
Write out a response to each phrase in these verses.
1How the gold has lost its luster,
the fine gold become dull!
The sacred gems are scattered
at every street corner.
2How the precious children of Zion,
once worth their weight in gold,
are now considered as pots of clay,
the work of a potter’s hands!
3Even jackals offer their breasts
to nurse their young,
but my people have become heartless
like ostriches in the desert.
4Because of thirst the infant’s tongue
sticks to the roof of its mouth;
the children beg for bread,
but no one gives it to them.
5Those who once ate delicacies
are destitute in the streets.
Those brought up in royal purple
now lie on ash heaps.
6The punishment of my people
is greater than that of Sodom,
which was overthrown in a moment
without a hand turned to help her.
7Their princes were brighter than snow
and whiter than milk,
their bodies more ruddy than rubies,
their appearance like lapis lazuli.
8But now they are blacker than soot;
they are not recognized in the streets.
Their skin has shriveled on their bones;
it has become as dry as a stick.
9Those killed by the sword are better off
than those who die of famine;
racked with hunger, they waste away
for lack of food from the field.
10With their own hands compassionate women
have cooked their own children,
who became their food
when my people were destroyed.
11The LORD has given full vent to his wrath;
he has poured out his fierce anger.
He kindled a fire in Zion
that consumed her foundations.
12The kings of the earth did not believe,
nor did any of the peoples of the world,
that enemies and foes could enter
the gates of Jerusalem.
13But it happened because of the sins of her prophets
and the iniquities of her priests,
who shed within her
the blood of the righteous.
14Now they grope through the streets
as if they were blind.
They are so defiled with blood
that no one dares to touch their garments.
15“Go away! You are unclean!” people cry to them.
“Away! Away! Don’t touch us!”
When they flee and wander about,
people among the nations say,
“They can stay here no longer.”
16The LORD himself has scattered them;
he no longer watches over them.
The priests are shown no honor,
the elders no favor.
17Moreover, our eyes failed,
looking in vain for help;
from our towers we watched
for a nation that could not save us.
18People stalked us at every step,
so we could not walk in our streets.
Our end was near, our days were numbered,
for our end had come.
19Our pursuers were swifter
than eagles in the sky;
they chased us over the mountains
and lay in wait for us in the desert.
20The LORD’s anointed, our very life breath,
was caught in their traps.
We thought that under his shadow
we would live among the nations.
21Rejoice and be glad, Daughter Edom,
you who live in the land of Uz.
But to you also the cup will be passed;
you will be drunk and stripped naked.
22Your punishment will end, Daughter Zion;
he will not prolong your exile.
But he will punish your sin, Daughter Edom,
and expose your wickedness.
1Remember, LORD, what has happened to us;
look, and see our disgrace.
2Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers,
our homes to foreigners.
3We have become fatherless,
our mothers are widows.
4We must buy the water we drink;
our wood can be had only at a price.
5Those who pursue us are at our heels;
we are weary and find no rest.
6We submitted to Egypt and Assyria
to get enough bread.
7Our ancestors sinned and are no more,
and we bear their punishment.
8Slaves rule over us,
and there is no one to free us from their hands.
9We get our bread at the risk of our lives
because of the sword in the desert.
10Our skin is hot as an oven,
feverish from hunger.
11Women have been violated in Zion,
and virgins in the towns of Judah.
12Princes have been hung up by their hands;
elders are shown no respect.
13Young men toil at the millstones;
boys stagger under loads of wood.
14The elders are gone from the city gate;
the young men have stopped their music.
15Joy is gone from our hearts;
our dancing has turned to mourning.
16The crown has fallen from our head.
Woe to us, for we have sinned!
17Because of this our hearts are faint,
because of these things our eyes grow dim
18for Mount Zion, which lies desolate,
with jackals prowling over it.
19You, LORD, reign forever;
your throne endures from generation to generation.
20Why do you always forget us?
Why do you forsake us so long?
21Restore us to yourself, LORD, that we may return;
renew our days as of old
22unless you have utterly rejected us
and are angry with us beyond measure.
What do you think prayer is? A list of “thees” and “thous”? Perfectly polished speeches? When Jeremiah poured out his heart to God about his people, he didn’t try to impress God with fancy words. His pleas were heartfelt—he rattled off a list of every care and concern on his mind. And he never resorted to whining or disrespect. Believe it or not, God finds that kind of prayer pretty refreshing. He wants you to come to him as you are—not as you think you should be. He wants real communication from the real you. Really.
Profile: Jazmyne
If I start crying at a cheesy commercial, just ignore me, okay? I don’t know what’s wrong with me! These days I just tear up for no good reason. It doesn’t take much to get me started—the littlest thing can set me off, and I’m sobbing.
I told my mom I must be going through menopause thirty years early. My hormones are whacked out. She just laughed and said that’s part of puberty. (By the way, I hate that word, don’t you?) Unfortunately, my parents think I’m emotionally unstable these days, so anything unusual I do is automatically chalked up to either puberty or PMS. Speaking of periods, mine is so irregular. It’s like on a month, off a month. Maybe that’s my problem.
My mom said that it’s normal for girls to feel like they’re on an emotional roller coaster sometimes. Well, get me off this ride! I get so angry and lose my cool over the littlest things. It’s as if the whole world is on my last nerve. Sometimes I feel so worn out at the end of a day that I just crash. No wonder I feel like sleeping till noon every day. Not to mention the stress of seeing my face break out like this. My poor chin. Aughhhh!
Sometimes I feel fine, but other days I feel so emotional that I just want to die. God, when you invented puberty, what were you thinking?!
emotions in focus
Emotions aren’t bad. They’re part of God’s design. Figuring out how to express them is the key. Proverbs 17:27 describes a person with emotional maturity as being even-tempered. Now, that won’t happen overnight, but you can work on it.
» Physically speaking, while you’re a teen, your body releases hormones that help you develop into a woman’s mature body. Side effects? Acne, emotional flare-ups, irregular periods. You have to take the good with the bad.
» Hormones can run wild right before you start your period. Face it—you may be more moody. Irregular periods are not unusual for a teen, although you may want to check things out with your doctor if you’re really irregular or have exceptionally painful periods.
» You can often control PMS symptoms with diet and exercise.
» If you frequently feel overwhelmed by your emotions, talk to a trusted adult. PMS may not be the only culprit, and a doctor or counselor may offer valuable emotional and physical insight.
For more on this topic, see the index found here.