How Lonely Sits the City
LAMENTATIONS 1 a How lonely sits the city
that was full of people!
How like b a widow has she become,
she who was great among the nations!
She who was c a princess among the provinces
has become d a slave.
2 e She weeps bitterly in the night,
with tears on her cheeks;
f among all her lovers
she has g none to comfort her;
h all her friends have dealt treacherously with her;
they have become her enemies.
3 i Judah has gone into exile because of affliction
and hard servitude;
j she dwells now among the nations,
k but finds no resting place;
her pursuers have all overtaken her
in the midst of her distress. [1]
4 The roads to Zion mourn,
for none come to l the festival;
m all her gates are desolate;
her priests n groan;
her virgins have been afflicted, [2]
and she herself suffers bitterly.
5 o Her foes have become the head;
her p enemies prosper,
because q the LORD has afflicted her
r for the multitude of her transgressions;
s her children have gone away,
captives before the foe.
6 From the daughter of Zion
all her majesty has departed.
Her princes have become like deer
t that find no pasture;
they fled without strength
before the pursuer.
7 Jerusalem remembers
in the days of her affliction and wandering
u all the precious things
that were hers from v days of old.
When her people fell into the hand of the foe,
and there was none to help her,
her foes gloated over her;
they w mocked at her downfall.
8 x Jerusalem sinned grievously;
therefore she became filthy;
all who honored her despise her,
y for they have seen her nakedness;
she herself z groans
and turns her face away.
9 Her uncleanness was a in her skirts;
b she took no thought of her future; [3]
therefore her fall is terrible;
c she has no comforter.
“O LORD, behold my affliction,
for the enemy has d triumphed!”
10 The enemy has stretched out his hands
over all her e precious things;
for she has seen f the nations
enter her sanctuary,
those whom you g forbade
to enter your congregation.
11 All her people z groan
as h they search for bread;
they trade their e treasures for i food
to revive their strength.
“Look, O LORD, and see,
for I am despised.”
12 “Is it nothing to you, all j you who pass by?
k Look and see
if there is any sorrow like my sorrow,
which was brought upon me,
which l the LORD inflicted
on m the day of his fierce anger.
13 “From on high he n sent fire;
into my bones [4] he made it descend;
o he spread a net for my feet;
he turned me back;
p he has left me stunned,
faint all the day long.
14 “My transgressions were bound [5] into q a yoke;
by his hand they were fastened together;
they were set upon my neck;
he caused my strength to fail;
the Lord gave me into the hands
of those whom I cannot withstand.
15 “The Lord rejected
all my mighty men in my midst;
he summoned an assembly against me
to crush my young men;
r the Lord has trodden as in a winepress
the virgin daughter of Judah.
16 “For these things s I weep;
my eyes flow with tears;
for t a comforter is far from me,
one to u revive my spirit;
my children are desolate,
for the enemy has prevailed.”
17 v Zion stretches out her hands,
but t there is none to comfort her;
the LORD has commanded against Jacob
that his neighbors should be his foes;
Jerusalem has become
a filthy thing among them.
18 w “The LORD is in the right,
x for I have rebelled against his word;
but hear, all you peoples,
and see my suffering;
y my young women and my young men
have gone into captivity.
19 “I called to z my lovers,
but they deceived me;
my priests and elders
perished in the city,
while a they sought food
to revive their strength.
20 “Look, O LORD, for I am in distress;
b my stomach churns;
my heart is wrung within me,
because I have been very rebellious.
c In the street the sword bereaves;
in the house it is like death.
21 “They heard [6] d my groaning,
yet e there is no one to comfort me.
All my enemies have heard of my trouble;
f they are glad that you have done it.
You have brought [7] the day you announced;
f now let them be as I am.
22 g “Let all their evildoing come before you,
and deal with them
as h you have dealt with me
because of all my transgressions;
for d my groans are many,
and i my heart is faint.”
The Lord Has Destroyed Without Pity
LAMENTATIONS 2 How the Lord in his anger
has set the daughter of Zion j under a cloud!
k He has cast down from heaven to earth
the splendor of Israel;
he has not remembered l his footstool
in the day of his anger.
2 The Lord m has swallowed up n without mercy
all the habitations of Jacob;
in his wrath o he has broken down
the strongholds of the daughter of Judah;
he has brought p down to the ground p in dishonor
the kingdom q and its rulers.
3 He has cut down in r fierce anger
all s the might of Israel;
t he has withdrawn from them his right hand
in the face of the enemy;
u he has burned like a flaming fire in Jacob,
consuming all around.
4 v He has bent his bow like an enemy,
with his right hand set w like a foe;
and he has killed all who were delightful in our eyes
in the tent of the daughter of Zion;
he has poured out his fury like fire.
5 w The Lord has become like an enemy;
x he has swallowed up Israel;
y he has swallowed up all its palaces;
he has laid in ruins its strongholds,
and he has multiplied in the daughter of Judah
z mourning and lamentation.
6 He has laid waste his booth like a garden,
laid in ruins a his meeting place;
a the LORD has made Zion forget
festival and b Sabbath,
and in his fierce indignation has spurned king and priest.
7 c The Lord has scorned his altar,
d disowned his sanctuary;
e he has delivered into the hand of the enemy
the walls of her palaces;
f they raised a clamor in the house of the LORD
as on the day of festival.
8 g The LORD determined to lay in ruins
h the wall of the daughter of Zion;
i he stretched out the measuring line;
he did not restrain his hand from destroying;
j he caused rampart and wall to lament;
j they languished together.
9 Her gates have sunk into the ground;
k he has ruined k and broken her bars;
l her king and princes are among the nations;
the law is no more,
and m her prophets find
no vision from the LORD.
10 The elders of the daughter of Zion
n sit on the ground o in silence;
p they have thrown dust on their heads
and q put on sackcloth;
the young women of Jerusalem
have bowed their heads to the ground.
11 r My eyes are spent with weeping;
s my stomach churns;
t my bile is poured out to the ground
u because of the destruction of the daughter of my people,
v because infants and babies w faint
in the streets of the city.
12 They cry to their mothers,
x “Where is bread and wine?”
w as they faint like a wounded man
in the streets of the city,
as their life is poured out
on their mothers’ bosom.
13 What can I say for you, y to what compare you,
O daughter of Jerusalem?
y What can I liken to you, that I may comfort you,
O virgin daughter of Zion?
z For your ruin is vast as the sea;
who can heal you?
14 a Your prophets have seen for you
false and deceptive visions;
b they have not exposed your iniquity
to c restore your fortunes,
d but have seen for you e oracles
that are false and misleading.
15 All who pass along the way
clap their hands at you;
f they hiss and wag their heads
at the daughter of Jerusalem:
“Is this the city that was called
g the perfection of beauty,
g the joy of all the earth?”
16 h All your enemies
rail against you;
they hiss, they gnash their teeth,
they cry: “We i have swallowed her!
Ah, this is the day we longed for;
now we have it; j we see it!”
17 The LORD has done what he purposed;
he has carried out k his word,
which he commanded l long ago;
m he has thrown down n without pity;
o he has made the enemy rejoice over you
and exalted the p might of your foes.
18 Their heart cried to the Lord.
O q wall of the daughter of Zion,
r let tears stream down like a torrent
s day and night!
t Give yourself no rest,
u your eyes no respite!
19 “Arise, v cry out in the night,
at the beginning of the night watches!
w Pour out your heart like water
before the presence of the Lord!
x Lift your hands to him
for the lives of your children,
y who faint for hunger
at the head of every street.”
20 Look, O LORD, and see!
z With whom have you dealt thus?
a Should women eat the fruit of their womb,
the children of b their tender care?
Should c priest and prophet be killed
in the sanctuary of the Lord?
21 In the dust of the streets
d lie the young and the old;
d my young women and my young men
have fallen by the sword;
e you have killed them in the day of your anger,
slaughtering f without pity.
22 You summoned as if to g a festival day
h my terrors on every side,
i and on the day of the anger of the LORD
no one escaped or survived;
j those whom I held and raised
my enemy destroyed.
Great Is Your Faithfulness
LAMENTATIONS 3 k I am the man who has seen affliction
under the l rod of his wrath;
2 he has driven and brought me
m into darkness without any light;
3 surely against me he turns his hand
again and again the whole day long.
4 He has made my flesh and my skin waste away;
n he has broken my bones;
5 o he has besieged and enveloped me
with p bitterness and tribulation;
6 q he has made me dwell in darkness
like the dead of long ago.
7 r He has walled me about so that s I cannot escape;
he has made my chains heavy;
8 though t I call and cry for help,
he shuts out my prayer;
9 r he has blocked my ways with blocks of stones;
he has made my paths crooked.
10 u He is a bear lying in wait for me,
a lion in hiding;
11 v he turned aside my steps and u tore me to pieces;
w he has made me desolate;
12 x he bent his bow y and set me
as a target for his arrow.
13 He drove into my kidneys
z the arrows of his quiver;
14 a I have become the laughingstock of all peoples,
b the object of their taunts all day long.
15 c He has filled me with bitterness;
he has sated me with d wormwood.
16 e He has made my teeth grind on gravel,
and f made me cower in ashes;
17 my soul is bereft of peace;
I have forgotten what happiness [1] is;
18 g so I say, “My endurance has perished;
so has my hope from the LORD.”
19 h Remember my affliction and my wanderings,
d the wormwood and i the gall!
20 My soul continually remembers it
j and is bowed down within me.
21 But this I call to mind,
and k therefore I have hope:
22 l The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; [2]
l his mercies never come to an end;
23 they are new m every morning;
n great is your faithfulness.
24 o “The LORD is my portion,” says my soul,
k “therefore I will hope in him.”
25 The LORD is good to those who p wait for him,
to the soul who seeks him.
26 q It is good that one should wait quietly
for the salvation of the LORD.
27 r It is good for a man that he bear
the yoke s in his youth.
28 Let him t sit alone in silence
when it is laid on him;
29 u let him put his mouth in the dust—
there may yet be hope;
30 v let him give his cheek to the one who strikes,
and let him be filled with insults.
31 w For the Lord will not
cast off forever,
32 but, though he x cause grief, y he will have compassion
z according to the abundance of his steadfast love;
33 a for he does not afflict from his heart
or b grieve the children of men.
34 To crush underfoot
all c the prisoners of the earth,
35 d to deny a man justice
in the presence of the Most High,
36 to subvert a man in his lawsuit,
d the Lord does not approve.
37 e Who has spoken and it came to pass,
unless the Lord has commanded it?
38 f Is it not from the mouth of the Most High
that good and bad come?
39 g Why should a living man complain,
a man, about the punishment of his sins?
40 Let us test and examine our ways,
h and return to the LORD!
41 i Let us lift up our hearts and hands
to God in heaven:
42 j “We have transgressed and k rebelled,
and you have not forgiven.
43 “You have wrapped yourself with anger and pursued us,
l killing without pity;
44 m you have wrapped yourself with a cloud
so that no prayer can pass through.
45 n You have made us scum and garbage
among the peoples.
46 o “All our enemies
open their mouths against us;
47 p panic and pitfall have come upon us,
devastation and q destruction;
48 r my eyes flow with rivers of tears
because of the destruction of the daughter of my people.
49 r “My eyes will flow without ceasing,
without respite,
50 s until the LORD from heaven
looks down and sees;
51 my eyes cause me grief
at the fate of all the daughters of my city.
52 t “I have been hunted u like a bird
by those who were my enemies v without cause;
53 w they flung me alive into the pit
x and cast stones on me;
54 y water closed over my head;
I said, z ‘I am lost.’
55 a “I called on your name, O LORD,
from the depths of the pit;
56 b you heard my plea, ‘Do not close
your ear to my cry for help!’
57 c You came near when I called on you;
you said, d ‘Do not fear!’
58 “You have e taken up my cause, f O Lord;
you have e redeemed my life.
59 You have seen the wrong done to me, g O LORD;
judge my cause.
60 You have seen all their vengeance,
all h their plots against me.
61 i “You have heard their taunts, O LORD,
all h their plots against me.
62 The lips and thoughts j of my assailants
are against me all the day long.
63 k Behold their sitting and their rising;
l I am the object of their taunts.
64 m “You will repay them, [3] O LORD,
n according to the work of their hands.
65 You will give them [4] dullness of heart;
your curse will be [5] on them.
66 You will pursue them [6] in anger and o destroy them
from under p your heavens, O LORD.” [7]
The Holy Stones Lie Scattered
LAMENTATIONS 4 q How the gold has grown dim,
how the pure gold is changed!
The holy stones lie scattered
r at the head of every street.
2 The precious sons of Zion,
worth their weight in s fine gold,
how they are regarded as t earthen pots,
the work of a potter’s hands!
3 Even jackals offer the breast;
they nurse their young,
but the daughter of my people has become cruel,
like the ostriches in the wilderness.
4 The tongue of the nursing infant u sticks
to the roof of its mouth for thirst;
v the children beg for food,
but no one gives to them.
5 Those who once feasted on delicacies
perish in the streets;
w those who were brought up in purple
embrace ash heaps.
6 x For the chastisement [1] of the daughter of my people has been greater
than the punishment [2] of Sodom,
y which was overthrown in a moment,
and no hands were wrung for her. [3]
7 Her princes were purer than snow,
whiter than milk;
their bodies were more ruddy than coral,
the beauty of their form [4] was like sapphire. [5]
8 z Now their face is blacker than soot;
they are not recognized in the streets;
their skin has shriveled on their bones;
it has become as dry as wood.
9 Happier were the victims of the sword
than the victims of hunger,
who wasted away, pierced
by lack of the fruits of the field.
10 a The hands of b compassionate women
c have boiled their own children;
d they became their food
during the destruction of the daughter of my people.
11 e The LORD gave full vent to his wrath;
he poured out his hot anger,
and f he kindled a fire in Zion
that consumed its foundations.
12 g The kings of the earth did not believe,
nor any of the inhabitants of the world,
that foe or enemy could enter
the gates of Jerusalem.
13 This was for h the sins of her prophets
and h the iniquities of her priests,
who shed in the midst of her
the blood of the righteous.
14 i They wandered, blind, through the streets;
they were so defiled with blood
j that no one was able to touch
their garments.
15 “Away! k Unclean!” people cried at them.
“Away! Away! Do not touch!”
So they became fugitives and wanderers;
people said among the nations,
“They shall stay with us no longer.”
16 l The LORD himself [6] has scattered them;
he will regard them no more;
m no honor was shown to the priests,
n no favor to the elders.
17 o Our eyes failed, ever watching
o vainly for help;
in our watching we watched
for p a nation which could not save.
18 q They dogged our steps
so that we could not walk in our streets;
r our end drew near; our days were numbered,
for our end had come.
19 Our pursuers were s swifter
than the eagles in the heavens;
they chased us on the mountains;
they lay in wait for us in the wilderness.
20 t The breath of our nostrils, u the LORD’s anointed,
was captured v in their pits,
of whom we said, w “Under his shadow
we shall live among the nations.”
21 x Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom,
you who dwell in y the land of Uz;
but to you also z the cup shall pass;
you shall become drunk and strip yourself bare.
22 a The punishment of your iniquity, O daughter of Zion, is accomplished;
he will keep you in exile no longer; [7]
but b your iniquity, O daughter of Edom, he will punish;
he will uncover your sins.
Restore Us to Yourself, O LORD
LAMENTATIONS 5 c Remember, O LORD, what has befallen us;
look, and see d our disgrace!
2 e Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers,
our homes to foreigners.
3 We have become orphans, fatherless;
our mothers are like widows.
4 We must pay for the water we drink;
the wood we get must be bought.
5 f Our pursuers are at our necks; [1]
we are weary; we are given no rest.
6 We have given the hand to g Egypt, and to g Assyria,
to get bread enough.
7 Our fathers sinned, and are no more;
h and we bear their iniquities.
8 i Slaves rule over us;
there is none to deliver us from their hand.
9 j We get our bread at the peril of our lives,
because of the sword in the wilderness.
10 k Our skin is hot as an oven
with l the burning heat of famine.
11 Women are raped in Zion,
young women in the towns of Judah.
12 m Princes are hung up by their hands;
n no respect is shown to the elders.
13 Young men are compelled to o grind at the mill,
and boys stagger p under loads of wood.
14 n The old men have left the city gate,
the young men q their music.
15 q The joy of our hearts has ceased;
r our dancing has been turned to mourning.
16 s The crown has fallen from our head;
woe to us, for we have sinned!
17 For this t our heart has become sick,
for these things u our eyes have grown dim,
18 for Mount Zion which lies desolate;
v jackals prowl over it.
19 w But you, O LORD, reign forever;
your throne endures to all generations.
20 x Why do you forget us forever,
why do you forsake us for so many days?
21 y Restore us to yourself, O LORD, that we may be restored!
Renew our days as of old—
22 z unless you have utterly rejected us,
and you remain exceedingly angry with us.