Lamentations 1

¹ How she sits alone,
the city once full of people!
She has become like a widow,
she who was great among the nations.
The princess among the provinces
has been put to forced labor.

² She weeps bitterly in the night,
tears on her cheeks.
Among all her lovers
she has no one to comfort her.
All her friends have betrayed her;
they have become her enemies.

³ Judah has gone into exile
under affliction and hard servitude.
She dwells among the nations
but finds no resting place.
All her pursuers overtook her
in the narrow places.

⁴ The roads to Zion mourn,
for no one comes to the appointed feasts.
All her gates are desolate;
her priests groan.
Her young women grieve,
and she herself is bitter.

⁵ Her adversaries have become the head;
her enemies are at ease.
For the LORD has afflicted her
because of the multitude of her transgressions.
Her children have gone away,
captives before the adversary.

⁶ All her majesty has departed
from Daughter Zion.
Her princes have become like deer
that find no pasture.
They fled without strength
before the pursuer.

⁷ Jerusalem remembers
in the days of her affliction and wandering
all the precious things
that were hers from days of old.
When her people fell into the hand of the adversary
and there was no one to help her,
the adversaries watched her
and mocked at her downfall.

⁸ Jerusalem has sinned grievously;
therefore she has become an object of scorn.
All who honored her despise her,
for they have seen her nakedness.
She herself groans
and turns away.

⁹ Her uncleanness was in her skirts;
she did not consider her end.
She fell astoundingly,
with no one to comfort her.
"Look, O LORD, at my affliction,
for the enemy has magnified himself!"

¹⁰ The adversary spread his hand
over all her precious things.
Indeed, she watched nations
enter her sanctuary—
those you commanded
should not enter your assembly.

¹¹ All her people groan,
searching for bread.
They traded their precious things for food
to keep themselves alive.
"Look, O LORD, and consider,
for I have become worthless."

¹² Is it nothing to you, all who pass by?
Look and see
if there is any pain like my pain,
which was dealt to me,
which the LORD inflicted
on the day of his burning anger.

¹³ From on high he sent fire;
into my bones he made it descend.
He spread a net for my feet;
he turned me back.
He made me desolate,
faint all day long.

¹⁴ My transgressions were bound into 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 I cannot withstand.

¹⁵ The Lord rejected
all my warriors in my midst.
He proclaimed a set time against me
to crush my young men.
The Lord has trodden as in a winepress
the virgin Daughter Judah.

¹⁶ For these things I weep;
my eyes, my eyes flow with tears.
For a comforter is far from me,
one to restore my life.
My children are desolate,
for the enemy has prevailed.

¹⁷ Zion stretches out her hands;
there is no one to comfort her.
The LORD has commanded against Jacob
that his neighbors should be his adversaries.
Jerusalem has become
an unclean thing among them.

¹⁸ The LORD is in the right,
for I rebelled against his word.
Hear, all you peoples,
and see my pain.
My young women and my young men
have gone into captivity.

¹⁹ I called to my lovers,
but they deceived me.
My priests and my elders
perished in the city
while they searched for food
to keep themselves alive.

²⁰ Look, O LORD, for I am in distress;
my stomach churns.
My heart is overturned within me,
for I have been very rebellious.
In the street the sword bereaves;
in the house it is like death.

²¹ They heard that I groan;
there is no one to comfort me.
All my enemies heard of my trouble;
they rejoiced that you have done it.
Bring the day you have proclaimed,
and let them be like me.

²² Let all their wickedness come before you,
and deal with them
as you have dealt with me
because of all my transgressions.
For my groans are many,
and my heart is faint.