1 How lonely lies the city that once thronged with people! Once great among the nations, now she is like a widow! Once princess among provinces, she has become a vassal.
2 Bitterly she weeps at night, tears running down her cheeks. Not one of all her lovers is there to comfort her. Her friends have all betrayed her; they have become her enemies.
3 Y'hudah has fled into exile from oppression and endless slavery. She lives among the nations, but there she finds no rest. Her pursuers have all overtaken her in the midst of her distress.
4 The roads to Tziyon are mourning because no one comes to the festivals. Her gateways are all deserted, her cohanim are groaning, her unmarried girls are grieving -how bitter it is for her!
5 Her foes have become the head, her enemies relax, for ADONAI has made her suffer because of her many sins. Her young children have gone away captive before the foe.
6 All splendor has departed from the daughter of Tziyon. Her princes have become like deer unable to find pasture, running on, exhausted, fleeing from the hunter.
7 In the days of her affliction and anguish, Yerushalayim remembers all the treasures that were hers, ever since ancient times. Now her people fall into the power of the foe, and she has no one to help her; her enemies are gloating over her, mocking her desolation.
8 Yerushalayim sinned grievously; therefore she has become unclean. All who honored her now despise her, because they have seen her naked. She herself also moans and turns her face away.
9 Her filthiness was in her skirts; she gave no thought to how it would end. Hence her astounding downfall, with no one to console her. 'Look, ADONAI, how I suffer; for the foe has triumphed!'
10 Enemies have reached out their hands to seize all her treasures. She has seen Goyim approach and go inside her sanctuary, those whom you forbade even to enter your assembly.
11 All her people are groaning, as they search for something to eat. They barter their treasures for food to keep themselves alive. 'Look, ADONAI! See how despised I am.
12 'May it not happen to you, all you passers-by! 1062 Just look, and see if there is any pain like the pain inflicted on me, which ADONAI made me suffer on the day of his blazing anger.
13 'From on high, he sent down fire deep into my bones; he spread a net to catch my feet; he turned me back; he left me desolate, in misery all day long.
14 'My sins have been bound into a yoke, knit together by his hand. It weighs down on my neck, and it saps my strength. Adonai has put me into the power of those I cannot withstand.
15 'All the strong men within my walls Adonai has rejected. He has set a specific time for crushing my young men. Adonai has trodden, like grapes in a winepress, the virgin daughter of Y'hudah.
16 'Because of these things, I weep; my eyes, my eyes stream with tears; for anyone who could comfort me and revive my courage is far away. My children are in a state of shock, because the enemy has prevailed.'
17 Tziyon spreads out her hands, but no one is there to console her. Concerning Ya'akov, ADONAI has ordered those around him to be his foes; Yerushalayim has become for them an unclean, filthy thing.
18 'ADONAI is in the right, for I rebelled against his word. Listen, please, all you peoples; and see how I am in pain! My young women and my young men have gone into captivity.
19 'I called out to my lovers, but they let me down. My cohanim and leaders perished in the city, as they were seeking food to keep themselves alive.
20 'See, ADONAI, how distressed I am! Everything in me is churning! My heart turns over inside me, because I have been so rebellious. Outside, the sword brings bereavement; inside, it is like death.
21 'People have heard how I groan, with no one to comfort me. All my foes have heard of my trouble; they are glad that you have done it. Bring the day you have promised, so that they will suffer like me!
22 'Let all their wickedness come before you. Then do to them as you have done to me because of all my offenses. For my groans are many, and I am sick at heart.'
1 - - -
2 Without pity Adonai swallowed up all the dwellings of Ya'akov. In his wrath he broke down the strongholds of the daughter of Y'hudah, brought them down to the ground, thus profaning the kingdom and its rulers.
3 In his fierce anger he cut off all the power of Isra'el, withdrew his protecting right hand at the approach of the enemy, and blazed up in Ya'akov like a flaming fire devouring everything around it.
4 He bent his bow like an enemy, with his right hand set like a foe. He killed all who were pleasant to see. In the tent of the daughter of Tziyon, he poured out his fury like fire.
5 Adonai became like an enemy; he swallowed up Isra'el, swallowed up all its palaces, and destroyed all its strongholds. For the daughter of Y'hudah he has multiplied mourning and moaning.
6 He wrecked his tabernacle as easily as a garden, destroyed his place of assembly. ADONAI caused Isra'el to forget designated times and Shabbats. In the heat of his anger he rejected both king and cohen.
7 Adonai rejected his altar, disowned his sanctuary, and gave her palace walls over to the power of the foe, who raised such shouts in the house of ADONAI that it sounded like a festival day.
8 ADONAI resolved to destroy the wall of the daughter of Tziyon. He measured it with his line and did not stay his hand until it was all in ruins. He brought grief to rampart and wall; together they lie dejected.
9 Her gates have sunk into the ground; he destroyed and broke their bars. Her king and rulers are among the Goyim, there is no more Torah, and her prophets do not receive visions from ADONAI.
10 The leaders of the daughter of Tziyon sit on the ground in silence. They throw dust on their heads; they are wearing sackcloth. The unmarried women of Yerushalayim lower their heads to the ground.
11 My eyes are worn out from weeping, everything in me is churning; I am empty of emotion because of the wounds to my people, because children and infants are fainting away in the streets of the city.
12 They keep asking their mothers, 'Where is something to eat or drink?'as they faint away in the streets of the city, gasping out their last breath in their mother's bosom.
13 What can be said to you, what can be compared with you, daughter of Yerushalayim? What example can I give to comfort you, virgin daughter of Tziyon? For your downfall is as vast as the sea; who can heal you?
14 The visions your prophets saw for you were futile, just a whitewash. They did not expose your guilt, so as to reverse your fortunes -no, the visions they saw for you were alluring, but futile.
15 All who pass your way clap their hands at you, hissing and shaking their heads at the daughter of Yerushalayim: 'This city was called 'perfection in beauty'? 'the joy of the whole earth'?'
16 All your adversaries open their mouths to jeer at you. They hiss, they grind their teeth; they say, 'We have swallowed her up! This is the day we were waiting for, and now we have lived to see it!'
17 ADONAI has done what he planned, he has fulfilled his promise, which he decreed in ancient times. He has destroyed without pity, he has let the enemy gloat over you and filled your foes with pride.
18 Their hearts cried out to Adonai, 'Wall of the daughter of Tziyon! Let your tears stream down like a torrent, day and night! Give yourself no respite, give your eyes no rest!
19 'Get up! Cry out in the night, at the beginning of every watch! Pour your heart out like water before the face of Adonai! Lift up your hands to him for the lives of your babies, who are fainting away from hunger at every streetcorner.'
20 ADONAI, look and see who it is you have thus tormented! Should women eat the fruit of their wombs, the children they have held in their hands? Should cohanim and prophets be slaughtered in the sanctuary of Adonai?
21 Youths and old men are lying on the ground in the streets, my unmarried women and young men have fallen by the sword. You killed them on the day of your anger, you slaughtered them without pity.
22 You have summoned my terrors from every direction, as on a festival day. On the day of ADONAI's anger, not one escaped; not one survived -the children I held in my arms and raised, my enemy has destroyed.
1 I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of his fury,
2 He has led me and made me walk in darkness and not in light.
3 Against me alone he turns his hand again and again, all day.
4 He has worn away my skin and flesh, he has broken my bones.
5 He has besieged and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship.
6 He has made me live in darkness, like those who are long dead.
7 He has walled me in, so I can't escape; he has weighed me down with chains.
8 Even when I cry out, pleading for help, he shuts out my prayer.
9 He has barred my way with blocks of stone, he has made my paths crooked.
10 He lies in wait for me like a bear, like a lion in hiding.
11 He has forced me aside and torn me to pieces, leaving me stunned.
12 He has bent his bow and used me as a target for his arrows.
13 He has pierced my vital organs with shafts from his quiver.
14 I'm a laughingstock to all my people, the butt of their taunts all day long.
15 He has filled me with bitterness, sated me with wormwood.
16 He has broken my teeth with gravel and pressed me down into ashes.
17 I have been so deprived of peace, I have so forgotten what happiness is,
18 that I think, 'My strength is gone, and so is my hope in ADONAI.'
19 Remember my utter misery, the wormwood and the gall.
20 They are always on my mind; this is why I am so depressed.
21 But in my mind I keep returning to something, something that gives me hope -
22 that the grace of ADONAI is not exhausted, that his compassion has not ended.
23 [On the contrary,] they are new every morning! How great your faithfulness!
24 'ADONAI is all I have,' I say; 'therefore I will put my hope in him.
25 ADONAI is good to those waiting for him, to those who are seeking him out.
26 It is good to wait patiently for the saving help of ADONAI.
27 It is good for a man to bear the yoke from his youth.
28 Let him sit alone in silence when he has laid it on him.
29 Let him submit absolutely; there may yet be hope.
30 Let him offer his cheek to the one who strikes it, and receive his fill of insults.
31 For rejection by Adonai does not last forever.
32 He may cause grief, but he will take pity, in keeping with the greatness of his grace.
33 For he does not arbitrarily torment or punish human beings.
34 When anyone tramples underfoot any of the prisoners of the land;
35 when anyone deprives a person of justice, in defiance of the Most High;
36 when someone is cheated of justice in court -does Adonai not take note of such things?
37 Who can say something and have it happen without Adonai's commanding it?
38 Don't both bad things and good proceed from the mouth of the Most High?
39 Why should anyone alive complain, even a strong man, about the punishment for his sins?
40 Let us examine and test our ways and return to ADONAI.
41 Let us lift up our hearts and our hands to God in heaven and say,
42 'We, for our part, have transgressed and rebelled; you, for your part, have not forgiven.
43 'You have covered us with anger, pursued and slaughtered us without pity.
44 You have covered yourself with a cloud so thick that no prayer can pass through.
45 You have reduced us to rubbish and filth among the peoples.
46 'All our adversaries open their mouths to jeer at us.
47 Panic and pitfall have come upon us, desolation and destruction.
48 My eyes stream with rivers of water over the destruction of the daughter of my people.'
49 My eyes weep ceaselessly; there is no respite,
50 until ADONAI looks down and sees from heaven.
51 My eyes make me so upset at the fate of the women in my city.
52 Those who are my enemies for no reason hunted me down like a bird.
53 They forced me alive into a pit and threw stones on me.
54 Water rose above my head; I thought, 'I am finished!'
55 I called on your name, ADONAI, from the bottom of the pit.
56 You heard my voice; don't close your ear at my sighs, at my cries.
57 You came near when I called to you; you said, 'Don't be afraid.'
58 Adonai, you defended my cause; you redeemed my life.
59 ADONAI, you see how I have been wronged; give judgment in my favor!
60 You have seen all their vindictiveness and all their plots against me.
61 You have heard their taunts, ADONAI, and all their plots against me,
62 the whispered murmurings of my foes against me all day long.
63 See how, whether they sit or stand, I am the butt of their taunts.
64 Repay them, ADONAI, as their deeds deserve.
65 Give them hardheartedness as your curse on them.
66 Pursue them in anger! Destroy them from under your heavens!
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2 The precious sons of Tziyon, as precious as fine gold -to think they are now worth no more than clay jars made by a potter!
3 Even jackals bare their breasts in order to nurse their young, but the daughters of my people have become as cruel as ostriches in the desert.
4 The tongue of the baby at the breast sticks to the roof of its mouth from thirst; young children are begging for bread, but no one is giving them any.
5 People who once ate only the best lie dying in the streets; those who were raised wearing purple are clawing at piles of garbage.
6 For the offense of the daughter of my people is greater than the sin of S'dom, which was overthrown in an instant, without a hand to help her.
7 Her princes were purer than snow; they were whiter than milk, their bodies more ruddy than pink pearls, as beautiful as sapphires.
8 Now their faces are blacker than coal; in the streets they go unrecognized. Their skin has shriveled over their bones and become as dry as a stick.
9 Those slain by the sword are better off than those who are dying from hunger; since these waste away as if pierced through, for lack of food from the fields.
10 With their own hands compassionate women have cooked their own children; their children became their food when the daughter of my people was destroyed.
11 ADONAI has finished with his fury, he has poured out his blazing wrath; he kindled a fire in Tziyon that consumed its very foundations.
12 The kings of the earth could not believe, neither could anyone living in the world, that enemy or foe would ever enter the gates of Yerushalayim.
13 It happened because of the sins of her prophets and the offenses of her cohanim, who, within her walls, shed the blood of the righteous.
14 They wander in the streets like the blind; they are so polluted with blood that nobody is able even to touch their clothing.
15 'Keep away! Unclean!' people shout at them, 'Keep away! Away! Don't touch us!'They flee, to wander here and there; but no nation allows them to stay.
16 ADONAI himself scattered them; he will no longer look after them; they had no respect for cohanim and showed no kindness to the leaders.
17 As for us, our eyes are worn out from looking in vain for help; we kept on watching and watching for a nation that couldn't save us.
18 They keep dogging our steps, so that we can't go out in our streets. Our end is near, our time is up; yes, our end has come.
19 Those who pursued us were swifter than eagles in the sky. They chased us over the mountains and waylaid us in the desert.
20 ADONAI's anointed, our life-breath, was caught in their pits; though of him we had said, 'Under his protection, we can live among the nations.'
21 Rejoice, be glad, daughter of Edom, who lives in the land of 'Utz. To you too the cup will pass; you will get drunk and strip yourself naked!
22 Your offenses, daughter of Tziyon, are atoned for; he will keep you in exile no longer. Your offenses, daughter of Edom, he will punish; he will expose your sins.
1 Remember, ADONAI, what has happened to us; look, and see our disgrace.
2 The land we possessed has been passed on to strangers, our homes to foreigners.
3 We have become fatherless orphans, our mothers now are widows.
4 We have to pay to drink our own water; we have to buy our own wood.
5 The yoke is on our necks; we are persecuted; we toil to exhaustion but are given no rest.
6 We made pacts with Egypt and Ashur to get enough food.
7 Our ancestors sinned and no longer exist; we bear the weight of their guilt.
8 We are ruled by slaves, and there is no one to save us from their power.
9 We get our food at the peril of our lives because of the sword in the desert.
10 Our skins are as black as a furnace because of the searing blasts of famine.
11 They have raped the women of Tziyon, virgins in the cities of Y'hudah.
12 Princes are hung up by their hands, leaders receive no respect.
13 Young men are compelled to grind at the mill, boys stagger under loads of wood.
14 The old men have deserted the city gate, the young men have given up their music.
15 Joy has vanished from our hearts, our dancing has turned into mourning.
16 The crown has fallen from our heads. Woe to us! for we have sinned.
17 This is why our hearts are sick; this is why our eyes grow dim -
18 it's because of Mount Tziyon, so wasted that jackals have overrun it.
19 You, ADONAI, reign forever; your throne endures through all generations.
20 Why do you never remember us? Why abandon us for so long a time?
21 ADONAI, turn us back to you; and we will come back; renew our days, as they were in the past -
22 unless you have totally rejected us in a fury that knows no limits. [ADONAI, turn us back to you; and we will come back; renew our days, as they were in the past.]