Table of Contents
Lamentations
1:1 How the city sits
solitary, that was full of people!
- She has become as a widow, who was great among the nations!
- She who was a princess among the provinces has become tributary!
- 1:2 She weeps bitterly in
the night, and her tears are on her cheeks;
- among all her lovers she has none to comfort her:
- All her friends have dealt treacherously with her; they are become her
enemies.
- 1:3 Judah is gone into
captivity because of affliction, and because of great servitude;
- she dwells among the nations, she finds no rest:
- all her persecutors overtook her within the straits.
- 1:4 The ways of Zion do
mourn, because none come to the solemn assembly;
- all her gates are desolate, her priests do sigh:
- her virgins are afflicted, and she herself is in bitterness.
- 1:5 Her adversaries are
become the head, her enemies prosper;
- for Yahweh has afflicted her for the multitude of
her transgressions:
- her young children are gone into captivity before the adversary.
- 1:6 From the daughter of
Zion all her majesty is departed:
- her princes are become like harts that find no pasture,
- they are gone without strength before the pursuer.
- 1:7 Jerusalem remembers in
the days of her affliction and of her miseries all her pleasant things
that were from the days of old:
- when her people fell into the hand of the adversary, and no one helped
her,
- The adversaries saw her, they mocked at her desolations.
- 1:8 Jerusalem has
grievously sinned; therefore she has become as an unclean thing;
- all who honored her despise her, because they have seen her nakedness:
- yes, she sighs, and turns backward.
- 1:9 Her filthiness was in
her skirts; she didn’t remember her latter end;
- therefore is she come down wonderfully; she has no comforter:
- see, Yahweh, my affliction; for the enemy has magnified himself.
- 1:10 The adversary has
spread out his hand on all her pleasant things:
- for she has seen that the nations are entered into her sanctuary,
- concerning whom you commanded that they should not enter into your
assembly.
- 1:11 All her people sigh,
they seek bread;
- they have given their pleasant things for food to refresh the soul:
- look, Yahweh, and see; for I am become abject.
-
- 1:12 Is it nothing to you,
all you who pass by?
- Look, and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow, which is brought
on me,
- With which Yahweh has afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger.
- 1:13 From on high has he
sent fire into my bones, and it prevails against them;
- He has spread a net for my feet, he has turned me back:
- He has made me desolate and faint all the day.
- 1:14 The yoke of my
transgressions is bound by his hand;
- They are knit together, they have come up on my neck; he has made my
strength to fail:
- The Lord has delivered me into their hands, against
whom I am not able to stand.
- 1:15 The Lord has set at
nothing all my mighty men in the midst of me;
- He has called a solemn assembly against me to crush my young men:
- The Lord has trodden as in a winepress the virgin daughter of Judah.
- 1:16 For these things I
weep; my eye, my eye runs down with water;
- Because the comforter who should refresh my soul is far from me:
- My children are desolate, because the enemy has prevailed.
- 1:17 Zion spreads forth
her hands; there is none to comfort her;
- Yahweh has commanded concerning Jacob, that those who are around him
should be his adversaries:
- Jerusalem is among them as an unclean thing.
- 1:18 Yahweh is righteous;
for I have rebelled against his commandment:
- Please hear all you peoples, and see my sorrow:
- My virgins and my young men are gone into captivity.
- 1:19 I called for my
lovers, but they deceived me:
- My priests and my elders gave up the spirit in the city,
- While they sought them food to refresh their souls.
-
- 1:20 See, Yahweh; for I am
in distress; my heart is troubled;
- My heart is turned within me; for I have grievously rebelled:
- Abroad the sword bereaves, at home there is as death.
- 1:21 They have heard that
I sigh; there is none to comfort me;
- All my enemies have heard of my trouble; they are glad that you have
done it:
- You will bring the day that you have proclaimed, and they shall be
like me.
- 1:22 Let all their
wickedness come before you;
- Do to them, as you have done to me for all my transgressions:
- For my sighs are many, and my heart is faint.
-
2:1 How has the Lord
covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger!
- He has cast down from heaven to the earth the beauty of Israel,
- And hasn’t remembered his footstool in the day of his anger.
- 2:2 The Lord has swallowed
up all the habitations of Jacob, and has not pitied:
- He has thrown down in his wrath the strongholds of the daughter of
Judah;
- He has brought them down to the ground; he has profaned the kingdom
and its princes.
- 2:3 He has cut off in
fierce anger all the horn of Israel;
- He has drawn back his right hand from before the enemy:
- He has burned up Jacob like a flaming fire, which devours all around.
- 2:4 He has bent his bow
like an enemy, he has stood with his right hand as an adversary,
- Has killed all that were pleasant to the eye:
- In the tent of the daughter of Zion he has poured out his wrath like
fire.
- 2:5 The Lord has become as
an enemy, he has swallowed up Israel;
- He has swallowed up all her palaces, he has destroyed his strongholds;
- He has multiplied in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation.
- 2:6 He has violently taken
away his tabernacle, as if it were of a garden; he has destroyed his place
of assembly:
- Yahweh has caused solemn assembly and Sabbath to be forgotten in Zion,
- Has despised in the indignation of his anger the king and the priest.
- 2:7 The Lord has cast off
his altar, he has abhorred his sanctuary;
- He has given up into the hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces:
- They have made a noise in the house of Yahweh, as in the day of a
solemn assembly.
- 2:8 Yahweh has purposed to
destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion;
- He has stretched out the line, he has not withdrawn his hand from
destroying;
- He has made the rampart and wall to lament; they languish together.
- 2:9 Her gates are sunk
into the ground; he has destroyed and broken her bars:
- Her king and her princes are among the nations where the law is not;
- Yes, her prophets find no vision from Yahweh.
- 2:10 The elders of the
daughter of Zion sit on the ground, they keep silence;
- They have cast up dust on their heads; they have clothed themselves
with sackcloth:
- The virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground.
-
- 2:11 My eyes do fail with
tears, my heart is troubled;
- My liver is poured on the earth, because of the destruction of the
daughter of my people,
- Because the young children and the infants swoon in the streets of the
city.
- 2:12 They tell their
mothers, Where is grain and wine?
- When they swoon as the wounded in the streets of the city,
- When their soul is poured out into their mothers’ bosom.
- 2:13 What shall I testify
to you? what shall I liken to you, daughter of Jerusalem?
- What shall I compare to you, that I may comfort you, virgin daughter
of Zion?
- For your breach is great like the sea: who can heal you?
- 2:14 Your prophets have
seen for you false and foolish visions;
- They have not uncovered your iniquity, to bring back your captivity,
- but have seen for you false oracles and causes of banishment.
- 2:15 All that pass by clap
their hands at you.
- They hiss and wag their head at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying,
- Is this the city that men called The perfection of beauty, The joy of
the whole earth?
- 2:16 All your enemies have
opened their mouth wide against you;
- They hiss and gnash the teeth; they say, We have swallowed her up;
- Certainly this is the day that we looked for; we have found, we have
seen it.
- 2:17 Yahweh has done that
which he purposed; he has fulfilled his word that he commanded in the days
of old;
- He has thrown down, and has not pitied:
- He has caused the enemy to rejoice over you; he has exalted the horn
of your adversaries.
- 2:18 Their heart cried to
the Lord:
- wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears run down like a river day and
night;
- Give yourself no respite; don’t let the apple of your eye cease.
- 2:19 Arise, cry out in the
night, at the beginning of the watches;
- Pour out your heart like water before the face of the Lord:
- Lift up your hands toward him for the life of your young children,
that faint for hunger at the head of every street.
-
- 2:20 Look, Yahweh, and see
to whom you have done thus!
- Shall the women eat their fruit, the children that are dandled in the
hands?
- Shall the priest and the prophet be killed in the sanctuary of the
Lord?
- 2:21 The youth and the old
man lie on the ground in the streets;
- My virgins and my young men are fallen by the sword:
- You have killed them in the day of your anger; you have slaughtered,
and not pitied.
- 2:22 You have called, as
in the day of a solemn assembly, my terrors on every side;
- There was none that escaped or remained in the day of Yahweh’s anger:
- Those that I have dandled and brought up has my enemy consumed.
-
- 3:1 I am the man that has
seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.
- 3:2 He has led me and
caused me to walk in darkness, and not in light.
- 3:3 Surely against me he
turns his hand again and again all the day.
- 3:4 My flesh and my skin
has he made old; he has broken my bones.
- 3:5 He has built against
me, and surrounded me with gall and travail.
- 3:6 He has made me to
dwell in dark places, as those that have been long dead.
- 3:7 He has walled me
about, that I can’t go forth; he has made my chain heavy.
- 3:8 Yes, when I cry, and
call for help, he shuts out my prayer.
- 3:9 He has walled up my
ways with cut stone; he has made my paths crooked.
- 3:10 He is to me as a bear
lying in wait, as a lion in secret places.
- 3:11 He has turned aside
my ways, and pulled me in pieces; he has made me desolate.
- 3:12 He has bent his bow,
and set me as a mark for the arrow.
- 3:13 He has caused the
shafts of his quiver to enter into my kidneys.
- 3:14 I am become a
derision to all my people, and their song all the day.
- 3:15 He has filled me with
bitterness, he has sated me with wormwood.
- 3:16 He has also broken my
teeth with gravel stones; he has covered me with ashes.
- 3:17 You have removed my
soul far off from peace; I forgot prosperity.
- 3:18 I said, My strength
is perished, and my expectation from Yahweh.
- 3:19 Remember my
affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall.
- 3:20 My soul still
remembers them, and is bowed down within me.
- 3:21 This I recall to my
mind; therefore have I hope.
- 3:22 It is because of
Yahweh’s loving kindnesses that we are not consumed, because his
compassion doesn’t fail.
- 3:23 They are new every
morning; great is your faithfulness.
- 3:24 Yahweh is my portion,
says my soul; therefore will I hope in him.
- 3:25 Yahweh is good to
those who wait for him, to the soul that seeks him.
- 3:26 It is good that a man
should hope and quietly wait for the salvation of Yahweh.
- 3:27 It is good for a man
that he bear the yoke in his youth.
- 3:28 Let him sit alone and
keep silence, because he has laid it on him.
- 3:29 Let him put his mouth
in the dust, if so be there may be hope.
- 3:30 Let him give his
cheek to him who strikes him; let him be filled full with reproach.
- 3:31 For the Lord will not
cast off forever.
- 3:32 For though he cause
grief, yet he will have compassion according to the multitude of his
loving kindnesses.
- 3:33 For he does not
afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men.
- 3:34 To crush under foot
all the prisoners of the earth,
- 3:35 To turn aside the
right of a man before the face of the Most High,
- 3:36 To subvert a man in
his cause, the Lord doesn’t approve.
- 3:37 Who is he who says,
and it comes to pass, when the Lord doesn’t command it?
- 3:38 Doesn’t evil and
good come out of the mouth of the Most High?
- 3:39 Why does a living man
complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?
-
- 3:40 Let us search and try
our ways, and turn again to Yahweh.
- 3:41 Let us lift up our
heart with our hands to God in the heavens.
- 3:42 We have transgressed
and have rebelled; you have not pardoned.
- 3:43 You have covered with
anger and pursued us; you have killed, you have not pitied.
- 3:44 You have covered
yourself with a cloud, so that no prayer can pass through.
- 3:45 You have made us an
off-scouring and refuse in the midst of the peoples.
- 3:46 All our enemies have
opened their mouth wide against us.
- 3:47 Fear and the pit have
come on us, devastation and destruction.
- 3:48 My eye runs down with
streams of water, for the destruction of the daughter of my people.
- 3:49 My eye pours down,
and doesn’t cease, without any intermission,
- 3:50 Until Yahweh look
down, and see from heaven.
- 3:51 My eye affects my
soul, because of all the daughters of my city.
- 3:52 They have chased me
relentlessly like a bird, those who are my enemies without cause.
- 3:53 They have cut off my
life in the dungeon, and have cast a stone on me.
- 3:54 Waters flowed over my
head; I said, I am cut off.
-
- 3:55 I called on your
name, Yahweh, out of the lowest dungeon.
- 3:56 You heard my voice;
don’t hide your ear at my breathing, at my cry.
- 3:57 You drew near in the
day that I called on you; you said, Don’t be afraid.
- 3:58 Lord, you have
pleaded the causes of my soul; you have redeemed my life.
- 3:59 Yahweh, you have seen
my wrong. Judge my cause.
- 3:60 You have seen all
their vengeance and all their devices against me.
- 3:61 You have heard their
reproach, Yahweh, and all their devices against me,
- 3:62 The lips of those
that rose up against me, and their device against me all the day.
- 3:63 You see their sitting
down, and their rising up; I am their song.
- 3:64 You will render to
them a recompense, Yahweh, according to the work of their hands.
- 3:65 You will give them
hardness of heart, your curse to them.
- 3:66 You will pursue them
in anger, and destroy them from under the heavens of Yahweh.
4:1 How the gold has
become dim! The most pure gold has changed!
- The stones of the sanctuary are poured out at the head of every street.
- 4:2 The precious sons of
Zion, comparable to fine gold,
- How are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of
the potter!
- 4:3 Even the jackals draw
out the breast, they nurse their young ones:
- The daughter of my people has become cruel, like the ostriches in the
wilderness.
- 4:4 The tongue of the
nursing child clings to the roof of his mouth for thirst:
- The young children ask bread, and no man breaks it to them.
- 4:5 Those who fed
delicately are desolate in the streets:
- Those who were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghills.
- 4:6 For the iniquity of
the daughter of my people is greater than the sin of Sodom,
- That was overthrown as in a moment, and no hands were laid on her.
- 4:7 Her nobles were purer
than snow, they were whiter than milk;
- They were more ruddy in body than rubies, their polishing was as of
sapphire.
- 4:8 Their appearance is
blacker than a coal; they are not known in the streets:
- Their skin clings to their bones; it is withered, it has become like a
stick.
- 4:9 Those who are killed
with the sword are better than those who are killed with hunger;
- For these pine away, stricken through, for want of the fruits of the
field.
- 4:10 The hands of the
pitiful women have boiled their own children;
- They were their food in the destruction of the daughter of my people.
- 4:11 Yahweh has
accomplished his wrath, he has poured out his fierce anger;
- He has kindled a fire in Zion, which has devoured its foundations.
- 4:12 The kings of the
earth didn’t believe, neither all the inhabitants of the world,
- That the adversary and the enemy would enter into the gates of
Jerusalem.
- 4:13 It is because of the
sins of her prophets, and the iniquities of her priests,
- That have shed the blood of the just in the midst of her.
- 4:14 They wander as blind
men in the streets, they are polluted with blood,
- So that men can’t touch their garments.
- 4:15 Depart! they cried to
them, Unclean! depart, depart, don’t touch!
- When they fled away and wandered, men said among the nations, They
shall not live here any more.
- 4:16 The anger of Yahweh
has scattered them; he will no more regard them:
- They didn’t respect the persons of the priests, they didn’t favor
the elders.
- 4:17 Our eyes still fail,
looking in vain for our help:
- In our watching we have watched for a nation that could not save.
- 4:18 They hunt our steps,
so that we can’t go in our streets:
- Our end is near, our days are fulfilled; for our end has come.
- 4:19 Our pursuers were
swifter than the eagles of the sky:
- They chased us on the mountains, they laid wait for us in the
wilderness.
- 4:20 The breath of our
nostrils, the anointed of Yahweh, was taken in their pits;
- Of whom we said, Under his shadow we shall live among the nations.
-
- 4:21 Rejoice and be glad,
daughter of Edom, that dwell in the land of Uz:
- The cup shall pass through to you also; you shall be drunken, and
shall make yourself naked.
- 4:22 The punishment of
your iniquity is accomplished, daughter of Zion; he will no more carry you
away into captivity:
- He will visit your iniquity, daughter of Edom; he will uncover your
sins.
5:1 Remember, Yahweh, what
has come on us:
- Look, and see our reproach.
- 5:2 Our inheritance is
turned to strangers,
- Our houses to aliens.
- 5:3 We are orphans and
fatherless;
- Our mothers are as widows.
- 5:4 We have drunken our
water for money;
- Our wood is sold to us.
- 5:5 Our pursuers are on
our necks:
- We are weary, and have no rest.
- 5:6 We have given the hand
to the Egyptians,
- To the Assyrians, to be satisfied with bread.
- 5:7 Our fathers sinned,
and are no more;
- We have borne their iniquities.
- 5:8 Servants rule over us:
- There is none to deliver us out of their hand.
- 5:9 We get our bread at
the peril of our lives,
- Because of the sword of the wilderness.
- 5:10 Our skin is black
like an oven,
- Because of the burning heat of famine.
- 5:11 They ravished the
women in Zion,
- The virgins in the cities of Judah.
- 5:12 Princes were hanged
up by their hand:
- The faces of elders were not honored.
- 5:13 The young men bare
the mill;
- The children stumbled under the wood.
- 5:14 The elders have
ceased from the gate,
- The young men from their music.
- 5:15 The joy of our heart
is ceased;
- Our dance is turned into mourning.
- 5:16 The crown is fallen
from our head:
- Woe to us! for we have sinned.
- 5:17 For this our heart is
faint;
- For these things our eyes are dim;
- 5:18 For the mountain of
Zion, which is desolate:
- The foxes walk on it.
-
- 5:19 You, Yahweh, remain
forever;
- Your throne is from generation to generation.
- 5:20 Why do you forget us
forever,
- And forsake us so long time?
- 5:21 Turn us to yourself,
Yahweh, and we shall be turned.
- Renew our days as of old.
- 5:22 But you have utterly
rejected us;
- You are very angry against us.
Notes:
[1] back to 1:5
“Yahweh” is God’s proper Name, sometimes rendered “LORD” (all
caps) in other translations.
[2] back to 1:14 The word translated “Lord” is
“Adonai.”
[3] back to 3:41
The Hebrew word rendered “God” is “Elohim.”
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