Lamentations 1-3
Lamentations 1
1 How lonely sits the city That was full of people! How like a widow is she, Who was great among the nations! The princess among the provinces Has become a [a]Lit. forced laborer slave! 365N 209.1
2 She weeps bitterly in the night, 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 have become her enemies. 365N 209.2
3 Judah has gone into captivity, Under affliction and hard servitude; She dwells among the [b]Gentiles nations, She finds no rest; All her persecutors overtake her in dire straits. 365N 209.3
4 The roads to Zion mourn Because no one comes to the [c]appointed set feasts. All her gates are desolate; Her priests sigh, Her virgins are afflicted, And she is in bitterness. 365N 209.4
5 Her adversaries have become [d]Lit. her head the master, Her enemies prosper; For the Lord has afflicted her Because of the multitude of her transgressions. Her children have gone into captivity before the enemy. 365N 209.5
6 And from the daughter of Zion All her splendor has departed. Her princes have become like deer That find no pasture, That [e]Lit. are gone flee without strength Before the pursuer. 365N 209.6
7 In the days of her affliction and roaming, Jerusalem remembers all her pleasant things That she had in the days of old. When her people fell into the hand of the enemy, With no one to help her, The adversaries saw her And mocked at her [f]Vg. Sabbaths downfall. 365N 209.7
8 Jerusalem has sinned gravely, Therefore she has become [g]LXX, Vg. moved or removed vile. All who honored her despise her Because they have seen her nakedness; Yes, she sighs and turns away. 365N 209.8
9 Her uncleanness is in her skirts; She did not consider her destiny; Therefore her collapse was awesome; She had no comforter. “O Lord , behold my affliction, For the enemy is exalted!” 365N 209.9
10 The adversary has spread his hand Over all her [h]desirable pleasant things; For she has seen the nations enter her [i]holy place, the temple sanctuary, Those whom You commanded Not to enter Your assembly. 365N 209.10
11 All her people sigh, They [j]hunt food seek bread; They have given their [k]desirable things valuables for food to restore life. “See, O Lord , and consider, For I am scorned.” 365N 209.11
12 “ Is it nothing to you, all you who [l]Lit. pass by this way pass by? Behold and see If there is any sorrow like my sorrow, Which has been brought on me, Which the Lord has inflicted In the day of His fierce anger. 365N 209.12
13 “From above He has sent fire into my bones, And it overpowered them; He has spread a net for my feet And turned me back; He has made me desolate And faint all the day. 365N 209.13
14 “The yoke of my transgressions was [m]So with MT, Tg.; LXX, Syr., Vg. watched over bound; They were woven together by His hands, And thrust upon my neck. He made my strength fail; The Lord delivered me into the hands of those whom I am not able to withstand. 365N 209.14
15 “The Lord has trampled underfoot all my mighty men in my midst; He has called an assembly against me To crush my young men; The Lord trampled as in a winepress The virgin daughter of Judah. 365N 209.15
16 “For these things I weep; My eye, my eye overflows with water; Because the comforter, who should restore my life, Is far from me. My children are desolate Because the enemy prevailed.” 365N 209.16
17 Zion [n]Prays spreads out her hands, But no one comforts her; The Lord has commanded concerning Jacob That those around him become his adversaries; Jerusalem has become an unclean thing among them. 365N 209.17
18 “The Lord is righteous, For I rebelled against His [o]Lit. mouth commandment. Hear now, all peoples, And behold my sorrow; My virgins and my young men Have gone into captivity. 365N 209.18
19 “I called for my lovers, But they deceived me; My priests and my elders Breathed their last in the city, While they sought food To restore their life. 365N 209.19
20 “See, O Lord , that I am in distress; My soul [p]Lit. inward parts is troubled; My heart is overturned within me, For I have been very rebellious. Outside the sword bereaves, At home it is like death. 365N 209.20
21 “They have heard that I sigh, But no one comforts me. All my enemies have heard of my trouble; They are glad that You have done it. Bring on the day You have [q]proclaimed announced, That they may become like me. 365N 209.21
22 “Let all their wickedness come before You, And do to them as You have done to me For all my transgressions; For my sighs are many, And my heart is faint.” 365N 209.22
Lamentations 2
1 How the Lord has covered the daughter of Zion With a cloud in His anger! He cast down from heaven to the earth The beauty of Israel, And did not remember His footstool In the day of His anger. 365N 209.23
2 The Lord has swallowed up and has not pitied All the dwelling places of Jacob. 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. 365N 209.24
3 He has cut off in fierce anger Every [a]Strength horn of Israel; He has drawn back His right hand From before the enemy. He has blazed against Jacob like a flaming fire Devouring all around. 365N 209.25
4 Standing like an enemy, He has bent His bow; With His right hand, like an adversary, He has slain all who were pleasing to His eye; On the tent of the daughter of Zion, He has poured out His fury like fire. 365N 209.26
5 The Lord was like an enemy. He has swallowed up Israel, He has swallowed up all her palaces; He has destroyed her strongholds, And has increased mourning and lamentation In the daughter of Judah. 365N 209.27
6 He has done violence to His [b]Lit. booth tabernacle, As if it were a garden; He has destroyed His place of assembly; The Lord has caused The appointed feasts and Sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion. In His burning indignation He has spurned the king and the priest. 365N 209.28
7 The Lord has spurned His altar, He has abandoned His sanctuary; He has [c]delivered given up the walls of her palaces Into the hand of the enemy. They have made a noise in the house of the Lord As on the day of a set feast. 365N 209.29
8 The Lord has [d]determined purposed to destroy The wall of the daughter of Zion. He has stretched out a line; He has not withdrawn His hand from destroying; Therefore He has caused the rampart and wall to lament; They languished together. 365N 209.30
9 Her gates have sunk into the ground; He has destroyed and broken her bars. Her king and her princes are among the [e]Gentiles nations; The Law is no more, And her prophets find no [f]Prophetic revelation vision from the Lord . 365N 209.31
10 The elders of the daughter of Zion Sit on the ground and keep silence; [g]A sign of mourning They throw dust on their heads And gird themselves with sackcloth. The virgins of Jerusalem Bow their heads to the ground. 365N 209.32
11 My eyes fail with tears, My [h]Lit. inward parts heart is troubled; My [i]Lit. liver bile is poured on the ground Because of the destruction of the daughter of my people, Because the children and the infants Faint in the streets of the city. 365N 209.33
12 They say to their mothers, “Where is grain and wine?” As they swoon like the wounded In the streets of the city, As their life is poured out In their mothers’ bosom. 365N 209.34
13 How shall I console [j]Or bear witness to you? To what shall I liken you, O daughter of Jerusalem? What shall I compare with you, that I may comfort you, O virgin daughter of Zion? For your ruin is spread wide as the sea; Who can heal you? 365N 209.35
14 Your prophets have seen for you False and deceptive visions; They have not uncovered your iniquity, To bring back your captives, But have envisioned for you false prophecies and delusions. 365N 209.36
15 All who [k]Lit. pass by this way pass by clap their hands at you; They hiss and shake their heads At the daughter of Jerusalem: “ Is this the city that is called ‘The perfection of beauty, The joy of the whole earth’?” 365N 209.37
16 All your enemies have opened their mouth against you; They hiss and gnash their teeth. They say, “We have swallowed her up! Surely this is the day we have waited for; We have found it, we have seen it! ” 365N 209.38
17 The Lord has done what He purposed; He has fulfilled His word Which He commanded in days of old. He has thrown down and has not pitied, And He has caused an enemy to rejoice over you; He has exalted the [l]Strength horn of your adversaries. 365N 209.39
18 Their heart cried out to the Lord, “O wall of the daughter of Zion, Let tears run down like a river day and night; Give yourself no relief; Give [m]Lit. the daughter of your eye your eyes no rest. 365N 209.40
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 your hands toward Him For the life of your young children, Who faint from hunger at the head of every street.” 365N 209.41
20 “See, O Lord , and consider! To whom have You done this? Should the women eat their offspring, The children [n]Vg. a span long they have cuddled? Should the priest and prophet be slain In the sanctuary of the Lord? 365N 209.42
21 “Young and old lie On the ground in the streets; My virgins and my young men Have fallen by the sword; You have slain them in the day of Your anger, You have slaughtered and not pitied. 365N 209.43
22 “You have invited as to a feast day The terrors that surround me. In the day of the Lord ’s anger There was no refugee or survivor. Those whom I have borne and brought up My enemies have destroyed.” 365N 209.44
Lamentations 3
1 I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of His wrath. 365N 209.45
2 He has led me and made me walk In darkness and not in light. 365N 209.46
3 Surely He has turned His hand against me Time and time again throughout the day. 365N 209.47
4 He has aged my flesh and my skin, And broken my bones. 365N 209.48
5 He has besieged me And surrounded me with bitterness and [a]hardship or weariness woe. 365N 209.49
6 He has set me in dark places Like the dead of long ago. 365N 209.50
7 He has hedged me in so that I cannot get out; He has made my chain heavy. 365N 209.51
8 Even when I cry and shout, He shuts out my prayer. 365N 209.52
9 He has blocked my ways with hewn stone; He has made my paths crooked. 365N 209.53
10 He has been to me a bear lying in wait, Like a lion in [b]Lit. secret places ambush. 365N 209.54
11 He has turned aside my ways and torn me in pieces; He has made me desolate. 365N 209.55
12 He has bent His bow And set me up as a target for the arrow. 365N 209.56
13 He has caused the [c]Lit. sons of arrows of His quiver To pierce my [d]Lit. kidneys loins. 365N 209.57
14 I have become the ridicule of all my people— Their taunting song all the day. 365N 209.58
15 He has filled me with bitterness, He has made me drink wormwood. 365N 209.59
16 He has also broken my teeth with gravel, And [e]Lit. bent me down in covered me with ashes. 365N 209.60
17 You have moved my soul far from peace; I have forgotten [f]Lit. good prosperity. 365N 209.61
18 And I said, “My strength and my hope Have perished from the Lord .” 365N 209.62
19 Remember my affliction and roaming, The wormwood and the [g]bitterness gall. 365N 209.63
20 My soul still remembers And [h]Lit. bowed down sinks within me. 365N 209.64
21 This I recall to my mind, Therefore I have hope. 365N 209.65
22 Through the Lord ’s mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not. 365N 209.66
23 They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness. 365N 209.67
24 “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “Therefore I hope in Him!” 365N 209.68
25 The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, To the soul who seeks Him. 365N 209.69
26 It is good that one should hope and wait quietly For the salvation of the Lord . 365N 209.70
27 It is good for a man to bear The yoke in his youth. 365N 209.71
28 Let him sit alone and keep silent, Because God has laid it on him; 365N 209.72
29 Let him put his mouth in the dust— There may yet be hope. 365N 209.73
30 Let him give his cheek to the one who strikes him, And be full of reproach. 365N 209.74
31 For the Lord will not cast off forever. 365N 209.75
32 Though He causes grief, Yet He will show compassion According to the multitude of His mercies. 365N 209.76
33 For He does not afflict [i]Lit. from His heart willingly, Nor grieve the children of men. 365N 209.77
34 To crush under one’s feet All the prisoners of the earth, 365N 209.78
35 To turn aside the justice due a man Before the face of the Most High, 365N 209.79
36 Or subvert a man in his cause— The Lord does not approve. 365N 209.80
37 Who is he who speaks and it comes to pass, When the Lord has not commanded it? 365N 209.81
38 Is it not from the mouth of the Most High That woe and well-being proceed? 365N 209.82
39 Why should a living man [j]Or murmur complain, A man for the punishment of his sins? 365N 209.83
40 Let us search out and examine our ways, And turn back to the Lord ; 365N 209.84
41 Let us lift our hearts and hands To God in heaven. 365N 209.85
42 We have transgressed and rebelled; You have not pardoned. 365N 209.86
43 You have covered Yourself with anger And pursued us; You have slain and not pitied. 365N 209.87
44 You have covered Yourself with a cloud, That prayer should not pass through. 365N 209.88
45 You have made us an offscouring and refuse In the midst of the peoples. 365N 209.89
46 All our enemies Have opened their mouths against us. 365N 209.90
47 Fear and a snare have come upon us, Desolation and destruction. 365N 209.91
48 My eyes overflow with rivers of water For the destruction of the daughter of my people. 365N 209.92
49 My eyes flow and do not cease, Without interruption, 365N 209.93
50 Till the Lord from heaven Looks down and sees. 365N 209.94
51 My eyes bring suffering to my soul Because of all the daughters of my city. 365N 209.95
52 My enemies without cause Hunted me down like a bird. 365N 209.96
53 They [k]LXX put to death silenced my life in the pit And threw [l]Lit. a stone on stones at me. 365N 209.97
54 The waters flowed over my head; I said, “I am cut off!” 365N 209.98
55 I called on Your name, O Lord , From the lowest pit. 365N 209.99
56 You have heard my voice: “Do not hide Your ear From my sighing, from my cry for help.” 365N 209.100
57 You drew near on the day I called on You, And said, “Do not fear!” 365N 209.101
58 O Lord, You have pleaded the case for my soul; You have redeemed my life. 365N 209.102
59 O Lord , You have seen [m]Lit. my wrong how I am wronged; Judge my case. 365N 209.103
60 You have seen all their vengeance, All their schemes against me. 365N 209.104
61 You have heard their reproach, O Lord , All their schemes against me, 365N 209.105
62 The lips of my enemies And their whispering against me all the day. 365N 209.106
63 Look at their sitting down and their rising up; I am their taunting song. 365N 209.107
64 Repay them, O Lord , According to the work of their hands. 365N 209.108
65 Give them [n]A Jewish tradition sorrow of a veiled heart; Your curse be upon them! 365N 209.109
66 In Your anger, Pursue and destroy them From under the heavens of the Lord . 365N 209.110