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Lamentations
Lamentations
1
1 The city that once was full of people
is now sitting all alone.
She has become like a widow,
though she was a mighty nation.
She was a princess among the nations,
but is now forced into slavery.

2 She weeps bitterly in the night,
and her tears cover her cheeks.
None of her lovers comfort her.
All her friends have betrayed her.
They have become her enemies.

3 Judah has gone into exile
after affliction and great labor.
She lives among the nations
and finds no rest.
All her pursuers overtook her
in her desperation.

4 The roads of Zion mourn
because none come to the appointed feasts.
All her gates are desolate.
Her priests groan.
Her virgins are afflicted,
and as for her, it is bitter for her.

5 Her adversaries have become her master;
her enemies prosper.
Yahweh has afflicted her for her many sins.
Her little children go into captivity to her adversary.

6 Splendor has left
the daughter of Zion.
Her princes have become like deer
that cannot find pasture,
and they go without strength
before their pursuer.

7 In the days of her affliction and her homelessness,
Jerusalem will call to mind all her precious treasures
that she had in former days.
When her people fell
into the hand of the adversary,
no one helped her.
The adversaries saw her
and mocked at her destruction.

8 Jerusalem sinned greatly,
therefore, she has become scorned
as something that is filthy.
All who honored her now despise her
since they have seen her nakedness.
She groans
and tries to turn away.

9 She has become unclean beneath her skirts.
She did not think about her future.
Her fall was astonishing.
There was no one to comfort her.
She cried out, "Look at my affliction, Yahweh,
for the enemy has become too great!"

10 The adversary has put his hand
on all our precious treasures.
She has seen the nations
enter her sanctuary,
even though you had commanded
that they must not enter into your assembly place.

11 All her people groan
as they search for bread.
They have given their precious treasures
for food to restore their lives.
Look, Yahweh, and consider me,
for I have become worthless.

12 Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by?
Look and see
if there is anyone else's sorrow
like the sorrow that is being inflicted on me,
since Yahweh has tormented me
on the day of his fierce anger.

13 It is from on high that he has sent fire into my bones,
and it has conquered them.
He has spread a net for my feet and turned me back.
He has made me constantly desolate and weak.

14 The yoke of my transgressions
is bound together by his hand.
They are knit together and placed upon my neck.
He has made my strength fail.
The Lord has given me over into their hands,
and I am not able to stand.

15 The Lord has tossed aside
all my mighty men who defended me.
He has called an assembly against me
to crush my vigorous men.
The Lord has trampled the virgin daughter of Judah
in the winepress.

16 For these things I weep,
my eyes overflow with tears;
for a comforter is far from me,
one who restores my life.
My children are desolate
because the enemy has conquered me.

17 Zion has spread her hands wide;
there is none to comfort her.
Yahweh has commanded
that those around Jacob should be his adversaries.
Jerusalem is something unclean to them.

18 Yahweh is righteous,
for I have rebelled against his commandment.
Hear, all you peoples, and see my sorrow.
My virgins and my vigorous men
have gone into captivity.

19 I called for my lovers,
but they were treacherous toward me.
My priests and my elders perished in the city,
while they sought food to restore their lives.

20 Look, Yahweh, for I am in distress;
my stomach churns,
my heart is disturbed within me,
for I have been very rebellious.
Outside, the sword bereaves;
inside the house there is only death.

21 They have heard my groaning,
but there is no one to comfort me.
All my enemies have heard of my trouble,
and they are glad that you have done it.
You have brought the day you proclaimed;
now let them become like me.

22 Let all their wickedness come before you.
deal with them as you have dealt with me
because of all my transgressions.
My groans are many and my heart is faint.
2
1 The Lord has covered the daughter of Zion
under the cloud of his anger.
He has thrown the splendor of Israel
down from heaven to earth.
He has not remembered his footstool
on the day of his anger.

2 The Lord has swallowed up
and has had no compassion on
all the towns of Jacob.
In the days of his anger he has thrown down
the fortified cities
of the daughter of Judah;
in dishonor he has brought down to the ground
the kingdom and its rulers.

3 With fierce anger he has cut off
every horn of Israel.
He has withdrawn his right hand
from before the enemy.
He has burned up Jacob like a blazing fire
that devours everything around it.

4 He has bent his bow toward us like an enemy,
he has set his right hand like an adversary.
He has slaughtered all
who had been so pleasing to him
in the tent of the daughter of Zion;
he has poured out his wrath like fire.

5 The Lord has become like an enemy.
He has swallowed up Israel.
He has swallowed up all her palaces.
He has destroyed her strongholds.
He has increased mourning and lamentation
within the daughter of Judah.

6 He has done violence to his tabernacle like a garden.
He has destroyed the place of the solemn assembly.
Yahweh has caused both solemn assembly
and Sabbath to be forgotten in Zion,
for he has despised both king and priest
in the indignation of his anger.

7 The Lord has rejected his altar
and disowned his sanctuary.
He has given over the walls of her palaces
into the hand of the enemy.
They have raised a shout in the house of Yahweh,
as on the day of an appointed feast.

8 Yahweh decided to destroy the city wall
of the daughter of Zion.
He has stretched out the measuring line
and has not withheld his hand from destroying the wall.
He has made the ramparts and wall to lament;
together they wasted away.

9 Her gates have sunk into the ground;
he has destroyed and broken the bars of her gate.
Her king and her princes
are among the nations,
the law is no more
and her prophets find no vision from Yahweh.

10 The elders of the daughter of Zion
sit on the ground in silence.
They have thrown dust on their heads
and girded themselves with sackcloth.
The virgins of Jerusalem
have bowed their heads to the ground.

11 My eyes have failed from their tears;
my stomach churns;
my inner parts are poured out to the ground
because of the destruction of the daughter of my people;
children and infants faint
in the streets of the city.

12 They say to their mothers,
"Where is grain and wine?"
as they faint like a wounded man
in the streets of the city,
their lives are poured out
on the bosom of their mothers.

13 What will I testify for you? To what can I compare you,
daughter of Jerusalem?
To what can I liken you, that I may comfort you,
virgin daughter of Zion?
Your wound is as great as the sea.
Who can heal you?

14 Your prophets have seen
false and worthless visions for you.
They have not exposed your iniquity
to reverse your captivity,
but for you they gave utterances
that are false and misleading.

15 All those who pass along the road
clap their hands at you.
They hiss and shake their heads
against the daughter of Jerusalem and say,
"Is this the city that they called 'The Perfection of Beauty,'
'The Joy for All of Earth'?"

16 All your enemies open
their mouths against you.
They sneer and grind their teeth in rage and say,
"We have swallowed her up!
This is the day we have waited for!
We have lived to see it!"

17 Yahweh has done
what he planned to do.
He has fulfilled his word,
which he commanded in former days.
He has overthrown you without pity,
for he has permitted the enemy to rejoice over you;
he has lifted up the horn of your enemies.

18 Their heart cried out to the Lord,
walls of the daughter of Zion!
Make your tears flow down like a river day and night.
Give yourself no relief, your eyes no relief.

19 Arise, cry out in the night,
at the beginning of the night watches!
Pour out your heart like water
before the face of the Lord.
Lift up your hands to him for the lives of your children
who faint with hunger at the corner of every street."

20 See, Yahweh, and consider
those you have dealt in this way.
Should women eat the fruit of their wombs,
the children whom they have cared for?
Should priest and prophet be slaughtered
in the sanctuary of the Lord?

21 Both the young and the old
lie on the dust of the streets.
My virgins and my young men
have fallen by the sword;
you have slaughtered them in the day of your anger
without taking pity on them.

22 You have summoned,
as you would call the people to a feast day,
my terrors on every side,
on the day of the anger of Yahweh
no one escaped or survived;
those I cared for and raised,
my enemy has destroyed.
3
1 I am a man who has seen affliction
under the rod of Yahweh's fury.
2 He drove me away and caused me to walk
in darkness rather than light.

3 Surely he turned his hand against me again and again,
the whole day long.
4 He made my flesh and my skin waste away;
he broke my bones.

5 He built up siege works against me,
and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship.
6 He made me live in dark places,
like those who died long ago.

7 He built a wall around me and I cannot escape.
He made my chains heavy
8 and though I call out and cry for help,
he shut out my prayer.

9 He blocked my path with a wall of hewn stone;
he made my paths crooked.
10 He is like a bear waiting to ambush me,
a lion in hiding;

11 he turned aside my paths,
he has made me desolate.
12 He bent his bow and set me
as a target for his arrow.

13 He pierced my kidneys
with the arrows of his quiver.
14 I became a laughingstock to all my people,
their taunting song all day long.

15 He filled me with bitter herbs
and forced me to drink wormwood.
16 He has made my teeth grind with gravel,
and he made me cower in the ashes.

17 My soul is deprived of peace;
I have forgotten what prosperity is.
18 So I say, "My endurance has perished
and so has my hope in Yahweh."

19 Remember my affliction and my wanderings,
the wormwood and bitterness.
20 I continually remember it
and my soul is bowed down within me.

21 But I call this to mind
and therefore I have hope:
22 The steadfast love of Yahweh never ceases
and his compassions never end,

23 they are new every morning;
your faithfulness is great.
24 "Yahweh is my inheritance," says my soul,
therefore I will hope in him.

25 Yahweh is good to those who wait for him,
to the soul who seeks him.
26 It is good to wait silently
for the salvation of Yahweh.

27 It is good for a man
that he bear the yoke in his youth.
28 Let him sit alone in silence,
when it is laid upon him.

29 Let him put his mouth in the dust—
there may yet be hope.
30 Let him offer his cheek to the one who strikes him,
and let him be filled to the full with insults.

31 For the Lord will not
reject us forever,
32 but though he causes grief, he will have compassion
according to the abundance of his steadfast love.

33 For he does not afflict from his heart
or torment the children of mankind.
34 To crush underfoot
all the prisoners of the earth,

35 to deny a man justice
in the presence of the Most High,
36 to deprive a person of justice in his lawsuit—
the Lord would not approve such things!

37 Who has spoken and it came to pass,
unless the Lord decreed it?
38 Is it not from the mouth of the Most High
that both calamities and the good come?

39 How can any person alive complain?
How can a person complain about the punishment for his sins?
40 Let us examine our ways and test them,
and let us return to Yahweh.

41 Let us lift up our hearts and our hands
to God in the heavens:
42 "We have transgressed and rebelled,
and you have not forgiven.

43 You have covered yourself with anger and pursued us,
you have killed and you have not spared.
44 You have covered yourself with a cloud
so that no prayer can pass through.

45 You have made us like filthy scum
and refuse among the peoples.
46 All our enemies
curse us,

47 panic and pitfall have come upon us,
ruin and destruction.
48 My eyes flow with streams of tears
because of the destruction my people.

49 My eyes will shed tears
without ceasing, without relief,
50 until Yahweh from heaven
looks down and sees.

51 My eyes cause grief to my soul
because of all the daughters of my city.
52 I have been hunted like a bird
by those who were my enemies;
they hunted me without a reason.

53 They cut off my life in the pit,
and they threw a stone on me,
54 and they caused waters to overflow, covering my head.
I said, 'I have been cut off!'

55 I called on your name, Yahweh,
from the depths of the pit.
56 You heard my voice when I said,
'Do not close your ear to my cry for help.'

57 You came near on the day I called on you;
you said, 'Do not fear.'
58 Lord, you defended my soul's case,
you redeemed my life!

59 Yahweh, you have seen
the wrong they have done to me;
judge my case.
60 You have seen all their vengeance,
all their plots against me.

61 You have heard their insults, Yahweh,
and all their plots against me.
62 The lips and the meditations of my enemies
come against me all the day.

63 Look at how they sit and then rise up;
they mock me with their songs.
64 Pay back to them what they deserve, Yahweh,
according to the deeds of their hands.

65 You will let their hearts be shameless!
May your condemnation be upon them!
66 You pursue them in anger
and destroy them from under the heavens, Yahweh!"
4
1 The gold has become tarnished;
how the purest gold has changed!
The holy stones are scattered
at the corner of every street.

2 The precious sons of Zion
were worth their weight in pure gold,
but now they are considered like clay jars,
the work of the potter's hands!

3 Even the jackals offer the breast
to nurse their cubs,
but the daughter of my people has become cruel,
like the ostriches in the desert.

4 The tongue of the nursing baby
sticks to the roof of his mouth by thirst;
the children ask for food,
but there is none for them.

5 Those who used to eat delicacies
are now desolate in the streets.
Those who were brought up wearing scarlet clothing
now lie on piles of ashes.

6 The iniquity of the daughter of my people
is greater than the sin of Sodom,
which was overthrown in a moment
and no hands were wrung for her.

7 Her princes were purer than snow,
whiter than milk;
their bodies were more ruddy than coral,
their form was like sapphire.

8 Their appearance now is darker than soot;
they are not recognized in the streets.
Their skin has shriveled on their bones;
it has become as dry as wood.

9 Those killed by the sword
are better than those killed by hunger,
who wasted away,
pierced by the lack of any harvest from the field.

10 The hands of compassionate women
have boiled their own children;
they became their food during the time
when the daughter of my people was being destroyed.

11 Yahweh showed all his wrath;
he poured out his fierce anger.
He kindled a fire in Zion
that consumed her foundations.

12 The kings of the earth did not believe,
nor did any of the inhabitants of the world believe,
that adversary or enemy
could enter the gates of Jerusalem.

13 This happened because of the sins of her prophets
and the iniquities of her priests
who have shed the blood of the righteous
in her midst.

14 They wandered, blind,
through the streets.
They were so defiled by that blood
that no one could touch their clothes.

15 "Away! Unclean!" people cried at them.
"Away! Away! Do not touch!"
So they wandered about;
people said among the nations,
"They can stay here no longer."

16 Yahweh himself scattered them;
he does not watch over them anymore.
They did not honor the priests,
and they did not show favor to the elders.

17 Our eyes failed, looking in vain for help;
from our watchtowers we watched
for a nation
that could not rescue us.

18 They followed our steps,
we could not walk in our streets.
Our end was near and our days were numbered,
our end had come.

19 Our pursuers were swifter
than the eagles in the sky.
They chased us to the mountains
and lay in wait for us in the wilderness.

20 The breath in our nostrils—Yahweh's anointed one—
he was the one who was captured in their pits;
of whom it was said,
"Under his shadow we will live among the nations."

21 Rejoice and be glad, daughter of Edom,
you who live in the land of Uz.
But to you also the cup will be passed;
you will be drunk and strip yourself naked.

22 Daughter of Zion,
your punishment will come to an end;
he will not extend your exile.
But daughter of Edom,
he will punish your iniquity;
he will uncover your sins.
5
1 Remember, Yahweh, what has happened to us;
look and see our disgrace.
2 Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers;
our houses to foreigners.
3 We have become orphans, without a father,
and our mothers are like widows.
4 We must pay silver for the water we drink,
and we must pay silver to get our own wood.

5 Those who are coming after us are close behind us;
we are weary and we can find no rest.
6 We have given ourselves to Egypt and to Assyria
to get enough food.

7 Our fathers sinned, and they are no more,
and we bear their iniquities.
8 Slaves rule over us,
and there is no one to deliver us from their hand.

9 We get our bread only by risking our lives,
because of the sword in the wilderness.
10 Our skin has grown as hot as an oven
because of the burning heat of hunger.

11 Women are raped in Zion,
and virgins in the cities of Judah.
12 Princes are hung up by their own hands,
and no honor is shown to the elders.

13 Young men are forced to grind grain with a millstone,
and boys stagger under heavy loads of wood.
14 The elders have left the city gate,
and the young men have left their music.

15 The joy of our heart has ceased
and our dancing has turned into mourning.
16 The crown has fallen from our head;
woe to us, for we have sinned!

17 For this our heart has become sick,
for these things our eyes grow dim
18 for Mount Zion lies desolate,
with jackals prowling over it.

19 But you, Yahweh, reign forever,
and you will sit upon your throne
from generation to generation.
20 Why do you forget us forever?
Why do you abandon us
for the length of your days?

21 Restore us to yourself, Yahweh,
and we will be restored.
Renew our days
as they were long ago—
22 unless you have utterly rejected us
and you are angry with us beyond measure.