Lamentations
Chapter 1
1:1How does the city remain solitary that was full of people? She is as a widow:she that was great among the nations,and princess among the provinces, is made tributary.
1:2She weeps continually in the night,and her tears run down by her cheeks:among all her lovers, she has none to comfort her:all her friends have dealt unfaithfully with her,and are her enemies.
1:3Judah is carried away captive because of affliction,and because of great servitude:she dwells among the heathen,and finds no rest:all her persecutors overtook her between the narrow places.
1:4The ways of Zion lament, because no man comes to the appointed feasts: all her gates are desolate: her Priests sigh: her virgins are discomfited, and she is in heaviness.
1:5Her adversaries are the chief,and her enemies prosper:for YHWH has afflicted her,for the multitude of her transgressions,and her children are gone into captivity before the enemy.
1:6And from the daughter of Zion all her beauty is departed:her princes are become like hearts that find no pasture,and they are gone without strength before the pursuer.
1:7Jerusalem remembered the days of her affliction,and of her rebellion,and all her pleasant things,that she had in times past, when her people fell into the hand of the enemy,and none did help her:the adversary saw her,and did mock at her Sabbaths.
1:8Jerusalem has grievously sinned,therefore she is in derision:all that honored her, despise her, because they have seen her filthiness:yes, she sighs and turns backward.
1:9Her uncleanness is in her skirts: she remembered not her last end, therefore she came down wonderfully: she had no comforter: O YHWH, behold my affliction: for the enemy is proud.
1:10The enemy has stretched out his hand upon all her pleasant things:for she has seen the heathen enter into her Sanctuary, whom you did command,that they should not enter into your Church.
1:11All her people sigh and seek their bread:they have given their pleasant things for food to refresh the nephesh:see, O YHWH,and consider:for I am become vile.
1:12Have you no regard, all you that pass by this way? Behold, and see, if there be any sorrow like to my sorrow, which is done to me, with which YHWH has afflicted me in the day of his fierce wrath.
1:13From above has he sent fire into my bones, which prevail against them:he has spread a net for my feet,and turned me back:he has made me desolate,and daily in heaviness.
1:14The yoke of my transgressions is bound upon his hand:they are wrapped,and come up upon my neck:he has made my strength to fall:Adonai has delivered me into their hands,neither am I able to rise up.
1:15Adonai has trampled under foot all my valiant men in the midst of me:he has called an assembly against me to destroy my young men:Adonai has trampled the winepress upon the virgin the daughter of Judah.
1:16For these things I weep:my eye, even my eye casts out water, because the comforter that should refresh my nephesh, is far from me:my children are desolate, because the enemy prevailed.
1:17Zion stretches out her hands, and there is none to comfort her: YHWH has commanded concerning Jacob, that his enemies be round about him: Jerusalem is as a menstruous woman in the midst of them.
1:18YHWH is righteous:for I have rebelled against his commandment:hear, I please, all people,and behold my sorrow:my virgins and my young men are gone into captivity.
1:19I called for my lovers,but they deceived me:my Priests and my Elders perished in the city while they sought their meat to refresh their nepheshes.
1:20Behold, O YHWH, how I am troubled:my bowels swell:my heart is turned within me,for I am full of heaviness:the sword spoils abroad, as death does at home.
1:21They have heard that I mourn,but there is none to comfort me:all my enemies have heard of my trouble,and are glad,that you have done it:you will bring the day,that you have pronounced,and they shall be like to me.
1:22Let 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 heavy.
Chapter 2
2:1How has Adonai darkened the daughter of Zion in his wrath! And has cast down from heaven to the earth the beauty of Israel,and remembered not his footstool in the day of his wrath!
2:2Adonai has destroyed all the habitations of Jacob, and not spared: he has thrown down in his wrath the strongholds of the daughter of Judah: he has cast them down to the ground: he has polluted the kingdom and the princes of it.
2:3He has cut off in his fierce wrath all the horn of Israel:he has drawn back his right hand from before the enemy,and there was kindled in Jacob like a flame of fire, which devoured round about.
2:4He has bent his bow like an enemy:his right hand was stretched up as an adversary,and slew all that was pleasant to the eye in the tabernacle of the daughter of Zion:he poured out his wrath like fire.
2:5Adonai was as an enemy:he has devoured Israel,and consumed all his palaces:he has destroyed his strong holds,and has increased in the daughter of Judah lamentation and mourning.
2:6For he has destroyed his Tabernacle, as a garden, he has destroyed his Congregation:YHWH has caused the feasts and Sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion,and has despised in the indignation of his wrath the King and the Priest.
2:7Adonai has forsaken his altar:he has abhorred his Sanctuary:he has given into the hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces:they have made a noise in the House of YHWH, as in the day of solemnity.
2:8YHWH has determined to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion:he stretched out a line:he has not withdrawn his hand from destroying:therefore he made the rampart and the wall to lament:they were destroyed together.
2:9Her gates are sunk to the ground:he has destroyed and broken her bars:her King and her princes are among the Gentiles:the Law is no more,neither can her Prophets receive any vision from YHWH.
2:10The Elders of the daughter of Zion sit upon the ground,and keep silence:they have cast up dust upon their heads:they have girded themselves with sackcloth:the virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground.
2:11My eyes do fail with tears:my bowels swell:my liver is poured upon the earth,for the destruction of the daughter of my people, because the children and sucklings swoon in the streets of the city.
2:12They have said to their mothers, Where is bread and drink? When they swoon as the wounded in the streets of the city,and when they poured out their nephesh in their mothers bosom.
2:13What thing shall I take to witness for you? What thing shall I compare to you, O daughter Jerusalem? What shall I liken to you,that I may comfort you, O virgin daughter Zion? For your breach is great like the sea:who can heal you?
2:14Your Prophets have looked out vain,and foolish things for you,and they have not discovered your iniquity, to turn away your captivity,but have looked out for you false prophecies,and causes of banishment.
2:15All that pass by the way, clap their hands at you:they hiss and wag their head upon the daughter Jerusalem, saying, Is this the city that men call, The perfection of beauty,and the joy of the whole earth?
2:16All your enemies have opened their mouth against you:they hiss and gnash the teeth, saying, Let us devour it:certainly this is the day that we looked for:we have found and seen it.
2:17YHWH has done that which he had purposed: he has fulfilled his word that he had commanded in the days of old: he has thrown down, and not spared: he has caused your enemy to rejoice over you, and set up the horn of your adversaries.
2:18Their heart cried to Adonai, O wall of the daughter Zion, let tears run down like a river, day and night:take no rest,neither let the apple of your eye cease.
2:19Arise, cry in the night:in the beginning of the watches pour out your heart like water before the face of Adonai:lift up your hands toward him for the nephesh of your young children,that faint for hunger in the corners of all the streets.
2:20Behold, O YHWH,and consider to whom you have done thus:shall the women eat their fruit,and children of a span long? Shall the Priest and the Prophet be slain in the Sanctuary of Adonai?
2:21The young and the old lie on the ground in the streets:my virgins and my young men are fallen by the sword:you have slain them in the day of your wrath:you have killed and not spared.
2:22You have called as in a solemn day my terrors round about, so that in the day of YHWH's wrath none escaped nor remained:those that I have nourished and brought up, has my enemy consumed.
Chapter 3
3:1I am the man,that has seen affliction in the rod of his indignation.
3:2He has led me,and brought me into darkness,but not to light.
3:3Surely he is turned against me:he turns his hand against me all the day.
3:4My flesh and my skin has he caused to grow old,and he has broken my bones.
3:5He has built against me,and compassed me with gall,and labor.
3:6He has set me in dark places, as they that be dead forever.
3:7He has hedged about me,that I cannot get out:he has made my chains heavy.
3:8Also when I cry and shout, he shuts out my prayer.
3:9He has stopped up my ways with hewn stone,and turned away my paths.
3:10He was to me as a bear lying in wait,and as a Lion in secret places.
3:11He has stopped my ways,and pulled me in pieces:he has made me desolate.
3:12He has bent his bow and made me a mark for the arrow.
3:13He caused the arrows of his quiver to enter into my reins.
3:14I was a derision to all my people,and their song all the day.
3:15He has filled me with bitterness,and made me drunken with wormwood.
3:16He has also broken my teeth with stones,and has covered me with ashes.
3:17Thus my nephesh was far off from peace:I forgot prosperity,
3:18And I said, My strength and my hope is perished from YHWH,
3:19Remember my affliction,and my mourning, the wormwood and the gall.
3:20My nephesh has them in remembrance,and is humbled in me.
3:21I consider this in my heart:therefore have I hope.
3:22It is YHWH's chesed that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.
3:23They are renewed every morning:great is your faithfulness.
3:24YHWH is my portion, says my nephesh:therefore will I hope in him.
3:25YHWH is good to them,that trust in him,and to the nephesh that seeks him.
3:26It is good both to trust,and to wait for the salvation of YHWH.
3:27It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.
3:28He sits alone,and keeps silence, because he has born it upon him.
3:29He puts his mouth in the dust, if there may be hope.
3:30He gives his cheek to him that smites him:he is filled full with reproaches.
3:31For Adonai will not forsake forever.
3:32But though he send affliction, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his chesed.
3:33For he does not punish willingly, nor afflict the children of men,
3:34In stamping under his feet all the prisoners of the earth,
3:35In overthrowing the right of a man before the face of the most high,
3:36In subvert a man in his cause:Adonai sees it not.
3:37Who is he then that says,and it comes to pass,and Adonai commands it not?
3:38Out of the mouth of the most high proceeds not evil and good?
3:39Why then is the living man sorrowful? Man suffers for his sin.
3:40Let us search and try our ways,and turn again to YHWH.
3:41Let us lift up our hearts with our hands to El in the heavens.
3:42We have sinned,and have rebelled,therefore you have not spared.
3:43You have covered us with wrath,and persecuted us:you have slain and not spared.
3:44You have covered yourself with a cloud,that our prayer should not pass through.
3:45You have made us as the offscouring and refuse in the midst of the people.
3:46All our enemies have opened their mouth against us.
3:47Fear,and a snare is come upon us with desolation and destruction.
3:48My eye casts out rivers of water,for the destruction of the daughter of my people.
3:49My eye do without stay and cease not,
3:50Till YHWH look down,and behold from heaven.
3:51My eye breaks my nephesh because of all the daughters of my city.
3:52My enemies chased me sore like a bird, without cause.
3:53They have shut up my life in the dungeon,and cast a stone upon me.
3:54Waters flowed over my head, then thought I, I am destroyed.
3:55I called upon Your Name, O YHWH, out of the low dungeon.
3:56You have heard my voice:stop not your ear from my sigh and from my cry.
3:57You drew near in the day that I called upon you:you said, Fear not.
3:58O Adonai, you have maintained the cause of my nephesh,and have redeemed my life.
3:59O YHWH, You have seen my wrong, judge my cause.
3:60You have seen all their vengeance,and all their devices against me.
3:61You have heard their reproach, O YHWH,and all their imaginations against me:
3:62The lips also of those that rose against me,and their whispering against me continually.
3:63Behold, their sitting down and their rising up, how I am their song.
3:64Give them a recompense, O YHWH, according to the work of their hands.
3:65Give them sorrow of heart, even your curse to them.
3:66Persecute with wrath and destroy them from under the heaven, O YHWH.
Chapter 4
4:1How is the gold become so dim? The most pure gold is changed, and the stones of the Sanctuary are scattered in the corner of every street.
4:2The noble men of Zion comparable to fine gold, how are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, even the work of the hands of the potter!
4:3Even the dragons draw out the breasts,and give suck to their young,but the daughter of my people is become cruel like the ostriches in the wilderness.
4:4The tongue of the sucking child cleaves to the roof of his mouth for thirst:the young children ask bread,but no man breaks it to them.
4:5They that did feed delicately, perish in the streets:they that were brought up in scarlet, embrace the dung.
4:6For the iniquity of the daughter of my people is become greater than the sin of Sodom,that was destroyed as in a moment,and none pitched camps against her.
4:7Her Nazirites were purer than the snow,and whiter than you milk:they were more ruddy in body, than the red precious stones;they were like polished sapphire.
4:8Now their visage is blacker than a coal:they cannot know them in the streets:their skin cleaves to their bones:it is withered like a stock.
4:9They that be slain with the sword are better, than they that are killed with hunger:for they fade away as they were stricken through for the fruits of the field.
4:10The hands of the pitiful women have boiled their own children, who were their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people.
4:11YHWH has accomplished his indignation: he has poured out his fierce wrath, he has kindled a fire in Zion, which has devoured the foundations of it.
4:12The Kings of the earth,and all the inhabitants of the world would not have believed that the adversary and the enemy should have entered into the gates of Jerusalem:
4:13For the sins of her Prophets,and the iniquities of her Priests,that have shed the blood of the just in the midst of her.
4:14They have wandered as blind men in the streets,and they were polluted with blood, so that they would not touch their garments.
4:15But they cried to them, Depart, you polluted, depart, depart, touch not:therefore they fled away,and wandered:they have said among the heathen, They shall no more dwell there.
4:16The anger of YHWH has scattered them, he will no more regard them:they reverenced not the face of the Priests, nor showed favor to the Elders.
4:17While we waited for our vain help, our eyes failed:for in our waiting we looked for a nation that could not save us.
4:18They hunt our steps that we cannot go in our streets:our end is near, our days are fulfilled,for our end is come.
4:19Our pursued are swifter than the eagles of the heaven:they pursued us upon the mountains,and laid wait for us in the wilderness.
4:20The breath of our nostrils, the Anointed of YHWH was taken in their nets, of whom we said, Under his shadow we shall be preserved alive among the heathen.
4:21Rejoice and be glad, O daughter Edom,that dwell in the land of Uz, the cup also shall pass through to you:you shall be drunken and vomit.
4:22Your punishment is accomplished, O daughter Zion:he will no more carry you away into captivity,but he will visit your iniquity, O daughter Edom, he will discover your sins.
Chapter 5
5:1Remember, O YHWH, what is come upon us:consider,and behold our reproach.
5:2Our inheritance is turned to the strangers, our houses to the aliens.
5:3We are fatherless, even without father,and our mothers are as widows.
5:4We have drunk our water for money,and our wood is sold to us.
5:5Our necks are under persecution:we are weary,and have no rest.
5:6We have given our hands to the Egyptians,and to Asshur, to be satisfied with bread.
5:7Our fathers have sinned,and are not,and we have born their iniquities.
5:8Servants have ruled over us, none would deliver us out of their hands.
5:9We got our bread with the peril of our nepheshes, because of the sword of the wilderness.
5:10Our skin was black like as an oven because of the terrible famine.
5:11They defiled the women in Zion,and the maids in the cities of Judah.
5:12The princes are hanged up by their hand:the faces of the elders were not had in honor.
5:13They took the young men to grind,and the children fell under the wood.
5:14The Elders have ceased from the gate and the young men from their songs.
5:15The joy of our heart is gone, our dance is turned into mourning.
5:16The crown of our head is fallen:woe now to us,that we have sinned.
5:17Therefore our heart is heavy for these things, our eyes are darkened,
5:18Because of the mountain of Zion which is desolate:the foxes run upon it.
5:19But You, O YHWH, remain forever:your throne is from generation to generation.
5:20Why do you forget us forever,and forsake us so long time?
5:21Turn You us to You, O YHWH,and we shall be turned:renew our days as of old.
5:22But you have utterly rejected us:you are exceedingly angry against us.