Lamentations 1

The Desolate City

¹How desolate the city sits

She has become like a widow,

Like a woman of nobility in the provinces,

²She weeps bitterly in the night,

she has no comforter

All her friends have been unfaithful to her;

³Judah has gone into exile with misery

she lives among the nations,

all her pursuers have overtaken her

⁴The roads of Zion are mourning

All her gates are desolate,

her young women are worried,

⁵Her foes have become her master,[#Literally “head”]

Yahweh has made her suffer

Her children have gone away,

⁶All her majesty has gone away

her princes have become like young stags

they have gone away without strength,

⁷Jerusalem remembers

all her treasures

When her people fell into the hand of the enemy,

the enemies saw her, they mocked

⁸Jerusalem sinned grievously,

all those who honored her despise her

She herself groans

⁹Her uncleanness was in her skirts;

she has descended beyond understanding,

See, O Yahweh, my persecution!

¹⁰The enemy has stretched out his hand

for she has seen the nations,

those whom you commanded not to enter

¹¹All her people groan,

They give their treasures for food,

See, O Yahweh, and look,

¹²Is it nothing to you, all who pass by?[#Literally “all who cross a road”]

if there is sorrow like my sorrow,

which Yahweh inflicted

¹³From heaven he sent fire,

He spread out a net for my feet;

he gave me devastation,

¹⁴My rebellion was bound as a yoke,

it was put on my neck

The Lord gave me into the hands

¹⁵The Lord has rejected

He called an assembly against me,

like in a wine press,

the virgin daughter of Judah.

¹⁶For these things, I am weeping,

because a comforter is far from me,

My sons are desolate

¹⁷Zion stretches out her hands;

Yahweh has commanded against Jacob,

Jerusalem has become

¹⁸Yahweh is righteous;

Please hear, all the nations,

My young women and young men

¹⁹I have called to my lovers,

my priests and elders perished in the city

²⁰See, O Yahweh, that I am in distress;[#Literally “there is distress for me”]

my heart has turned inside me

From outside a sword brings bereavement,

²¹They hear that I was groaning;

All my enemies have heard my misery,

Bring that day that you have proclaimed,

²²Let all their evil come before you;

just as you have dealt with me

for my groaning is much and my heart is faint.