Book 25 Lamentations 001:001 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 is become tributary! 001:002 She weeps sore 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. 001:003 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. 001:004 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. 001:005 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. 001:006 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. 001:007 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 none did help her, The adversaries saw her, they did mock at her desolations. 001:008 Jerusalem has grievously sinned; therefore she is become as an unclean thing; all who honored her despise her, because they have seen her nakedness: yes, she sighs, and turns backward. 001:009 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. 001:010 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 did command that they should not enter into your assembly. 001:011 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. 001:012 Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look, and see if there be any sorrow like my sorrow, which is brought on me, With which Yahweh has afflicted [me] in the day of his fierce anger. 001:013 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. 001:014 The yoke of my transgressions is bound by his hand; They are knit together, they are 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. 001:015 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. 001:016 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. 001:017 Zion spreads forth her hands; there is none to comfort her; Yahweh has commanded concerning Jacob, that those who are round about him should be his adversaries: Jerusalem is among them as an unclean thing. 001:018 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. 001:019 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. 001:020 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. 001:021 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. 001:022 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. 002:001 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. 002:002 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 the princes of it. 002:003 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 round about. 002:004 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. 002:005 The Lord is 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. 002:006 He has violently taken away his tent, 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. 002:007 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. 002:008 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. 002:009 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. 002:010 The elders of the daughter of Zion sit on the ground, they keep silence; They have cast up dust on their heads; they have girded themselves with sackcloth: The virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground. 002:011 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. 002:012 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. 002:013 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? 002:014 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. 002:015 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? 002:016 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. 002:017 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. 002:018 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. 002:019 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. 002:020 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? 002:021 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. 002:022 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. 003:001 I am the man that has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath. 003:002 He has led me and caused me to walk in darkness, and not in light. 003:003 Surely against me he turns his hand again and again all the day. 003:004 My flesh and my skin has he made old; he has broken my bones. 003:005 He has built against me, and compassed me with gall and travail. 003:006 He has made me to dwell in dark places, as those that have been long dead. 003:007 He has walled me about, that I can't go forth; he has made my chain heavy. 003:008 Yes, when I cry, and call for help, he shuts out my prayer. 003:009 He has walled up my ways with hewn stone; he has made my paths crooked. 003:010 He is to me as a bear lying in wait, as a lion in secret places. 003:011 He has turned aside my ways, and pulled me in pieces; he has made me desolate. 003:012 He has bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow. 003:013 He has caused the shafts of his quiver to enter into my kidneys. 003:014 I am become a derision to all my people, and their song all the day. 003:015 He has filled me with bitterness, he has sated me with wormwood. 003:016 He has also broken my teeth with gravel stones; he has covered me with ashes. 003:017 You have removed my soul far off from peace; I forgot prosperity. 003:018 I said, My strength is perished, and my expectation from Yahweh. 003:019 Remember my affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall. 003:020 My soul still remembers them, and is bowed down within me. 003:021 This I recall to my mind; therefore have I hope. 003:022 [It is of] Yahweh's loving kindnesses that we are not consumed, because his compassion doesn't fail. 003:023 They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. 003:024 Yahweh is my portion, says my soul; therefore will I hope in him. 003:025 Yahweh is good to those who wait for him, to the soul that seeks him. 003:026 It is good that a man should hope and quietly wait for the salvation of Yahweh. 003:027 It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. 003:028 Let him sit alone and keep silence, because he has laid it on him. 003:029 Let him put his mouth in the dust, if so be there may be hope. 003:030 Let him give his cheek to him who strikes him; let him be filled full with reproach. 003:031 For the Lord will not cast off forever. 003:032 For though he cause grief, yet he will have compassion according to the multitude of his loving kindnesses. 003:033 For he does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men. 003:034 To crush under foot all the prisoners of the earth, 003:035 To turn aside the right of a man before the face of the Most High, 003:036 To subvert a man in his cause, the Lord doesn't approve. 003:037 Who is he who says, and it comes to pass, when the Lord doesn't command it? 003:038 Doesn't evil and good come out of the mouth of the Most High? 003:039 Why does a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins? 003:040 Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to Yahweh. 003:041 Let us lift up our heart with our hands to God in the heavens. 003:042 We have transgressed and have rebelled; you have not pardoned. 003:043 You have covered with anger and pursued us; you have killed, you have not pitied. 003:044 You have covered yourself with a cloud, so that no prayer can pass through. 003:045 You have made us an off-scouring and refuse in the midst of the peoples. 003:046 All our enemies have opened their mouth wide against us. 003:047 Fear and the pit are come on us, devastation and destruction. 003:048 My eye runs down with streams of water, for the destruction of the daughter of my people. 003:049 My eye pours down, and doesn't cease, without any intermission, 003:050 Until Yahweh look down, and see from heaven. 003:051 My eye affects my soul, because of all the daughters of my city. 003:052 They have chased me sore like a bird, those who are my enemies without cause. 003:053 They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and have cast a stone on me. 003:054 Waters flowed over my head; I said, I am cut off. 003:055 I called on your name, Yahweh, out of the lowest dungeon. 003:056 You heard my voice; don't hide your ear at my breathing, at my cry. 003:057 You drew near in the day that I called on you; you said, Don't be afraid. 003:058 Lord, you have pleaded the causes of my soul; you have redeemed my life. 003:059 Yahweh, you have seen my wrong; judge you my cause. 003:060 You have seen all their vengeance and all their devices against me. 003:061 You have heard their reproach, Yahweh, and all their devices against me, 003:062 The lips of those that rose up against me, and their device against me all the day. 003:063 See you their sitting down, and their rising up; I am their song. 003:064 You will render to them a recompense, Yahweh, according to the work of their hands. 003:065 You will give them hardness of heart, your curse to them. 003:066 You will pursue them in anger, and destroy them from under the heavens of Yahweh. 004:001 How is the gold become dim! [how] is the most pure gold changed! The stones of the sanctuary are poured out at the head of every street. 004:002 The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, How are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter! 004:003 Even the jackals draw out the breast, they give suck to their young ones: The daughter of my people is become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness. 004:004 The tongue of the sucking child cleaves to the roof of his mouth for thirst: The young children ask bread, and no man breaks it to them. 004:005 Those who did feed delicately are desolate in the streets: Those who were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghills. 004:006 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. 004:007 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. 004:008 Their visage is blacker than a coal; they are not known in the streets: Their skin cleaves to their bones; it is withered, it is become like a stick. 004:009 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. 004:010 The hands of the pitiful women have boiled their own children; They were their food in the destruction of the daughter of my people. 004:011 Yahweh has accomplished his wrath, he has poured out his fierce anger; He has kindled a fire in Zion, which has devoured the foundations of it. 004:012 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. 004:013 [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. 004:014 They wander as blind men in the streets, they are polluted with blood, So that men can't touch their garments. 004:015 Depart you, they cried to them, Unclean! depart, depart, don't touch! When they fled away and wandered, men said among the nations, They shall no more sojourn [here]. 004:016 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. 004:017 Our eyes do yet fail [in looking] for our vain help: In our watching we have watched for a nation that could not save. 004:018 They hunt our steps, so that we can't go in our streets: Our end is near, our days are fulfilled; for our end is come. 004:019 Our pursuers were swifter than the eagles of the sky: They chased us on the mountains, they laid wait for us in the wilderness. 004:020 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. 004:021 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. 004:022 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. 005:001 Remember, Yahweh, what has come on us: Look, and see our reproach. 005:002 Our inheritance is turned to strangers, Our houses to aliens. 005:003 We are orphans and fatherless; Our mothers are as widows. 005:004 We have drunken our water for money; Our wood is sold to us. 005:005 Our pursuers are on our necks: We are weary, and have no rest. 005:006 We have given the hand to the Egyptians, To the Assyrians, to be satisfied with bread. 005:007 Our fathers sinned, and are no more; We have borne their iniquities. 005:008 Servants rule over us: There is none to deliver us out of their hand. 005:009 We get our bread at the peril of our lives, Because of the sword of the wilderness. 005:010 Our skin is black like an oven, Because of the burning heat of famine. 005:011 They ravished the women in Zion, The virgins in the cities of Judah. 005:012 Princes were hanged up by their hand: The faces of elders were not honored. 005:013 The young men bare the mill; The children stumbled under the wood. 005:014 The elders have ceased from the gate, The young men from their music. 005:015 The joy of our heart is ceased; Our dance is turned into mourning. 005:016 The crown is fallen from our head: Woe to us! for we have sinned. 005:017 For this our heart is faint; For these things our eyes are dim; 005:018 For the mountain of Zion, which is desolate: The foxes walk on it. 005:019 You, Yahweh, abide forever; Your throne is from generation to generation. 005:020 Why do you forget us forever, [And] forsake us so long time? 005:021 Turn you us to you, Yahweh, and we shall be turned; Renew our days as of old. 005:022 But you have utterly rejected us; You are very angry against us.

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