1 ALEPH 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 has become a forced laborer!
2 BET She weeps bitterly 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 have become her enemies.
3 GIMEL Judah has gone into exile because of affliction and harsh servitude;she dwells among the nations, she finds no rest:all her persecutors overtook her in the midst of her distress.
4 DALET The roads to Zion mourn, because no one comes to the solemn assembly;all her gates are desolate, her priests groan:her virgins are afflicted, and she herself is in bitterness.
5 HEY Her adversaries have become the head, her enemies prosper;for the LORD has afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions:her young children have gone into captivity before the adversary.
6 VAV All majesty has departed from the daughter of Zion:her leaders have become like deer that find no pasture,they fled exhausted before the pursuer.
7 ZAYIN Jerusalem remembers in the days of her affliction and wandering all her precious things that were from the days of old:when her people fell into the hand of the adversary, and no one helped her.The adversaries saw her, they mocked at her desolations.
8 HET Jerusalem has grievously sinned; therefore she has become as an unclean thing;all who honored her despise her, because they have seen her nakedness:yes, she groans, and turns away.
9 TET Her filthiness was in her skirts; she did not remember her latter end;therefore her fall was astonishing; she has no comforter.“Look, LORD, on my affliction, for the enemy has magnified himself.”
10 YOD The adversary has spread out his hand on all her precious things:for she has seen that the nations have entered into her sanctuary,concerning whom you commanded that they should not enter into your assembly.
11 KAPH All her people sigh, they seek bread;they have given their precious things for food to refresh the soul.“Look, LORD, and see, for I am despised.”
12 LAMED Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by?Look, and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow, which is brought on me,with which the LORD has afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger.
13 MEM From on high he has sent fire into my bones, and it overcame them.He has spread a net for my feet, he has turned me back.He has made me desolate and faint all the day.
14 NUN My transgressions are bound into a yoke; by his handthey are fastened together, they are set upon 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.
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16 AYIN For these things I weep; my eyes, my eyes flow with tears;because the comforter who should refresh my soul is far from me.My children are desolate, because the enemy has prevailed.
17 PEY Zion spreads forth her hands; there is none to comfort her.The LORD has commanded concerning Jacob, that those who are around him should be his adversaries.Jerusalem is among them as an unclean thing.
18 TZADE The LORD is righteous, for I have rebelled against his commandment.Please listen all you people, and see my suffering.My virgins and my young men have gone into captivity.
19 QOPH I called for my lovers, but they deceived me.My priests and my elders perished in the city,while they searched for food to refresh their souls.
20 RESH See, LORD, for I am in distress; my stomach churns;my heart is turned within me; for I have grievously rebelled.Outside the sword bereaves, inside there is death.
21 SHIN They have heard that I groan; there is none to comfort me.All my enemies have heard of my trouble; they are glad that you have done it.Bring the day that you have proclaimed, so that they shall end up like me.
22 TAV Let all their wickedness come before you.Do to them, as you have done to me for all my transgressions.For my groans are many, and my heart is faint.
1 ALEPH How the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger!He has cast down from heaven to the earth the splendor of Israel,and hasn’t remembered his footstool in the day of his anger.
2 BET 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 humiliated the kingdom and its rulers.
3 GIMEL He has cut off in fierce anger all the strength of Israel.He has drawn back his right hand before the enemy.He has blazed in Jacob like a flaming fire, which devours all around.
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6 VAV He has done violence to his temple, as if it were a garden; he has destroyed his place of assembly.The LORD has caused solemn assembly and Sabbath to be forgotten in Zion.He has spurned in his fierce anger the king and the priest.
7 ZAYIN The Lord has rejected his altar, he has disowned his sanctuary, andhas given up into the hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces.They have made a shout in the house of the LORD, as in the day of a solemn assembly.
8 HET The LORD has determined 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.
9 TET 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 no more, andher prophets find no vision from the LORD.
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11 KAPH My eyes are worn out from weeping, my stomach is churning.My heart is poured on the earth, because of the destruction of the daughter of my people,because the young children and the infants faint in the streets of the city.
12 LAMED They tell their mothers, “Where is grain and wine?”When they faint as the wounded in the streets of the city,as their lives fade away in their mothers’ bosom.
13 MEM What shall I testify of 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 ruin is great like the sea. Who can heal you?
14 NUN Your prophets have seen for you false and deceptive visions.They have not uncovered your iniquity, to bring back your captivity,but have seen for you false and misleading oracles.
15 SAMEKH 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’?”
16 AYIN All your enemies have opened wide their mouth 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.”
17 PEY The LORD 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 gloat over you and exalted the horn of your adversaries.
18 TZADE Their heart cried to the Lord.O wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears run down like a river day and night.Give yourself no respite; do not let your tears cease.
19 QOPH 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.
20 RESH Look, LORD, and see to whom you have done like this!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?
21 SHIN The youth and the old man lie on the ground in the streets;my virgins and my young men have fallen by the sword.You have killed them in the day of your anger; you have slaughtered, without pity.
22 TAV 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 the LORD’s anger.Those that I have borne and brought up has my enemy destroyed.
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2 He has led me and caused me to walk in darkness, and not in light.
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5 He has built against me, and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship.
6 He has made me to dwell in dark places, like those that have been long dead.
7 GIMEL He has walled me in, so I can’t escape; he has made my chains heavy.
8 Yes, when I cry, and call for help, he shuts out my prayer.
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10 DALET He is to me as a bear lying in wait, as a lion in hiding.
11 He has obstructed my path, and torn me in pieces; he has made me desolate.
12 He has bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow.
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14 I have become a laughingstock to all my people, and their song all the day.
15 He has filled me with bitterness, he has given me in full measure wormwood.
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18 And I said, “My strength and my hope has perished from the LORD.”
19 ZAYIN Remember my affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall.
20 My soul considers them, and is depressed.
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24 “The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.”
25 TET The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul that seeks him.
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29 Let him put his mouth to the dust, there may yet be hope.
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32 For though he may cause grief, yet he will have compassion according to the abundance of his loving kindness.
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35 to deprive a man of justice before the face of the Most High,
36 to subvert a man in his cause, the Lord does not approve.
37 MEM Who can speak a thing and have it come to pass, unless the Lord has commanded it?
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39 Why does a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?
40 NUN Let us examine and search our ways, and return to the LORD.
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42 We have transgressed and have rebelled, and you have not forgiven.
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44 You have covered yourself with a cloud, so that no prayer can pass through.
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47 Fear and the pit have come on us, devastation and destruction.
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49 AYIN My tears flow and do not cease, without respite,
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51 My eyes bring my soul grief, because of all the daughters of my city.
52 TZADE They have chased me relentlessly like a bird, those who are my enemies without cause.
53 They have cut off my life in a pit, and have cast a stone on me.
54 Waters flowed over my head; I said, ‘I am finished.’
55 QOPH I called on your name, LORD, out of the depths of the pit.
56 You heard my voice; do not hide your ear at my sighs, to my cry.
57 You drew near in the day that I called on you; you said, “Do not be afraid.”
58 RESH Lord, you have taken up the case for my soul; you have redeemed my life.
59 LORD, you have seen the wrong done to me; judge my case.
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61 SHIN You have heard their insults, LORD, and all their plots against me.
62 The lips of those that rose up against me, and their plots against me all day long.
63 Behold their sitting down, and their rising up; I am their mocking song.
64 TAV You will render to them what they deserve, LORD, according to the work of their hands.
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66 You will pursue them in anger, and destroy them from under the heavens of the LORD.
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2 BET The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold,How they are regarded as clay jars, the work of the hands of the potter!
3 GIMEL Even the jackals offer the breast, they nurse their young ones, butthe daughter of my people has become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness.
4 DALET The nursing infant’s tongue sticks to the roof of his mouth for thirst.The young children ask for bread, but no one gives to them.
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6 VAV For the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the sin of Sodom,which was overthrown in an instant, and no hands were laid on her.
7 ZAYIN Her consecrated ones were purer than snow, whiter than milk; their bodiesmore ruddy than rubies, their appearance was like lapis lazuli. 4:7 Or, sapphire
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9 TET Those who are killed with the sword are better than those who are killed with hunger;those who waste away, pierced through, for lack of the fruits of the field.
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11 KAPH The LORD has accomplished his wrath, he has poured out his fierce anger;he has kindled a fire in Zion, which has devoured its foundations.
12 LAMED The kings of the earth did not believe, neither all the inhabitants of the world,that the adversary or the enemy would enter into the gates of Jerusalem.
13 MEM 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.
14 NUN They wander as blind men in the streets, they are polluted with blood,so that men can’t touch their garments.
15 SAMEKH “Turn away!” they cried to them, “Unclean! depart, depart, do not touch!”When they fled away and wandered, men said among the nations, “They shall not live here anymore.”
16 PEY The LORD himself has scattered them; he will no more regard them.They did not respect the priests, they did not favor the elders.
17 AYIN Our eyes still fail, looking in vain for our help.In our watching we have watched for a nation that could not save.
18 TZADE They hunt our steps, so that we can’t go in our streets.Our end is near, our days are fulfilled; for our end has come.
19 QOPH Our pursuers were swifter than the eagles of the sky.They chased us on the mountains, they lay in wait for us in the wilderness.
20 RESH The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the LORD, was taken in their pits;of whom we said, “Under his shadow we can live among the nations.”
21 SHIN Rejoice and be glad, daughter of Edom, that dwell in the land of Uz.The cup shall pass through to you also; you will get drunk, and shall make yourself naked.
22 TAV 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.
1 Remember, LORD, what has come on us.Look, and see our disgrace.
2 Our inheritance is turned over to strangers,our houses to foreigners.
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5 Our pursuers are on our necks;we are weary, and have no rest.
6 We have submitted to the Egyptians andto the Assyrians, to get enough bread.
7 Our fathers sinned, and are no more;we have borne their iniquities.
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9 We get our bread at the peril of our lives,because of the sword in the wilderness.
10 Our skin is hot like an oven,because of the burning heat of famine.
11 They raped the women in Zion,the virgins in the cities of Judah.
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14 The elders have gone from the gate,the young men from their music.
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16 The crown is fallen from our head;woe to us, for we have sinned!
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18 For the mountain of Zion, which is desolate;the foxes walk on it.
19 You, LORD, abide forever;your throne is from generation to generation.
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21 Restore us to you, LORD, and we shall be restored;renew our days as in former times,
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