Jerusalem in Affliction
That was full of people!
How like a widow is she,
Who was great among the nations!
The princess among the provinces
Has become a [a]slave!
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.
Under affliction and hard servitude;
She dwells among the [b]nations,
She finds no rest;
All her persecutors overtake her in dire straits.
Because no one comes to the [c]set feasts.
All her gates are desolate;
Her priests sigh,
Her virgins are afflicted,
And she is in bitterness.
Her enemies prosper;
For the Lord has afflicted her
Because of the multitude of her transgressions.
Her children have gone into captivity before the enemy.
All her splendor has departed.
Her princes have become like deer
That find no pasture,
That [e]flee without strength
Before the pursuer.
Jerusalem remembers all her pleasant things
That she had in the days of old.
When her people fell into the hand of the enemy,
With no one to help her,
The adversaries saw her
And mocked at her [f]downfall.
Therefore she has become [g]vile.
All who honored her despise her
Because they have seen her nakedness;
Yes, she sighs and turns away.
She did not consider her destiny;
Therefore her collapse was awesome;
She had no comforter.
“O Lord, behold my affliction,
For the enemy is exalted!”
Over all her [h]pleasant things;
For she has seen the nations enter her [i]sanctuary,
Those whom You commanded
Not to enter Your assembly.
They [j]seek bread;
They have given their [k]valuables for food to restore life.
“See, O Lord, and consider,
For I am scorned.”
Behold and see
If there is any sorrow like my sorrow,
Which has been brought on me,
Which the Lord has inflicted
In the day of His fierce anger.
And it overpowered them;
He has spread a net for my feet
And turned me back;
He has made me desolate
And faint all the day.
They were woven together by His hands,
And thrust upon my neck.
He made my strength fail;
The Lord delivered me into the hands of those whom I am not able to withstand.
He has called an assembly against me
To crush my young men;
The Lord trampled as in a winepress
The virgin daughter of Judah.
My eye, my eye overflows with water;
Because the comforter, who should restore my life,
Is far from me.
My children are desolate
Because the enemy prevailed.”
But no one comforts her;
The Lord has commanded concerning Jacob
That those around him become his adversaries;
Jerusalem has become an unclean thing among them.
For I rebelled against His [o]commandment.
Hear now, all peoples,
And behold my sorrow;
My virgins and my young men
Have gone into captivity.
But they deceived me;
My priests and my elders
Breathed their last in the city,
While they sought food
To restore their life.
My soul[p] is troubled;
My heart is overturned within me,
For I have been very rebellious.
Outside the sword bereaves,
At home it is like death.
But no one comforts me.
All my enemies have heard of my trouble;
They are glad that You have done it.
Bring on the day You have [q]announced,
That they may become like me.
And do to them as You have done to me
For all my transgressions;
For my sighs are many,
And my heart is faint.”
Footnotes
- Lamentations 1:1 Lit. forced laborer
- Lamentations 1:3 Gentiles
- Lamentations 1:4 appointed
- Lamentations 1:5 Lit. her head
- Lamentations 1:6 Lit. are gone
- Lamentations 1:7 Vg. Sabbaths
- Lamentations 1:8 LXX, Vg. moved or removed
- Lamentations 1:10 desirable
- Lamentations 1:10 holy place, the temple
- Lamentations 1:11 hunt food
- Lamentations 1:11 desirable things
- Lamentations 1:12 Lit. pass by this way
- Lamentations 1:14 So with MT, Tg.; LXX, Syr., Vg. watched over
- Lamentations 1:17 Prays
- Lamentations 1:18 Lit. mouth
- Lamentations 1:20 Lit. inward parts
- Lamentations 1:21 proclaimed