Lamentations 1:1-7

New King James Version

Jerusalem in Affliction

1 How lonely sits the city
That was full of people!
^(A)How like a widow is she,
Who was great among the nations!
The ^(B)princess among the provinces
Has become a ^[a]slave!

²She ^(C)weeps bitterly in the ^(D)night,
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^(E)Judah has gone into captivity,
Under affliction and hard servitude;
^(F)She dwells among the ^[b]nations,
She finds no ^(G)rest;
All her persecutors overtake her in dire straits.

⁴The roads to Zion mourn
Because no one comes to the ^[c]set feasts.
All her gates are ^(H)desolate;
Her priests sigh,
Her virgins are afflicted,
And she is in bitterness.

⁵Her adversaries ^(I)have become ^[d]the master,
Her enemies prosper;
For the Lord has afflicted her
^(J)Because of the multitude of her transgressions.
Her ^(K)children have gone into captivity before the enemy.

⁶And from the daughter of Zion
All her splendor has departed.
Her princes have become like deer
That find no pasture,
That ^[e]flee without strength
Before the pursuer.

⁷In the days of her affliction and roaming,
Jerusalem ^(L)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.