Lamentations 1:18-22

Easy-to-Read Version

¹⁸ Now Jerusalem says, “I refused to listen to the Lord,
    so he is right for doing these things.
So listen, all you people!
    Look at my pain!
My young women and men
    have gone into captivity.
¹⁹ I called out to my lovers,
    but they tricked me.
My priests and my elders
    have died in the city.
They were looking for food for themselves.
    They wanted to keep themselves alive.

²⁰ “Look at me, Lord. I am in distress!
    I am upset, as if my heart turned upside down inside of me.
I feel this way because
    I have been so stubborn.
Out in the streets,
    I lost my children to the swords.
Inside, it is like death.

²¹ “Listen to me, I am groaning.
    I have no one to comfort me.
All my enemies have heard of my trouble.
    They are happy that you did this to me.
You said there would be a time of punishment.
    You said you would punish my enemies.
Now do what you said.
    Let my enemies be like I am now.

²² “Look how evil my enemies are!
    Then you can treat them the same way you treated me
    because of all my sins.
Do this because I am groaning again and again.
    Do this because my heart is sick.”