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The Deserted City

How lonely sits the city
    that once was full of people!
How like a widow she has become,
    she that was great among the nations!
She that was a princess among the provinces
    has become subject to forced labor.(A)

She weeps bitterly in the night,
    with tears on her cheeks;
among all her lovers,
    she has no one to comfort her;
all her friends have dealt treacherously with her;
    they have become her enemies.(B)

Judah has gone into exile with suffering
    and hard servitude;
she lives now among the nations;
    she finds no resting place;
her pursuers have all overtaken her
    in the midst of her distress.(C)

The roads to Zion mourn,
    for no one comes to the festivals;
all her gates are desolate;
    her priests groan;
her young girls grieve,[a]
    and her lot is bitter.(D)

Her foes have become the masters;
    her enemies prosper
because the Lord has made her suffer
    for the multitude of her transgressions;
her children have gone away,
    captives before the foe.(E)

From daughter Zion has departed
    all her majesty.
Her princes have become like stags
    that find no pasture;
they fled without strength
    before the pursuer.(F)

Jerusalem remembers[b] all the precious things
    that were hers in days of old.
When her people fell into the hand of the enemy
    and there was no one to help her,
the enemy looked on;
    they mocked over her downfall.(G)

Jerusalem sinned grievously,
    so she has become a filthy thing;
all who honored her despise her,
    for they have seen her nakedness;
she herself groans
    and turns her face away.(H)

Her uncleanness was in her skirts;
    she took no thought of her future;
her downfall was appalling,
    with none to comfort her.
Look, O Lord, at my affliction,
    for the enemy has triumphed!(I)

10 Enemies have stretched out their hands
    over all her precious things;
she has even seen the nations
    invade her sanctuary,
those whom you forbade
    to enter your congregation.(J)

11 All her people groan
    as they search for bread;
they trade their treasures for food
    to revive their lives.
Look, O Lord, and see
    how worthless I have become.(K)

12 Is it nothing to you,[c] all you who pass by?
    Look and see
if there is any sorrow like my sorrow,
    which was brought upon me,
which the Lord inflicted
    on the day of his fierce anger.(L)

13 From on high he sent fire;
    it went deep into my bones;
he spread a net for my feet;
    he turned me back;
he has left me stunned,
    faint all day long.(M)

14 My transgressions were bound[d] into a yoke;
    by his hand they were fastened together;
they weigh on my neck,
    sapping my strength;
the Lord handed me over
    to those whom I cannot withstand.(N)

15 The Lord has rejected
    all my warriors in the midst of me;
he proclaimed a time against me
    to crush my young men;
the Lord has trodden as in a winepress
    the virgin daughter Judah.(O)

16 For these things I weep;
    my eyes[e] flow with tears;
for a comforter is far from me,
    one to revive my courage;
my children are desolate,
    for the enemy has prevailed.(P)

17 Zion stretches out her hands,
    but there is no one to comfort her;
the Lord has commanded against Jacob
    that his neighbors should become his foes;
Jerusalem has become
    a filthy thing among them.(Q)

18 The Lord is in the right,
    for I have rebelled against his word;
but hear, all you peoples,
    and behold my suffering;
my young women and young men
    have gone into captivity.(R)

19 I called to my lovers,
    but they deceived me;
my priests and elders
    perished in the city
while seeking food
    to revive their lives.(S)

20 Look, O Lord, at how distressed I am;
    my stomach churns;
my heart is wrung within me
    because I have been very rebellious.
In the street the sword bereaves;
    in the house it is like death.(T)

21 They heard how I was groaning,
    with no one to comfort me.
All my enemies heard of my trouble;
    they are glad that you have done it.
Bring on the day that you have announced,
    and let them be as I am.(U)

22 Let all their evildoing come before you,
    and deal with them
as you have dealt with me
    because of all my transgressions;
for my groans are many,
    and my heart is faint.(V)

God’s Warnings Fulfilled

How the Lord in his anger
    has humiliated[f] daughter Zion!
He has thrown down from heaven to earth
    the splendor of Israel;
he has not remembered his footstool
    in the day of his anger.(W)

The Lord has destroyed without mercy
    all the dwellings of Jacob;
in his wrath he has broken down
    the strongholds of daughter Judah;
he has brought down to the ground in dishonor
    the kingdom and its rulers.(X)

He has cut down in fierce anger
    all the might of Israel;
he has withdrawn his right hand from them
    in the face of the enemy;
he has burned like a flaming fire in Jacob,
    consuming all around.(Y)

He has bent his bow like an enemy,
    with his right hand set like a foe;
he has killed all those
    in whom we took pride
in the tent of daughter Zion;
    he has poured out his fury like fire.(Z)

The Lord has become like an enemy;
    he has destroyed Israel.
He has destroyed all its palaces,
    laid in ruins its strongholds,
and multiplied in daughter Judah
    mourning and lamentation.(AA)

He has broken down his booth like a garden;
    he has destroyed his tabernacle;
the Lord has abolished in Zion
    festival and Sabbath
and in his fierce indignation has spurned
    king and priest.(AB)

The Lord has scorned his altar,
    disowned his sanctuary;
he has delivered into the hand of the enemy
    the walls of her palaces;
a clamor was raised in the house of the Lord
    as on a day of festival.(AC)

The Lord determined to lay in ruins
    the wall of daughter Zion;
he stretched the line;
    he did not withhold his hand from destroying;
he caused rampart and wall to lament;
    they languish together.(AD)

Her gates have sunk into the ground;
    he has ruined and broken her bars;
her king and princes are among the nations;
    guidance is no more,
and her prophets obtain
    no vision from the Lord.(AE)

10 The elders of daughter Zion
    sit on the ground in silence;
they have thrown dust on their heads;
    they put on sackcloth;
the young women of Jerusalem
    have bowed their heads to the ground.(AF)

11 My eyes are spent with weeping;
    my stomach churns;
my bile is poured out on the ground
    because of the destruction of my people,[g]
because infants and babes faint
    in the streets of the city.(AG)

12 They cry to their mothers,
    “Where is bread and wine?”
as they faint like the wounded
    in the streets of the city,
as their life is poured out
    on their mothers’ bosoms.(AH)

13 What can I say for you, to what compare you,
    O daughter Jerusalem?
To what can I liken you, that I may comfort you,
    O virgin daughter Zion?
For vast as the sea is your ruin;
    who can heal you?(AI)

14 Your prophets have seen for you
    false and deceptive visions;
they have not exposed your iniquity
    to restore your fortunes
but have seen oracles for you
    that are false and misleading.(AJ)

15 All who pass along the way
    clap their hands at you;
they hiss and wag their heads
    at daughter Jerusalem:
“Is this the city that was called
    the perfection of beauty,
    the joy of all the earth?”(AK)

16 All your enemies
    open their mouths against you;
they hiss, they gnash their teeth,
    they cry: “We have devoured her!
Ah, this is the day we longed for;
    at last we have seen it!”(AL)

17 The Lord has done what he purposed;
    he has carried out his threat;
as he ordained long ago,
    he has demolished without pity;
he has made the enemy rejoice over you
    and exalted the might of your foes.(AM)

18 Cry aloud[h] to the Lord!
    O wall of daughter Zion!
Let tears stream down like a torrent
    day and night!
Give yourself no rest,
    your eyes no respite!(AN)

19 Arise, cry out in the night,
    at the beginning of the watches!
Pour out your heart like water
    before the presence of the Lord!
Lift your hands to him
    for the lives of your children,
who faint for hunger
    at the head of every street.(AO)

20 Look, O Lord, and consider!
    To whom have you done this?
Should women eat their offspring,
    the children they have borne?
Should priest and prophet be killed
    in the sanctuary of the Lord?(AP)

21 The young and the old are lying
    on the ground in the streets;
my young women and my young men
    have fallen by the sword;
in the day of your anger you have killed them,
    slaughtering without mercy.(AQ)

22 You invited my enemies from all around
    as if for a day of festival;
and on the day of the anger of the Lord,
    no one escaped or survived;
those whom I bore and reared,
    my enemy has destroyed.(AR)

Footnotes

  1. 1.4 Meaning of Heb uncertain
  2. 1.7 Q ms: MT adds in the days of her affliction and wandering
  3. 1.12 Meaning of Heb uncertain
  4. 1.14 Meaning of Heb uncertain
  5. 1.16 Heb my eye, my eye
  6. 2.1 Meaning of Heb uncertain
  7. 2.11 Heb the daughter of my people
  8. 2.18 Cn: Heb Their heart cried