Lamentations 1:1-3:36

Revised Standard Version

² She weeps bitterly in the night,
    tears 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 Judah has gone into exile because of affliction
    and hard servitude;
she dwells now among the nations,
    but finds no resting place;
her pursuers have all overtaken her
    in the midst of her distress.

⁴ The roads to Zion mourn,
    for none come to the appointed feasts;
all her gates are desolate,
    her priests groan;
her maidens have been dragged away,^[a]
    and she herself suffers bitterly.

⁵ Her foes have become the head,
    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.

⁶ From the daughter of Zion has departed
    all her majesty.
Her princes have become like harts
    that find no pasture;
they fled without strength
    before the pursuer.

⁷ Jerusalem remembers
    in the days of her affliction and bitterness^[b]
all the precious things
    that were hers from days of old.
When her people fell into the hand of the foe,
    and there was none to help her,
the foe gloated over her,
    mocking at her downfall.

⁸ Jerusalem sinned grievously,
    therefore she became filthy;
all who honored her despise her,
    for they have seen her nakedness;
yea, she herself groans,
    and turns her face away.

⁹ Her uncleanness was in her skirts;
    she took no thought of her doom;
therefore her fall is terrible,
    she has no comforter.
“O Lord, behold my affliction,
    for the enemy has triumphed!”

¹⁰ The enemy has stretched out his hands
    over all her precious things;
yea, she has seen the nations
    invade her sanctuary,
those whom thou didst forbid
    to enter thy congregation.

¹¹ All her people groan
    as they search for bread;
they trade their treasures for food
    to revive their strength.
“Look, O Lord, and behold,
    for I am despised.”

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.

¹³ “From on high he sent fire;
    into my bones^[d] he made it descend;
he spread a net for my feet;
    he turned me back;
he has left me stunned,
    faint all the day long.

¹⁴ “My transgressions were bound^[e] into a yoke;
    by his hand they were fastened together;
they were set upon my neck;
    he caused my strength to fail;
the Lord gave me into the hands
    of those whom I cannot withstand.

¹⁵ “The Lord flouted all my mighty men
    in the midst of me;
he summoned an assembly against me
    to crush my young men;
the Lord has trodden as in a wine press
    the virgin daughter of Judah.

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

¹⁷ Zion stretches out her hands,
    but there is none to comfort her;
the Lord has commanded against Jacob
    that his neighbors should be his foes;
Jerusalem has become
    a filthy thing among them.

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

¹⁹ “I called to my lovers
    but they deceived me;
my priests and elders
    perished in the city,
while they sought food
    to revive their strength.

²⁰ “Behold, O Lord, for I am in distress,
    my soul is in tumult,
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.

²¹ “Hear^[f] how I groan;
    there is none to comfort me.
All my enemies have heard of my trouble;
    they are glad that thou hast done it.
Bring thou^[g] the day thou hast announced,
    and let them be as I am.

²² “Let all their evil-doing come before thee;
    and deal with them
as thou hast dealt with me
    because of all my transgressions;
for my groans are many
    and my heart is faint.”

² The Lord has destroyed without mercy
    all the habitations of Jacob;
in his wrath he has broken down
    the strongholds of the daughter of Judah;
he has brought down to the ground in dishonor
    the kingdom and its rulers.

³ He has cut down in fierce anger
    all the might of Israel;
he has withdrawn from them his right hand
    in the face of the enemy;
he has burned like a flaming fire in Jacob,
    consuming all around.

⁴ He has bent his bow like an enemy,
    with his right hand set like a foe;
and he has slain all the pride of our eyes
    in the tent of the daughter of Zion;
he has poured out his fury like fire.

⁵ The Lord has become like an enemy,
    he has destroyed Israel;
he has destroyed all its palaces,
    laid in ruins its strongholds;
and he has multiplied in the daughter of Judah
    mourning and lamentation.

⁶ He has broken down his booth like that of a garden,
    laid in ruins the place of his appointed feasts;
the Lord has brought to an end in Zion
    appointed feast and sabbath,
and in his fierce indignation has spurned
    king and priest.

⁷ 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 the day of an appointed feast.

⁸ The Lord determined to lay in ruins
    the wall of the daughter of Zion;
he marked it off by the line;
    he restrained not his hand from destroying;
he caused rampart and wall to lament,
    they languish together.

⁹ Her gates have sunk into the ground;
    he has ruined and broken her bars;
her king and princes are among the nations;
    the law is no more,
and her prophets obtain
    no vision from the Lord.

¹⁰ The elders of the daughter of Zion
    sit on the ground in silence;
they have cast dust on their heads
    and put on sackcloth;
the maidens of Jerusalem
    have bowed their heads to the ground.

¹¹ My eyes are spent with weeping;
    my soul is in tumult;
my heart is poured out in grief^[h]
    because of the destruction of the daughter of my people,
because infants and babes faint
    in the streets of the city.

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

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

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

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

¹⁶ All your enemies
    rail against you;
they hiss, they gnash their teeth,
    they cry: “We have destroyed her!
Ah, this is the day we longed for;
    now we have it; we see it!”

¹⁷ The Lord has done what he purposed,
    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.

¹⁸ Cry aloud^[i] to the Lord!
    O^[j] daughter of Zion!
Let tears stream down like a torrent
    day and night!
Give yourself no rest,
    your eyes no respite!

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.

²⁰ Look, O Lord, and see!
    With whom hast thou dealt thus?
Should women eat their offspring,
    the children of their tender care?
Should priest and prophet be slain
    in the sanctuary of the Lord?

²¹ In the dust of the streets
    lie the young and the old;
my maidens and my young men
    have fallen by the sword;
in the day of thy anger thou hast slain them,
    slaughtering without mercy.

²² Thou didst invite as to the day of an appointed feast
    my terrors on every side;
and on the day of the anger of the Lord
    none escaped or survived;
those whom I dandled and reared
    my enemy destroyed.

⁴ He has made my flesh and my skin waste away,
    and broken my bones;
⁵ he has besieged and enveloped me
    with bitterness and tribulation;
⁶ he has made me dwell in darkness
    like the dead of long ago.

⁷ He has walled me about so that I cannot escape;
    he has put heavy chains on me;
⁸ though I call and cry for help,
    he shuts out my prayer;
⁹ he has blocked my ways with hewn stones,
    he has made my paths crooked.

¹⁰ He is to me like a bear lying in wait,
    like a lion in hiding;
¹¹ he led me off my way and tore me to pieces;
    he has made me desolate;
¹² he bent his bow and set me
    as a mark for his arrow.

¹³ He drove into my heart
    the arrows of his quiver;
¹⁴ I have become the laughingstock of all peoples,
    the burden of their songs all day long.
¹⁵ He has filled me with bitterness,
    he has sated me with wormwood.

¹⁶ He has made my teeth grind on gravel,
    and made me cower in ashes;
¹⁷ my soul is bereft of peace,
    I have forgotten what happiness is;
¹⁸ so I say, “Gone is my glory,
    and my expectation from the Lord.”

¹⁹ Remember my affliction and my bitterness,^[k]
    the wormwood and the gall!
²⁰ My soul continually thinks of it
    and is bowed down within me.
²¹ But this I call to mind,
    and therefore I have hope:

²² The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases,^[l]
    his mercies never come to an end;
²³ they are new every morning;
    great is thy faithfulness.
²⁴ “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
    “therefore I will hope in him.”

²⁵ The Lord is good to those who wait for him,
    to the soul that seeks him.
²⁶ It is good that one should wait quietly
    for the salvation of the Lord.
²⁷ It is good for a man that he bear
    the yoke in his youth.

²⁸ Let him sit alone in silence
    when he has laid it on him;
²⁹ let him put his mouth in the dust—
    there may yet be hope;
³⁰ let him give his cheek to the smiter,
    and be filled with insults.

³¹ For the Lord will not
    cast off for ever,
³² but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion
    according to the abundance of his steadfast love;
³³ for he does not willingly afflict
    or grieve the sons of men.

³⁴ To crush under foot
    all the prisoners of the earth,
³⁵ to turn aside the right of a man
    in the presence of the Most High,
³⁶ to subvert a man in his cause,
    the Lord does not approve.