Lamentations 1:1-9

Legacy Standard Bible

1 How ^(A)lonely sits the city
That was ^(B)great with people!
She has become like a ^(C)widow
Who was once ^(D)great among the nations!
She who was a princess among the ^[a]provinces
Has become a ^(E)forced laborer!

² She ^(F)weeps bitterly in the night,
And her tears are on her cheeks;
She has none to comfort her
Among all her ^(G)lovers.
All her friends have ^(H)dealt treacherously with her;
They have become her enemies.

^3 (I)Judah has gone into exile because of affliction
And because of great slavery;
She sits ^(J)among the nations,
But she has found no rest;
All ^(K)her pursuers have overtaken her
In the midst of ^[b]distress.

⁴ The roads ^[c]of Zion are in mourning
Because ^(L)no one comes to the appointed times.
All her gates are ^(M)desolate;
Her priests are sighing,
Her ^(N)virgins are grieving,
And she herself ^[d]is ^(O)bitter.

⁵ Her adversaries have become ^[e]her masters;
Her enemies are complacent;
For ^[f]Yahweh has ^(P)caused her grief
Because of the greatness of her transgressions;
Her infants have gone away
As captives before the adversary.

⁶ So all her ^(Q)majesty
Has gone out from the daughter of Zion;
Her princes have become like deer
That have found no pasture;
So they have ^[g](R)fled without strength
Before the pursuer.

⁷ In the days of her affliction and homelessness
^(S)Jerusalem remembers all her precious things
That were from the days of old,
When her people fell into the hand of the adversary
And ^(T)no one helped her.
The adversaries saw her;
They ^(U)laughed at her ^[h]ruin.

⁸ Jerusalem sinned ^(V)greatly;
Therefore ^(W)she has become an impure thing.
All who honored her despise her
Because they have seen her nakedness;
Even ^(X)she herself sighs and turns away.

⁹ Her ^(Y)uncleanness was in her skirts;
She did not remember her ^(Z)future.
Therefore she has ^(AA)gone down astonishingly;
^(AB)She has no comforter.
“^(AC)See, O Yahweh, my affliction,
For the enemy has ^(AD)magnified himself!”