1 How desolate the city sits
    that was full of people!
She has become like a widow,
    once great among the nations!
Like a woman of nobility in the provinces,
    she has become a forced laborer.
² She weeps bitterly in the night,
    her tears are on her cheeks;
she has no comforter
    among all her lovers.
All her friends have been unfaithful to her;
    they have become her enemies.
³ Judah has gone into exile with misery
    and under hard servitude;
she lives among the nations,
    she has not found a resting place;
all her pursuers have overtaken her
    amidst her distress.
⁴ The roads of Zion are mourning
    because no one comes to the festival.
All her gates are desolate,
    her priests groan;
her young women are worried,
    and she herself suffers bitterly.
⁵ Her foes have become her master,^[a]
    her enemies are at ease;
Yahweh has made her suffer
    because of the greatness of her transgressions.
Her children have gone away,
    captive before the foe.
⁶ All her majesty has gone away
    from the daughter of Zion;
her princes have become like young stags
    that have not found pasture;
they have gone away without strength,
    before the pursuer.
⁷ Jerusalem remembers
    the days of her misery and wanderings,
all her treasures
    that were from the days of long ago.
When her people fell into the hand of the enemy,
    there was no one helping her;
the enemies saw her, they mocked
    at her destruction.
⁸ Jerusalem sinned grievously,
    thus she became an objection of derision;
all those who honored her despise her
    because they have seen her nakedness.
She herself groans
    and turns away.
⁹ Her uncleanness was in her skirts;
    she did not remember her future,
she has descended beyond understanding,
    there is no comforter for her.
See, O Yahweh, my persecution!
    My enemy has been made great!