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

“Look, O Lord, for I am in distress; 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.

“They heard my groaning, yet there is no one to comfort me. All my enemies have heard of my trouble; they are glad that you have done it. You have brought the day you announced; now let them be as I am.

“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.”

Their heart cried to the Lord. O wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears stream down like a torrent day and night! Give yourself no rest, your eyes no respite!

“Arise, cry out in the night, at the beginning of the night 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.”

for he does not afflict from his heart or grieve the children of men.

Let us lift up our hearts and hands to God in heaven:

you heard my plea, ‘Do not close your ear to my cry for help!’

“You have heard their taunts, O Lord, all their plots against me.

You will give them dullness of heart; your curse will be on them.

The joy of our hearts has ceased; our dancing has been turned to mourning.

For this our heart has become sick, for these things our eyes have grown dim,