Beginning

1 The city that was full of people is lonely now.
The city is like the wife of a dead husband.
Once she was great.
She was like a queen among the other places in the country.
Now she is a slave.^[a]
2 She weeps in the night
and there are tears on her face.
Not one of her lovers comforts her.
All her friends have left her.
They have gone against her and they are now her enemies.^[b]
3 The enemies have taken Judah's people away as slaves.
The slaves have only trouble and difficult work.
They now live among strangers.
They have no rest, and they live far away from home.
They cannot go away from those who do cruel things to them.
⁴ Zion's streets are sad places now.^[c]
Nobody comes to worship God there any longer.
There is nothing to hear at the city gates.^[d]
The priests are sad.
Strangers are cruel to the young women.
The people in Zion are very sad.
⁵ The people's enemies rule them now.
Those who hate them have plenty.
The Lord has caused trouble for the people
because they did so many wrong things.^[e]
The enemies took the children away to work as slaves.
⁶ Zion is not beautiful any longer.
Her leaders are like animals without food.
They are too weak to run from their enemies.
⁷ Jerusalem's people are in trouble and they are away from their homes now.
So they remember the good things
that they had a long time ago.
When their enemies came, nobody was there with them.
Nobody helped them.
Their enemies laughed when they destroyed Jerusalem.
⁸ Jerusalem's people have sinned very much.
That is why this city is not clean any longer.
People thought that this city was the best.
Now they think that it is not important.
They see it as it is.
Jerusalem's people make sad noises and they want to hide themselves away.
⁹ Jerusalem seemed dirty because the people were so bad.
They never thought that the end would be like this.
But their enemies destroyed the city.
They do not have anyone who can comfort them.
God did not listen any longer when they asked for his help.
‘Lord, see our troubles.
See how happy our enemies are,’ the people pray.
¹⁰ The enemies have taken away all Jerusalem's valuable things.
Foreign people have walked into God's holy house.
But God had said that people like that must not go in there.
They are not his people.
¹¹ Jerusalem's people are making sad noises.
They are sad as they look for food.
They sell things that they love.
They use them to buy food.
That way, they can keep themselves alive.^[f]
‘Lord, see what is happening.
Think about me,
because nobody else does,’ the people pray.
¹² ‘Come and really look at me!
All you people who pass me do not show any interest in me.
But you have never seen anything as sad as I am.
The Lord was very angry with me.
So it was the Lord who did this to me.^[g]
13 It is like God has sent fire down into our bones to hurt us.
He wants us to turn towards him again,
so he has caused things to be very difficult for us.
All day he causes us to feel lonely and weak.
¹⁴ He has caused our sins to seem like something very heavy that lies on our necks.
It makes us weak.
He has let the enemy be very strong.
He let them win against us.
So we cannot beat them.
¹⁵ The Lord has let the enemy beat all our strong men.
He brought a big army to fight our young men, and the enemy won that fight.
The Lord God has punished us, like people walk on grapes to break them.^[h]
He has let the enemy destroy the people of Judah.
¹⁶ We weep because of these things.
Tears run down our faces because God is not with us.
Nobody will help us.
We are the children of this city
and we have nothing now.
The enemy has won.’^[i]
17 Zion's people ask for help,
but nobody is their friend.
They are Jacob's children.^[j]
But the Lord has said that he will cause their enemies
to come from every country near them.
Those other people think about Jerusalem as they would think about something dirty.^[k]
18 ‘The Lord is right to punish us.
We have not obeyed him.^[l]
Listen, all people everywhere, and look at us.
We are in very bad trouble.
The enemy has taken away our young women
and our young men to be slaves.’
¹⁹ ‘We shouted to our friends.
They had said that they would help us.
But they did not help us.
Our priests and our leaders died in the city.
They were looking for food to keep themselves alive.
²⁰ Look, Lord, we are in a lot of trouble.
We are very sad.
We are weak deep inside ourselves
because we have done so many bad things.
They are killing our people in the streets.
People are dying in the houses.’^[m]
21 ‘Everybody knows that we are very sad.
Nobody wants to help us.
All our enemies know about our trouble.
They are happy, God, that you caused that trouble.
Please cause trouble for those enemies too, as you promised.
²² You know that they have done many bad things.
Punish them as you have punished us.
You punished us because we did many bad things.
Now we are ashamed and we are very sad.’

2 The Lord was very angry.
He wanted Zion's people to be ashamed.
Zion was the most beautiful city in Israel.^[o]
But he has put it down to the ground from its high place.
Zion was like a place where he had rested his feet.^[p]
Now that he is angry, he has forgotten about that.
² The Lord has destroyed all the houses where Jacob's people lived.
He decided that he must punish them.
Because he is angry,
he has destroyed all Judah's strong towns.
Yes, he has destroyed all the buildings, and he has killed the rulers and all the people.
³ Yes, because he is very angry,
he has destroyed Israel's whole army.
He did not help them when they were fighting the enemy.
He was like a big hot fire
that burned Jacob's people from all sides.
⁴ He prepared his bow and his arrows, like an enemy ready to kill people.
Like an enemy, he has killed all our strong men that once we were proud of.
He has shown how angry he was.
He has sent a fire to destroy all Zion's houses.
⁵ The Lord has become like an enemy.
He has destroyed Israel
and all the beautiful houses there.
He has destroyed all the strong towns that had walls.
He has caused Judah's people to weep.
They are very sad.
⁶ He has knocked down his own holy house
as easily as someone can knock down a hut in a garden.
He has destroyed this place where people once met him.
The Lord has caused Zion's people to forget
the special events and the Sabbath days in his holy house.^[q]
He was very angry.
So he thought that our king and our priests were not important.
He refused to help them.
⁷ His holy house and his altar there
no longer give pleasure to the Lord.
He has given Zion's most beautiful houses to the enemy.^[r]
They shout in the holy house of the Lord
as people shout on a special holy day.
⁸ The Lord decided to destroy the strong walls of Zion.
He carefully broke away each stone.
It causes us to weep when we look at those walls.
He destroyed them all.
He destroyed the inside walls and he destroyed the strong outside walls.
⁹ Zion's gates fell down on the ground.
He destroyed them and he has broken them in pieces.
The enemies have taken away our king
and his sons to a foreign country.
The people no longer understand God's Law.^[s]
The Lord does not give messages to his prophets any more.
¹⁰ Zion's leaders sit on the ground and they are saying nothing.
They have dressed themselves in sackcloth
and they throw dirt on their own heads.^[t]
They are showing everyone that they are very sad.
The young women of Jerusalem can only look down to the ground,
because they are very sad too.
¹¹ I have cried so much that my eyes are red now.
Even the parts inside my body hurt,
because my people are dying.
I feel ill because I am so sad.
The children and babies fall in the city's streets
because they are so weak.
¹² ‘Where has all the food and drink gone?’
the hungry children ask their mothers.
Then they fall down in pain on the streets of the city.
They die in their mothers' arms.
¹³ I want to help you people of Jerusalem,
but there is nothing that I can say to you.
I do not know about anything like what has happened to you.
God has destroyed Zion completely!
I do not know anyone who can make you people better.
¹⁴ Your prophets have promised you many good things.
Those good things will not happen.
They should have told you that you should not do wrong things.
If they had told you that, none of these troubles would have happened.
The prophets do not tell you true messages from God
and their dreams are false.^[u]
15 Everyone who goes by laughs at you.
They are happy because you are sad.
They see how the enemy has destroyed everything in Jerusalem.
‘Surely this cannot be the city that men called most beautiful,’ they say.
‘People have said that this city is the best city on earth.’
¹⁶ All your enemies make noises through their teeth
because they are very happy.
‘We have won!’ they say.
‘We have waited for this day.
Now we have beaten you!
Now we have seen it!’
¹⁷ The Lord has done what he decided to do.
Yes, he has done what he told you about a long time ago.
He has destroyed your city and he has not felt sorry about it.
He has caused your enemies to be happy.
He has made them strong
so that they could win against you.^[v]
18 Day and night, cause your tears to run like a river round the walls of Zion.
Cry to the Lord all the time, you people.
Do not rest.
Do not let your eyes stop crying.
¹⁹ Stand up and pray for God's help.
Talk to God all night.
Pour out your words and thoughts to the Lord
as you pour out water from a jar.
Lift up your hands to him,
and ask him to save the lives of your children.
They fall down to die at the end of every street
because they are so hungry.^[w]
20 ‘Look at us, Lord,’ you should say.
‘You have done all this to your people.
Women eat their own children now!
They eat the children that they took care of.
People have killed your own priests and prophets
in your holy house!
²¹ Young people and old people lie dead in the streets.
The enemy has killed the young men and women with long knives.
But it was really you who killed them.
You were very angry with us.
So you killed them and you did not feel sorry.
²² You asked our enemies to come round us
as people come to a special feast.
They killed our people because you were angry.
Nobody could hide or run away.
They all died.
We saw the enemy kill our own children.’

3 I am the man who has seen trouble.
God punished me because he was angry with me.
² He has led me into the dark.
There is no light, so I cannot see the right way.
³ He is completely against me.^[y]
He causes me trouble all the time.
⁴ God has caused my skin and my whole body to become old.
He has broken my bones.
⁵ He has fought against me from every side.
He caused much trouble for me,
so that I am very sad.
⁶ He has brought me to this dark place.
So I am like a person who has been dead for a long time.
⁷ It is as if God has built high walls round me, and I cannot go out.
My troubles are very bad.
They hold me down like heavy chains.
⁸ I shout and I pray for help, but God does not listen.
⁹ On every road that I go along, he has put big rocks in my way.
I cannot go past them.
¹⁰ God is like a strong wild animal.
He hides and he waits for me by the path.
¹¹ He is like an animal that catches me and pulls me off the path.
He tears me in pieces and then he leaves me without any help.
¹² God is like a soldier with a bow and arrows.
He used his bow to shoot at me.
¹³ It was as if he shot me in the heart with his arrows.
¹⁴ All the people see me and laugh.
They even sing silly songs about me all the time.
¹⁵ God has caused my life to become a thing of pain.
It is as if he filled a cup with a very bitter drink for me.
¹⁶ It is as if he caused me to eat small stones, so that the stones broke my teeth.
Then he put me on the ground, and he pushed me down in the dirt.
¹⁷ He has taken peace away from my mind.
I cannot remember the happy days that I had before.
¹⁸ I tell myself, ‘Everything good has finished for me!
The things that I hoped for from the Lord have not come!’
¹⁹ Lord, please remember all my troubles, because I am sad.
Remember that I am very lonely.
My troubles are like poison for me.
²⁰ I think about all those things,
and I feel small and alone.
²¹ But then I choose to remember God,
and this is my hope:^[z]
22 The Lord's faithful love never comes to an end.
He never stops being kind to us.^[aa]
23 Every day, we can trust him to be kind again.
We know that he will do what he has promised to do.
²⁴ ‘He is my Lord,’ I say to myself.
‘He is the reason why I can hope for good things.’
²⁵ The Lord does good things for people who wait for him.
He is kind to everyone who looks for him.
²⁶ It is good when people continue to hope.
It is good when they quietly wait for the Lord,
because he will save them.
²⁷ It is also good for people to obey God when they are young.
They should work well for him.
²⁸ Also, when the Lord causes them to be in trouble,
they should sit alone quietly.^[ab]
29 They should be humble in front of God.^[ac]
Then hope may come again.
³⁰ If somebody hits them or insults them, they should accept it.^[ad]
31 The Lord does not turn against people for ever.
³² He does cause people to feel sad sometimes,
but he is sorry for us.
He is also very kind to us, because he loves us very much.
³³ He does not enjoy seeing people who are in pain.
He does not enjoy causing trouble for them.^[ae]
34 Bad people may be cruel to those who are in prison.
³⁵ They may turn against the Most High God and cheat people.
³⁶ They may tell lies in court.
The Lord is not happy when he sees any of those bad things.