Beginning
37 Who is he, then, who speaks and it happens, if the LORD has not Commanded it?
38 Does not both misery and prosperity proceed out of the Mouth of the Most High?
39 Why, then, does a man, living and mighty, complain about the penalty for his sins?
40 Let us search and test our ways and turn back to the LORD.
41 Let us lift up our hearts with our hands to God in the heavens.
42 We have sinned and have rebelled. You have not spared.
43 You have covered us with wrath, and persecuted us. You have killed, not spared.
44 You have covered Yourself with a cloud, so that prayer would not pass through.
45 You have made us offscouring and refuse in the midst of the people.
46 All our enemies have opened their mouths against us.
47 Fear and a snare have come upon us, desolation and destruction.
48 My eyes run down with rivers of water for the destruction of the Daughter of my people.
49 My eyes run down without pause, and will not cease
50 until the LORD looks down and beholds from Heaven.
51 My eyes break my heart, because of all the daughters of my city.
52 My enemies hunted me like a bird, without cause.
53 They have shut up my life in the dungeon, and cast a stone upon me.
54 Waters flowed over my head. I thought, “I am destroyed.”
55 I called upon Your Name, O LORD, out of the low dungeon.
56 You have heard my voice. Do not hide Your Ear from my sigh, from my cry.
57 You drew near on the day that I called upon You. You said: “Do not fear.”
58 O LORD, You have maintained the cause of my soul, have redeemed my life.
59 O LORD, You have seen my wrong. Judge my cause.
60 You have seen all their vengeance, all their devices against me:
61 You have heard their reproach, O LORD, and all their imaginations against me,
62 the lips of those who rose against me, and their continual whispering against me.
63 Behold their sitting down and their rising up. I am their song.
64 Give them recompense, O LORD, according to the work of their hands.
65 Give them sorrow of heart. Your curse be upon them!
66 Persecute with wrath and destroy them from under the heavens, O LORD.
4 How dim the gold has become? The most fine gold has changed. The stones of the Sanctuary are scattered in the corner of every street.
2 The noble men of Zion, comparable to fine gold, how they are regarded as earthen pitchers, the work of the potter’s hands!
3 Even the dragons present their breasts to nurse their young; but the daughter of my people has become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness.
4 The tongue of the infant child clings to the roof of his mouth for thirst. The young children ask for bread, but no one breaks it for them.
5 Those who fed on delicacies perish in the streets. Those who were brought up in scarlet embrace the dung.
6 For the iniquity of the daughter of my people has become greater than the sin of Sodom, which was destroyed in a moment with no hand raised.
7 Her Nazirites were purer than the snow, whiter than milk. They were more ruddy in body than the red precious stones. They were polished sapphire.
8 Now, their visage is blacker than coal. They are unrecognizable in the streets. Their skin clings to their bones. It is withered, like a stick.
9 Those who are killed with the sword are better than those who are killed with hunger. For they fade away, stricken through by the fruits of the field.
10 The hands of the pitiful women have boiled their own children, which were their food in the destruction of the daughter of my people.
11 The LORD has accomplished His indignation. He has poured out His fierce wrath. He has kindled a fire in Zion, which has devoured its foundations.
12 The kings of the Earth, and all the inhabitants of the world, would not have believed that the adversary and the enemy could have entered into the gates of Jerusalem,
13 because of the sins of her prophets and the iniquities of her priests, who have shed the blood of the just in her midst.
14 They have wandered like blind men in the streets. And they were polluted with blood, so that they would not touch their garments.
15 They cried to them, “Depart, you polluted! Depart! Depart! Do not touch!” Therefore, they fled away and wandered. They have said among the heathen, “They shall no longer dwell there.”
16 The anger of the LORD has scattered them. He will no longer regard them. They did not respect the face of the Priest, nor have compassion on the elders.
17 While we waited in vain for help, our eyes failed. For in our waiting we looked for a nation that could not save us.
18 They hunt our steps, so that we cannot walk in our streets. Our end is near. Our days are fulfilled, for our end has come.
19 Our persecutors are swifter than the eagles of the sky. They pursued us upon the mountains and laid in wait for us in the wilderness.
20 The breath of our nostrils, the Anointed of the LORD, was taken in their nets, of whom we said, “Under his shadow we shall be preserved alive among the heathen.”
21 Rejoice and be glad, O daughter Edom, who dwells in the land of Uz! The cup shall also pass through to you. You shall be drunk and vomit.
22 Your punishment is accomplished, O daughter Zion! He will no longer carry you away into captivity. He will visit your iniquity, O daughter Edom! He will discover your sins!
5 Remember, O LORD, what has come upon us. Consider, and behold our reproach.
2 Our inheritance has turned to strangers, our houses to the aliens.
3 We are orphans, without fathers. Our mothers are like widows.
4 We pay money for our drinking water. Our wood is sold to us.
5 Our necks are under persecution. We are weary and have no rest.
6 We have given our hands to the Egyptians, and to Assyria, to be satisfied with bread.
7 Our fathers have sinned, and are no more, but we have borne their iniquities.
8 Servants have ruled over us. No one would deliver us out of their hands.
9 We get our bread at the risk of our lives, because of the sword of the wilderness.
10 Our skin is black, like an oven, because of the terrible famine.
11 They defile the women in Zion, and the maids in the cities of Judah.
12 The princes were hung up by their hands. The faces of the elders were not respected.
13 They took the young men for the grindstone, and the children fell under the loads of wood.
14 The elders are gone from the gate, and the young men from their songs.
15 The joy of our heart has gone. Our dance has turned into mourning.
16 The crown of our head has fallen. Woe, now, to us! For we have sinned!
17 Therefore, our heart is heavy for these things. Our eyes are dim,
18 because of the mountain of Zion, which is desolate. The foxes run upon it.
19 But You, O LORD, remain forever! Your throne is from generation to generation!
20 Why do You forget us forever, forsake us for such a long time?
21 Turn us to You, O LORD, and we shall be turned! Renew our days, as of old!
22 But You have utterly rejected us. You are exceedingly angry with us.
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