Beginning
37 Who is he who speaks and it comes to pass, if the Lord has not authorized and commanded it?
38 Is it not out of the mouth of the Most High that evil and good both proceed [adversity and prosperity, physical evil or misfortune and physical good or happiness]?
39 Why does a living man sigh [one who is still in this life’s school of discipline]? [And why does] a man complain for the punishment of his sins?
40 Let us test and examine our ways, and let us return to the Lord!
41 Let us lift up our hearts and our hands [and then with them mount up in prayer] to God in heaven:
42 We have transgressed and rebelled and You have not pardoned.
43 You have covered Yourself with wrath and pursued and afflicted us; You have slain without pity.
44 You have covered Yourself with a cloud so that no prayer can pass through.
45 You have made us offscouring and refuse among the nations.
46 All our enemies have gaped at us and railed against us.
47 Fear and pitfall have come upon us, devastation and destruction.
48 My eyes overflow with streams of tears because of the destruction of the daughter of my people.
49 My eyes overflow continually and will not cease
50 Until the Lord looks down and sees from heaven.
51 My eyes cause me grief at the fate of all the maidens [and the daughter-towns] of my city [Jerusalem].
52 I have been hunted down like a bird by those who were my enemies without cause.
53 They [thought they had] destroyed my life in the dungeon (pit) and cast a stone [over it] above me.(A)
54 The waters ran down on my head; I said, I am gone.
55 I called upon Your name, O Lord, out of the depths [of the mire] of the dungeon.(B)
56 You heard my voice [then]: [Oh] hide not Your ear [now] at my prayer for relief.
57 You drew near on the day I called to You; You said, Fear not.(C)
58 O Lord, You have pleaded the causes of my soul [You have managed my affairs and You have protected my person and my rights]; You have rescued and redeemed my life!
59 O Lord, You have seen my wrong [done to me]; judge and maintain my cause.
60 You have seen all their vengeance, all their devices against me.
61 You have heard their reproach and revilings, O Lord, and all their devices against me—
62 The lips and thoughts of my assailants are against me all day long.
63 Look at their sitting down and their rising up [their movements, doings, and secret counsels]; I am their singsong [the subject of their derision and merriment].(D)
64 Render to them a recompense, O Lord, according to the work of their hands.
65 You will give them hardness and blindness of heart; Your curse will be upon them.
66 You will pursue and afflict them in anger and destroy them from under Your heavens, O Lord.
4 How the gold has become dim! How the most pure gold has changed! The hallowed stones [of the temple] are poured out at the head of every street.
2 The noble and precious sons of Zion, [once] worth their weight in fine gold—how they are esteemed [merely] as earthen pots or pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter!(E)
3 Even the jackals draw out the breast, they give suck to their young ones, but the daughter of my people has become cruel like ostriches in the wilderness [that desert their young].
4 The tongue of the nursing babe cleaves to the roof of its mouth because of thirst; the young children beg for food, but no one gives it to them.
5 Those who feasted on dainties are perishing in the streets; those who were brought up in purple lie cleaving to refuse and ash heaps.
6 For the punishment of the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the punishment of the sin of Sodom, which was overthrown in a moment, and no hands had come against her or been laid on her.(F)
7 [In physical appearance] her princes were purer than snow, they were whiter than milk; they were more ruddy in body than rubies or corals, their shapely figures [suggested a carefully cut] sapphire.
8 [Prolonged famine has made] them look blacker than soot and darkness; they are not recognized in the streets. Their skin clings to their bones; it is withered and it has become [dry] like a stick.
9 Those who are slain with the sword are more fortunate than those who are the victims of hunger [slain by the famine]; for they [the hungry] pine and ebb away, stricken through for want of the fruits of the field.
10 The hands of [heretofore] compassionate women have boiled their own children; they were their food during the destruction of the daughter of my people [Judah].
11 The Lord has fulfilled His wrath; He has poured out His fierce anger and has kindled a fire in Zion that has consumed her foundations.
12 The kings of the earth did not believe, nor did any of the inhabitants of the earth, that the oppressor and enemy could enter the gates of Jerusalem.
13 [But this happened] because of the sins of her [false] prophets and the iniquities of her priests, who shed the blood of the just and righteous in the midst of her.
14 [The false prophets and priests] wandered [staggering] in the streets as if blind; they had so polluted themselves with blood it was not [lawful] for men to touch their garments.
15 [People] cried to them, Go away! Unclean! Depart! Depart! Touch not! When they fled away, then they wandered [as fugitives]; men said among the nations, They shall not stay here any longer.
16 The anger of the Lord has scattered [and divided them among the nations]; He will no longer look after them. They did not respect the persons of the priests; they did not favor the elders.
17 As for us, our eyes yet failed and wasted away in looking for our worthless help. In our watching [on our watchtower] we have watched and waited expectantly for a nation [Egypt or some other one to come to our rescue] that could not save us.(G)
18 [The missiles of the enemy] dog our steps, so that we cannot go into our streets; our end is near, our days are fulfilled—yes, our end has come.
19 Our pursuers were swifter than the eagles of the sky; they pursued us on the mountains, they lay in wait for us in the wilderness.
20 The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the Lord [our king], was taken in their snares—he of whom we said, Under his shadow we shall live among the nations.
21 Rejoice and be glad, O Daughter of Edom, you who dwell in the land of Uz. But the cup [of the wine of God’s wrath] also shall pass to you; you shall become drunk and make yourself naked.(H)
22 The punishment of your iniquity will be accomplished and completed, O Daughter of Zion; [the Lord] will no more carry you away or keep you in exile. But He will inspect and punish your iniquity and guilt, O Daughter of Edom; He will uncover your sins.(I)
5 O Lord, [earnestly] remember what has come upon us! Look down and see our reproach (our national disgrace)!
2 Our inheritance has fallen over to strangers, our houses to foreigners.
3 We have become orphans and fatherless; our mothers are like widows.
4 We have had to pay money to drink the water that belongs to us; our [own] wood is sold to us.
5 Our pursuers are upon our necks [like a yoke]; we are weary and are allowed no rest.
6 We have given the hand [as a pledge of fidelity and submission] to the Egyptians and to the Assyrians [merely] to get food to satisfy [our hunger].
7 Our fathers sinned and are no more, and [a]we have borne their iniquities.(J)
8 Servants and slaves rule over us; there is none to deliver us out of their hands.(K)
9 We get our bread at the peril of our lives because of the sword of the wilderness [the wild Arabs, who may attack if we venture into the fields to reap our harvests].
10 Our skin glows and is parched as from [the heat of] an oven because of the burning heat of [the fever of] famine.
11 They ravished the women in Zion, the virgins in the cities of Judah.
12 They hung princes by their hands; the persons of elders were not respected.
13 Young men carried millstones, and boys fell [staggering] under [burdens of] wood.
14 The elders have ceased from [congregating at] the city’s gate, the young men from their music.
15 Ceased is the joy of our hearts; our dancing has turned into mourning.
16 The crown has fallen from our head [our honor is brought to the dust]! Woe to us, for we have sinned!
17 Because of this our hearts are faint and sick; because of these things our eyes are dim and see darkly.
18 As for Mount Zion, which lies desolate, the jackals prowl over it!
19 But You, O Lord, remain and reign forever; Your throne endures from generation to [all] generations.
20 Why do You forget us forever? Why do You forsake us so long?
21 Turn us to Yourself, O Lord, and we shall be turned and restored! Renew our days as of old!—
22 Or have You utterly rejected us? [b]Or are You exceedingly angry with us [still]?
Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation