Chronological
1 How lonely lies the city
that once thronged with people!
Once great among the nations,
now she is like a widow!
Once princess among provinces,
she has become a vassal.
2 Bitterly she weeps at night,
tears running down her cheeks.
Not one of all her lovers
is there to comfort her.
Her friends have all betrayed her;
they have become her enemies.
3 Y’hudah has fled into exile
from oppression and endless slavery.
She lives among the nations,
but there she finds no rest.
Her pursuers have all overtaken her
in the midst of her distress.
4 The roads to Tziyon are mourning
because no one comes to the festivals.
Her gateways are all deserted,
her cohanim are groaning,
her unmarried girls are grieving —
how bitter it is for her!
5 Her foes have become the head,
her enemies relax,
for Adonai has made her suffer
because of her many sins.
Her young children have gone away
captive before the foe.
6 All splendor has departed
from the daughter of Tziyon.
Her princes have become like deer
unable to find pasture,
running on, exhausted,
fleeing from the hunter.
7 In the days of her affliction and anguish,
Yerushalayim remembers
all the treasures that were hers,
ever since ancient times.
Now her people fall into the power of the foe,
and she has no one to help her;
her enemies are gloating over her,
mocking her desolation.
8 Yerushalayim sinned grievously;
therefore she has become unclean.
All who honored her now despise her,
because they have seen her naked.
She herself also moans
and turns her face away.
9 Her filthiness was in her skirts;
she gave no thought to how it would end.
Hence her astounding downfall,
with no one to console her.
“Look, Adonai, how I suffer;
for the foe has triumphed!”
10 Enemies have reached out their hands
to seize all her treasures.
She has seen Goyim approach
and go inside her sanctuary,
those whom you forbade even
to enter your assembly.
11 All her people are groaning,
as they search for something to eat.
They barter their treasures for food
to keep themselves alive.
“Look, Adonai! See
how despised I am.
12 “May it not happen to you,
all you passers-by!
Just look, and see if there is any pain
like the pain inflicted on me,
which Adonai made me suffer
on the day of his blazing anger.
13 “From on high, he sent down fire
deep into my bones;
he spread a net to catch my feet;
he turned me back;
he left me desolate,
in misery all day long.
14 “My sins have been bound into a yoke,
knit together by his hand.
It weighs down on my neck,
and it saps my strength.
Adonai has put me into the power
of those I cannot withstand.
15 “All the strong men within my walls
Adonai has rejected.
He has set a specific time
for crushing my young men.
Adonai has trodden, like grapes in a winepress,
the virgin daughter of Y’hudah.
16 “Because of these things, I weep;
my eyes, my eyes stream with tears;
for anyone who could comfort me
and revive my courage is far away.
My children are in a state of shock,
because the enemy has prevailed.”
17 Tziyon spreads out her hands,
but no one is there to console her.
Concerning Ya‘akov, Adonai has ordered
those around him to be his foes;
Yerushalayim has become for them
an unclean, filthy thing.
18 “Adonai is in the right,
for I rebelled against his word.
Listen, please, all you peoples;
and see how I am in pain!
My young women and my young men
have gone into captivity.
19 “I called out to my lovers,
but they let me down.
My cohanim and leaders
perished in the city,
as they were seeking food
to keep themselves alive.
20 “See, Adonai, how distressed I am!
Everything in me is churning!
My heart turns over inside me,
because I have been so rebellious.
Outside, the sword brings bereavement;
inside, it is like death.
21 “People have heard how I groan,
with no one to comfort me.
All my foes have heard of my trouble;
they are glad that you have done it.
Bring the day you have promised,
so that they will suffer like me!
22 “Let all their wickedness come before you.
Then do to them
as you have done to me
because of all my offenses.
For my groans are many,
and I am sick at heart.”
2 How enveloped in darkness Adonai, in his anger,
has made the daughter of Tziyon!
He has thrown down from heaven to earth
the splendor of Isra’el,
forgotten his footstool [the sanctuary]
on the day of his anger.
2 Without pity Adonai swallowed up
all the dwellings of Ya‘akov.
In his wrath he broke down the strongholds
of the daughter of Y’hudah,
brought them down to the ground,
thus profaning the kingdom and its rulers.
3 In his fierce anger he cut off
all the power of Isra’el,
withdrew his protecting right hand
at the approach of the enemy,
and blazed up in Ya‘akov like a flaming fire
devouring everything around it.
4 He bent his bow like an enemy,
with his right hand set like a foe.
He killed all who were pleasant to see.
In the tent of the daughter of Tziyon,
he poured out his fury like fire.
5 Adonai became like an enemy;
he swallowed up Isra’el,
swallowed up all its palaces,
and destroyed all its strongholds.
For the daughter of Y’hudah
he has multiplied mourning and moaning.
6 He wrecked his tabernacle as easily as a garden,
destroyed his place of assembly.
Adonai caused Isra’el to forget
designated times and Shabbats.
In the heat of his anger
he rejected both king and cohen.
7 Adonai rejected his altar,
disowned his sanctuary,
and gave her palace walls
over to the power of the foe,
who raised such shouts in the house of Adonai
that it sounded like a festival day.
8 Adonai resolved to destroy
the wall of the daughter of Tziyon.
He measured it with his line and did not stay his hand
until it was all in ruins.
He brought grief to rampart and wall;
together they lie dejected.
9 Her gates have sunk into the ground;
he destroyed and broke their bars.
Her king and rulers are among the Goyim,
there is no more Torah,
and her prophets do not receive
visions from Adonai.
10 The leaders of the daughter of Tziyon
sit on the ground in silence.
They throw dust on their heads;
they are wearing sackcloth.
The unmarried women of Yerushalayim
lower their heads to the ground.
11 My eyes are worn out from weeping,
everything in me is churning;
I am empty of emotion
because of the wounds to my people,
because children and infants are fainting away
in the streets of the city.
12 They keep asking their mothers,
“Where is something to eat or drink?”
as they faint away
in the streets of the city,
gasping out their last breath
in their mother’s bosom.
13 What can be said to you, what can be compared with you,
daughter of Yerushalayim?
What example can I give to comfort you,
virgin daughter of Tziyon?
For your downfall is as vast as the sea;
who can heal you?
14 The visions your prophets saw for you
were futile, just a whitewash.
They did not expose your guilt,
so as to reverse your fortunes —
no, the visions they saw for you
were alluring, but futile.
15 All who pass your way
clap their hands at you,
hissing and shaking their heads
at the daughter of Yerushalayim:
“This city was called ‘perfection in beauty’?
‘the joy of the whole earth’?”
16 All your adversaries
open their mouths to jeer at you.
They hiss, they grind their teeth;
they say, “We have swallowed her up!
This is the day we were waiting for,
and now we have lived to see it!”
17 Adonai has done what he planned,
he has fulfilled his promise,
which he decreed in ancient times.
He has destroyed without pity,
he has let the enemy gloat over you
and filled your foes with pride.
18 Their hearts cried out to Adonai,
“Wall of the daughter of Tziyon!
Let your tears stream down
like a torrent, day and night!
Give yourself no respite,
give your eyes no rest!
19 “Get up! Cry out in the night,
at the beginning of every watch!
Pour your heart out like water
before the face of Adonai!
Lift up your hands to him
for the lives of your babies,
who are fainting away from hunger
at every streetcorner.”
20 Adonai, look and see
who it is you have thus tormented!
Should women eat the fruit of their wombs,
the children they have held in their hands?
Should cohanim and prophets be slaughtered
in the sanctuary of Adonai?
21 Youths and old men are lying
on the ground in the streets,
my unmarried women and young men
have fallen by the sword.
You killed them on the day of your anger,
you slaughtered them without pity.
22 You have summoned my terrors from every direction,
as on a festival day.
On the day of Adonai’s anger,
not one escaped; not one survived —
the children I held in my arms and raised,
my enemy has destroyed.
3 I am the man who has seen affliction
under the rod of his fury,
2 He has led me and made me walk
in darkness and not in light.
3 Against me alone he turns his hand
again and again, all day.
4 He has worn away my skin and flesh,
he has broken my bones.
5 He has besieged and surrounded me
with bitterness and hardship.
6 He has made me live in darkness,
like those who are long dead.
7 He has walled me in, so I can’t escape;
he has weighed me down with chains.
8 Even when I cry out, pleading for help,
he shuts out my prayer.
9 He has barred my way with blocks of stone,
he has made my paths crooked.
10 He lies in wait for me like a bear,
like a lion in hiding.
11 He has forced me aside and torn me to pieces,
leaving me stunned.
12 He has bent his bow and used me
as a target for his arrows.
13 He has pierced my vital organs
with shafts from his quiver.
14 I’m a laughingstock to all my people,
the butt of their taunts all day long.
15 He has filled me with bitterness,
sated me with wormwood.
16 He has broken my teeth with gravel
and pressed me down into ashes.
17 I have been so deprived of peace,
I have so forgotten what happiness is,
18 that I think, “My strength is gone,
and so is my hope in Adonai.”
19 Remember my utter misery,
the wormwood and the gall.
20 They are always on my mind;
this is why I am so depressed.
21 But in my mind I keep returning to something,
something that gives me hope —
22 that the grace of Adonai is not exhausted,
that his compassion has not ended.
23 [On the contrary,] they are new every morning!
How great your faithfulness!
24 “Adonai is all I have,” I say;
“therefore I will put my hope in him.
25 Adonai is good to those waiting for him,
to those who are seeking him out.
26 It is good to wait patiently
for the saving help of Adonai.
27 It is good for a man
to bear the yoke from his youth.
28 Let him sit alone in silence
when he has laid it on him.
29 Let him submit absolutely;
there may yet be hope.
30 Let him offer his cheek to the one who strikes it,
and receive his fill of insults.
31 For rejection by Adonai
does not last forever.
32 He may cause grief, but he will take pity,
in keeping with the greatness of his grace.
33 For he does not arbitrarily torment
or punish human beings.
34 When anyone tramples underfoot
any of the prisoners of the land;
35 when anyone deprives a person of justice,
in defiance of the Most High;
36 when someone is cheated of justice in court —
does Adonai not take note of such things?
Copyright © 1998 by David H. Stern. All rights reserved.