Chronological

1 How ^(A)lonely sits the city
That was ^(B)great with people!
She has become like a ^(C)widow
Who was once ^(D)great among the nations!
She who was a princess among the ^[a]provinces
Has become a ^(E)forced laborer!

² She ^(F)weeps bitterly in the night,
And her tears are on her cheeks;
She has none to comfort her
Among all her ^(G)lovers.
All her friends have ^(H)dealt treacherously with her;
They have become her enemies.

^3 (I)Judah has gone into exile because of affliction
And because of great slavery;
She sits ^(J)among the nations,
But she has found no rest;
All ^(K)her pursuers have overtaken her
In the midst of ^[b]distress.

⁴ The roads ^[c]of Zion are in mourning
Because ^(L)no one comes to the appointed times.
All her gates are ^(M)desolate;
Her priests are sighing,
Her ^(N)virgins are grieving,
And she herself ^[d]is ^(O)bitter.

⁵ Her adversaries have become ^[e]her masters;
Her enemies are complacent;
For ^[f]Yahweh has ^(P)caused her grief
Because of the greatness of her transgressions;
Her infants have gone away
As captives before the adversary.

⁶ So all her ^(Q)majesty
Has gone out from the daughter of Zion;
Her princes have become like deer
That have found no pasture;
So they have ^[g](R)fled without strength
Before the pursuer.

⁷ In the days of her affliction and homelessness
^(S)Jerusalem remembers all her precious things
That were from the days of old,
When her people fell into the hand of the adversary
And ^(T)no one helped her.
The adversaries saw her;
They ^(U)laughed at her ^[h]ruin.

⁸ Jerusalem sinned ^(V)greatly;
Therefore ^(W)she has become an impure thing.
All who honored her despise her
Because they have seen her nakedness;
Even ^(X)she herself sighs and turns away.

⁹ Her ^(Y)uncleanness was in her skirts;
She did not remember her ^(Z)future.
Therefore she has ^(AA)gone down astonishingly;
^(AB)She has no comforter.
“^(AC)See, O Yahweh, my affliction,
For the enemy has ^(AD)magnified himself!”

¹⁰ The adversary has stretched out his hand
Over all her desirable things,
For she has seen the ^(AE)nations enter her sanctuary,
The ones whom You commanded
That they should ^(AF)not enter into Your assembly.

¹¹ All her people are sighing, ^(AG)seeking bread;
They have given their desirable things for food
To ^(AH)restore their souls.
“See, O Yahweh, and look,
For I am ^(AI)despised.”

¹² “Is ^(AJ)it nothing to all you who pass this way?
Look and see if there is any ^[i]pain like my ^[j]pain
Which was dealt severely to me,
Which ^(AK)Yahweh grieved me with on the day of His ^(AL)burning anger.

¹³ From on high He sent fire into my ^(AM)bones,
And it dominated them.
He has spread a ^(AN)net for my feet;
He has turned me back;
He has made me ^(AO)desolate,
^[k]Faint all day long.

¹⁴ The ^(AP)yoke of my transgressions is bound;
By His hand they are knit together.
They have ^(AQ)come upon my neck;
He has made my strength stumble.
The Lord ^(AR)has given me into the hands
Of those against whom I am not able to stand.

¹⁵ The ^(AS)Lord has rejected all my mighty men
In my midst;
He has called an appointed time against me
To break my ^(AT)young men;
The Lord has ^(AU)trodden as in a wine press
The virgin daughter of Judah.

¹⁶ For these things I ^(AV)am weeping;
^[l]My eyes run down with water;
Because far from me is a ^(AW)comforter,
One who restores my soul.
My children are desolate
Because the enemy has prevailed.”

¹⁷ Zion ^(AX)stretches out her hands;
There is no one to comfort her;
Yahweh has ^(AY)commanded concerning Jacob
That the ones round about him should be his adversaries;
^(AZ)Jerusalem has become an impure thing among them.

¹⁸ “Yahweh is ^(BA)righteous;
For I have ^(BB)rebelled against His ^[m]command;
Hear now, all peoples,
And ^(BC)behold my ^[n]pain;
^(BD)My virgins and my young men
Have gone into captivity.

¹⁹ I ^(BE)called to my lovers, but they deceived me;
My ^(BF)priests and my elders breathed their last in the city
While they sought food for themselves in order to ^(BG)restore their souls.

²⁰ See, O Yahweh, for I am in distress;
My ^[o](BH)inmost being is greatly disturbed;
My heart is overturned within me,
For I have been very ^(BI)rebellious.
In the street the sword bereaves;
In the house it is like death.

²¹ They have heard that I ^(BJ)am sighing;
There is no one to comfort me;
All my enemies have heard of the ^[p]evil done to me;
They ^(BK)rejoice that You have done it.
You have brought the day which You have proclaimed,
So that they will become ^(BL)like me.

²² Let all their evil come before You;
And ^(BM)deal severely with them as You have dealt severely with me
For all my transgressions;
For my groans are great and my heart is faint.”

2 How the Lord has ^(BN)covered the daughter of Zion
With a cloud in His anger!
He has ^(BO)cast from heaven to earth
The ^(BP)beauty of Israel,
And has not remembered the ^(BQ)footstool of His feet
In the day of His anger.

² The Lord has ^(BR)swallowed up; He has not spared
All the habitations of Jacob.
In His wrath He has ^(BS)pulled down
The strongholds of the daughter of Judah;
He has ^(BT)brought them down to the ground;
He has ^(BU)profaned the kingdom and its princes.

³ In ^[q]hot anger He has cut in pieces
^[r]All the ^(BV)strength of Israel;
He has ^(BW)turned back His right hand
From before the enemy.
And He has ^(BX)burned in Jacob like a flaming fire
Devouring round about.

⁴ He has bent His ^(BY)bow like an enemy;
He has set His right hand like an adversary
And killed all that were ^(BZ)desirable to the eye;
In the tent of the daughter of Zion
He has ^(CA)poured out His wrath like fire.

⁵ The Lord has become like an ^(CB)enemy.
He has ^(CC)swallowed up Israel;
He has swallowed up all its ^(CD)palaces;
He has brought its strongholds to ruin
And ^(CE)multiplied in the daughter of Judah
Mourning and moaning.

⁶ And He has violently treated His ^[s]tabernacle like a garden booth;
He has ^(CF)brought His appointed ^[t]meeting place to ruin.
Yahweh has ^(CG)caused to be forgotten
The appointed time and sabbath in Zion,
And He has ^(CH)spurned king and priest
In the indignation of His anger.

⁷ The Lord has ^(CI)rejected His altar;
He has abandoned His sanctuary;
He ^(CJ)has delivered into the hand of the enemy
The walls of her palaces.
They have made a ^(CK)noise in the house of Yahweh
As in the day of an appointed time.

⁸ Yahweh ^[u]determined to bring to ruin
The wall of the daughter of Zion.
He has ^(CL)stretched out a line;
He has not turned His hand back from swallowing up,
And He has ^(CM)caused rampart and wall to mourn;
They have languished together.

⁹ Her ^(CN)gates have sunk into the ground;
He has destroyed and broken her bars.
Her king and her princes are among the nations;
The ^(CO)law is no more.
Also, her prophets find
^(CP)No vision from Yahweh.

¹⁰ The elders of the daughter of Zion
^(CQ)Sit on the ground; they ^(CR)are silent.
They have thrown ^(CS)dust up on their heads;
They have girded themselves with ^(CT)sackcloth.
The ^(CU)virgins of Jerusalem
Have bowed their heads down to the ground.

¹¹ My ^(CV)eyes fail because of tears;
My ^[v](CW)inmost being is greatly disturbed;
My ^[w](CX)heart is poured out on the earth
^(CY)Because of the ^[x]destruction of the daughter of my people,
When ^(CZ)infants and nursing babies faint
In the open squares of the city.

¹² They say to their mothers,
“^(DA)Where is grain and wine?”
As they faint like a wounded man
In the open squares of the city,
As their ^(DB)life is poured out
On their mothers’ bosom.

¹³ What shall I testify about you?
To what ^(DC)shall I equate you,
O daughter of Jerusalem?
To what shall I liken you as I comfort you,
O ^(DD)virgin daughter of Zion?
For your ^[y]destruction is as vast as the sea;
Who can ^(DE)heal you?

¹⁴ Your ^(DF)prophets have beheld for you
Worthless and ineffective visions;
And they have not ^(DG)uncovered your iniquity
So as to ^[z]return you from captivity,
But they have ^(DH)beheld for you worthless and misleading ^[aa]oracles.

¹⁵ All who pass along the way
^(DI)Clap their hands in derision at you;
They ^(DJ)hiss and shake their heads
At the daughter of Jerusalem,
“Is this the city of which they said,
‘^(DK)The perfection of beauty,
^(DL)The joy of the whole earth’?”

¹⁶ All ^(DM)your enemies
Have opened their mouths wide against you;
They hiss and ^(DN)gnash their teeth.
They say, “We have ^(DO)swallowed her up!
Surely this is the ^(DP)day for which we have hoped;
We have found it, we have seen it.”

¹⁷ Yahweh has ^(DQ)done what He purposed;
He has completed His word
Which He commanded from days of old.
He has pulled down ^(DR)without sparing,
And He has caused the enemy to ^(DS)be glad over you;
He has ^(DT)exalted the ^[ab]might of your adversaries.

¹⁸ Their ^(DU)heart cried out to the Lord,
“O ^(DV)wall of the daughter of Zion,
Let your ^(DW)tears run down like a river day and night;
Give yourself no relief;
Let ^[ac]your eyes not be still.

¹⁹ Arise, cry aloud in the ^(DX)night
At the head of the night watches;
^(DY)Pour out your heart like water
Before the presence of the Lord;
Lift up your hands to Him
For the ^(DZ)life of your infants
Who are ^(EA)faint because of hunger
At the head of every street.”

²⁰ See, O Yahweh, and look!
With ^(EB)whom have You dealt thus?
Should women ^(EC)eat their ^[ad]offspring,
The infants who were ^[ae]born healthy?
Should ^(ED)priest and prophet be killed
In the sanctuary of the Lord?

²¹ On the ground in the streets
Lie ^(EE)young and old;
My ^(EF)virgins and my young men
Have fallen by the sword.
You have killed them in the day of Your anger;
You have slaughtered, ^(EG)not sparing.

²² You called as in the day of an appointed time
My ^(EH)terrors on every side;
And there was ^(EI)no one who escaped or survived
In the day of Yahweh’s anger.
Those ^(EJ)whom I ^[af]gave birth to and reared,
My enemy consumed them.

3 I am the man who has ^(EK)seen affliction
Because of the rod of His wrath.
² He has driven me and made me walk
In ^(EL)darkness and not in light.
³ Surely against me He has ^(EM)turned His hand
Repeatedly all the day.

⁴ He has caused my ^(EN)flesh and my skin to waste away;
He has ^(EO)broken my bones.
⁵ He has ^(EP)besieged and encompassed me with ^(EQ)gall and hardship.
^6 (ER)Dark places He has made me inhabit,
Like those who have long been dead.

⁷ He has ^(ES)walled me in so that I cannot go out;
He has made my ^[ag](ET)chain heavy.
⁸ Even when I cry out and call for help,
He ^(EU)shuts out my prayer.
⁹ He has ^(EV)blocked my ways with cut stone;
He has made my paths crooked.

¹⁰ He is to me like a bear lying in wait,
Like a lion in secret places.
¹¹ He has turned aside my ways and ^(EW)torn me to pieces;
He has made me desolate.
¹² He ^(EX)bent His bow
And ^(EY)set me as a target for the arrow.

¹³ He made the ^[ah]arrows of His ^(EZ)quiver
To enter into my ^[ai]inward parts.
¹⁴ I have become a ^(FA)laughingstock to all my people,
Their ^(FB)music of mockery all the day.
¹⁵ He has ^(FC)saturated me with bitterness;
He has sated me with wormwood.

¹⁶ He has ^(FD)broken my teeth with ^(FE)gravel;
He has made me cower in the ^(FF)dust.
¹⁷ My soul has been rejected ^(FG)from peace;
I have forgotten goodness.
¹⁸ So I say, “My strength has perished,
As well as my ^(FH)hopeful waiting which comes from Yahweh.”

¹⁹ Remember my affliction and my ^[aj]homelessness, the ^(FI)wormwood and gall.
²⁰ Surely ^(FJ)my soul remembers
And is ^(FK)bowed down within me.
²¹ This I will return to my heart;
Therefore I will ^(FL)wait in hope.

²² The ^(FM)lovingkindnesses of Yahweh ^[ak]indeed never cease,
^(FN)For His compassions never fail.
²³ They are new ^(FO)every morning;
Great is ^(FP)Your faithfulness.
²⁴ “Yahweh is my ^(FQ)portion,” says my soul,
“Therefore I ^(FR)wait for Him.”

²⁵ Yahweh is good to those who ^(FS)hope in Him,
To the soul who ^(FT)seeks Him.
²⁶ It is good that he ^(FU)waits silently
For the salvation of Yahweh.
²⁷ It is good for a man that he should bear
The yoke in his youth.

²⁸ Let him ^(FV)sit alone and be silent
Since He has laid it on him.
²⁹ Let him ^[al]put his mouth in the ^(FW)dust;
Perhaps there is ^(FX)hope.
³⁰ Let him give his ^(FY)cheek to the one who strikes him;
Let him be saturated with reproach.

³¹ For the Lord will ^(FZ)not reject forever,
³² For if He causes grief,
Then He will have ^(GA)compassion
According to His abundant lovingkindness.
³³ For He ^(GB)does not afflict from His heart
Or grieve the sons of men.

³⁴ To crush under His feet
All the prisoners of the ^[am]land,
³⁵ To ^[an]deprive a man of ^(GC)justice
In the presence of the Most High,
³⁶ To ^[ao](GD)defraud a man in his legal case—
These things the Lord does not see with approval.