Old/New Testament
The Sorrowful City[a]
1 How lonely she lies,
the city that thronged with people!
Like a widow she has become,
this great one among nations!
The princess among provinces
has become a vassal.
2 Bitterly she cries in the night,
as tears stream down[b] her cheeks.
No one consoles her
of all her friends.
All her neighbors have betrayed her;
they have become her enemies.
3 Judah has gone into exile
to escape affliction and servitude.
She that sat among the nations,
has found no rest.
All her pursuers overtook her
amid narrow passes.
4 The roads that lead to Zion are in mourning,
because no one travels to the festivals.
All her gates are desolate;
her priests are moaning.
Her young women[c] are grieving,[d]
and she is bitter.
5 Her adversaries dominate her,
her enemies prosper.
For the Lord has made her suffer
because of her many transgressions.
Her children have gone away,
taken into captivity in the presence of the enemy.
6 Fled from cherished[e] Zion
are all that were her splendor.
Her princes have become like deer
that cannot find their feeding grounds.
They flee with strength exhausted
from their pursuers.
7 Jerusalem remembers[f]
her time of affliction and misery;
all her valued belongings[g]
of days gone by,
when her people fell into enemy hands,
with no one to help her,
and her enemies stared at her,
mocking her downfall.
8 Jerusalem sinned greatly,
and she became unclean.[h]
All who honored her now despise her,
because they saw her naked.
She herself groans
and turns her face away.
9 Uncleanness has soiled her skirts,
and she gave no thought to what would follow.
She fell in such a startling way,
with no one to comfort her.
Look, Lord, upon my affliction,
because my enemy is boasting.
10 The adversary seized in his hands
everything she valued.
She watched the nations[i]
enter her sanctuary;
those you forbade to enter
your place of meeting.
11 All her people groaned
as they searched for food.
They traded their valuables in order to eat,
to keep themselves alive.[j]
Look, Lord, and see
how I have become dishonored.
12 May it not befall you,[k]
all who pass along the road!
Look and see:
Is there any grief
like my grief
dealt out to me,
by which the Lord afflicted me
in the time of his fierce wrath?
13 He sent fire from on high,[l]
making it penetrate my bones.[m]
He stretched out a net at my feet,
forcing me to turn back.
He made me desolate;
I’m fainting all day long.
14 The yoke of my sins was bound on,[n]
fastened together by his hand.
They settled on my neck;
he caused my strength to fail.
The Lord placed me in the power
of those I cannot resist.
15 He rejected all the valiant men—
the Lord, in my midst.
He set a time to meet with me
to crush my young warriors.
The Lord has trampled, as in a winepress,
the fair virgin that is[o] Judah.
16 Because of all this, I weep;
my eyes[p] stream with tears
because far from me
is the comforter of my soul.
My children are sorrowful,
because the enemy has won.
17 Zion spreads out her hands;[q]
no one is there to comfort her.
The Lord has issued an order against[r] Jacob,
that all who are around him are to be his enemies;
Jerusalem has become
unclean among them.
18 The Lord is in the right,
but I rebelled against his commands.
Listen, please, all you people,
and look at my pain—
my young men and women[s]
have gone into captivity.
19 I called out to my lovers,[t]
but they deceived me.
My priests and my elders
have died within the city
while looking for something to eat
to keep themselves alive.
20 Look, Lord, how distressed I am;
all my insides are churning.
My heart is troubled within me,
because I vigorously rebelled.
Outside the sword brings loss of life,
while at home death rules.
21 People[u] heard how I groan,
with no one to comfort me.
All my adversaries have heard about my troubles;
they rejoice that you have caused them.
Bring on the day you have promised,
so my adversaries[v] will become like me.
22 May all of their wickedness come to your attention,
and deal with them
as you have done with me
because of all my transgressions.
For I am constantly groaning,
and my heart is faint.
The Condition of Israel
2 How the Lord in his wrath
shamed[w] cherished[x] Zion!
He cast down from heaven to earth
the glory of Israel,
He did not remember his footstool[y]
in the time of his anger.
2 The Lord swallowed up without pity
all of Jacob’s habitations.
In his wrath he tore down
the strongholds of fair Judah.[z]
He cast to the ground in dishonor
both her kingdom and its rulers.
3 In his fierce wrath he cut off
all the strength[aa] of Israel.
He withdrew his protection[ab]
as the enemy approached.[ac]
He burned Jacob like a blazing fire
consumes everything around it.
4 He bent his bow against us[ad] as would an enemy,
his right hand cocked as would an adversary.
He has killed everyone in whom we took pride;
in the tent of cherished[ae] Zion he poured out
his anger like fire.
5 The Lord has become like an enemy—
he has devoured Israel.
He has devoured all of her palaces,
destroying her fortresses.
He filled cherished Judah[af]
with mourning and lament.
6 He plowed under his Temple[ag] like a garden,
spoiling his tent.
The Lord abolished in Zion
both festivals and Sabbaths.
In his fierce wrath he despised
both king and priest.
7 The Lord rejected his altar,
disavowing his sanctuary.
He gave up her palace walls
to the control of the enemy.
They shouted in the Lord’s Temple,
as though they were attending a day of celebration.
8 The Lord planned to destroy
the walls of cherished[ah] Zion.
He measured them with his line.
He did not withhold his hand from destruction.
He made both ramparts and defensive walls mourn;
they languish together.
9 Jerusalem’s[ai] gates collapsed to the ground;
he destroyed and broke the bars of her gates.[aj]
Both king and prince have gone into captivity.[ak]
There is no instruction,[al]
and the prophets receive
no vision from the Lord.
10 The leaders of cherished[am] Zion
sit silently on the ground;
they throw dust on their heads
and dress in mourning clothes.
The young women of Jerusalem
bow their heads in sorrow.[an]
11 My eyes are worn out from crying,
my insides are churning,
My emotions pour out in grief[ao]
because my people are destroyed—
Children and infants faint
in the streets of the city.
12 They ask their mothers,
“Is there anything to eat or drink?”[ap]
They faint in the streets of the city
like wounded men.
Their life ebbs away
while they lie on their mother’s bosom.
13 What can be said about you?
To what should you be compared, fair[aq] Jerusalem?
To what may I liken you,
so I may comfort you, fair one[ar] of Zion?
Indeed, your wound is as deep as the sea—
who can heal you?
14 Your prophets look on your behalf;
they see false and deceptive visions.
They did not expose your sins
in order to restore what had been captured.[as]
Instead, they crafted oracles for you
that are false and misleading.
15 Everyone who passes by on the road
shake their fists[at] at you.
They hiss and shake their heads
at cherished[au] Jerusalem:
“Is this the city men used to call ‘The Perfection of Beauty,’
and ‘The Joy of the Entire Earth’”?
16 All of your enemies
insult you with gaping mouths.
They hiss and grind their teeth while saying,
“We have devoured her completely.
Yes, this is the day that we anticipated!
We found it at last;[av] we have seen it!”
17 The Lord did what he planned.
He carried out his threat.
Just as he commanded long ago,
he has torn down without pity;
He let the enemy boast about you
and has exalted the power[aw] of your enemies.
18 Cry out from your heart to the Lord,
wall of fair[ax] Zion!
Let your tears run down like a river
day and night.
Allow yourself no rest,
and don’t stop crying.
19 Get up and cry aloud in the night,
at the beginning of every hour.[ay]
Pour out your heart like water
in the presence of the Lord!
Lift up your hands toward him
for the lives of your children,
who are fainting away
at every street corner.
20 Look, Lord, and take note:
To whom have you done this?
Should women eat their offspring,
the children they have cuddled?
Should priests and prophets be slain
in the sanctuary of the Lord?
21 Young men and the aged
lie on the ground in the streets;
my young women and young men
have fallen by the sword.
You killed them in your anger,
slaughtering them without pity.
22 You have invited those who terrorize me to come around,
as if today were a festival.
No one has escaped or survived
the time of the Lord’s anger.
My enemy has finished off
those whom I cuddled and raised.
The Law is a Reflection
10 For the Law, being only[a] a reflection[b] of the blessings to come and not their substance, can never make perfect those who come near by the same sacrifices repeatedly offered year after year. 2 Otherwise, would they not have stopped offering them, because the worshipers, cleansed once for all, would no longer be aware of any sins? 3 Instead, through those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year after year, 4 for it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
The Messiah Offered One Sacrifice
5 For this reason, the Scriptures[c] say, when the Messiah[d] was about to come into the world:
“You did not want sacrifices and offerings,
but you prepared a body for me.
6 In burnt offerings and sin offerings
you never took delight.
7 Then I said, ‘See, I have come to do your will, O God’
In the volume of the scroll this is written about me.”[e]
8 In this passage he says, “You never wanted or took delight in sacrifices, offerings, burnt offerings, and sin offerings,”[f] which are offered according to the Law. 9 Then he says, “See, I have come to do your will.”[g] He takes away the first in order to establish the second. 10 By God’s will we have been sanctified once and for all through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus, the Messiah.[h]
11 Day after day every priest stands and repeatedly offers the same sacrifices that can never take away sins. 12 But when this priest[i] had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, “he sat down at the right hand of God.”[j] 13 Since that time, he has been waiting for his enemies to be made a footstool for his feet. 14 For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. 15 The Holy Spirit also assures us of this, for he said:
16 “This is the covenant that I will make with them
after those days, declares the Lord:[k]
I will put my laws in their hearts
and will write them on their minds,
17 and I will never again remember their sins
and their lawless deeds.”[l]
18 Now where there is forgiveness of these sins,[m] there is no longer any offering for sin.
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