Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

^4 (A)How shall we sing the Lord's song
    in a foreign land?
⁵ If I forget you, O Jerusalem,
    ^(B)let my right hand forget its skill!
⁶ Let my ^(C)tongue stick to the roof of my mouth,
    if I do not remember you,
if I do not set Jerusalem
    above my highest joy!

⁷ Remember, O Lord, against the ^(D)Edomites
    ^(E)the day of Jerusalem,
how they said, ^(F)“Lay it bare, lay it bare,
    down to its foundations!”
⁸ O daughter of Babylon, ^(G)doomed to be destroyed,
    blessed shall he be who ^(H)repays you
    with what you have done to us!
⁹ Blessed shall he be who takes your little ones
    and ^(I)dashes them against the rock!

¹³ What can I say for you, ^(A)to what compare you,
    O daughter of Jerusalem?
^(B)What can I liken to you, that I may comfort you,
    O virgin daughter of Zion?
^(C)For your ruin is vast as the sea;
    who can heal you?

^14 (D)Your prophets have seen for you
    false and deceptive visions;
^(E)they have not exposed your iniquity
    to ^(F)restore your fortunes,
^(G)but have seen for you ^(H)oracles
    that are false and misleading.

¹⁵ All who pass along the way
    clap their hands at you;
^(I)they hiss and wag their heads
    at the daughter of Jerusalem:
“Is this the city that was called
    ^(J)the perfection of beauty,
    ^(K)the joy of all the earth?”

^16 (L)All your enemies
    rail against you;
they hiss, they gnash their teeth,
    they cry: “We ^(M)have swallowed her!
Ah, this is the day we longed for;
    now we have it; ^(N)we see it!”

¹⁷ The Lord has done what he purposed;
    he has carried out ^(O)his word,
which he commanded ^(P)long ago;
    ^(Q)he has thrown down ^(R)without pity;
^(S)he has made the enemy rejoice over you
    and exalted the ^(T)might of your foes.

¹⁸ Their heart cried to the Lord.
    O ^(U)wall of the daughter of Zion,
^(V)let tears stream down like a torrent
    ^(W)day and night!
^(X)Give yourself no rest,
    ^(Y)your eyes no respite!

¹⁹ “Arise, ^(Z)cry out in the night,
    at the beginning of the night watches!
^(AA)Pour out your heart like water
    before the presence of the Lord!
^(AB)Lift your hands to him
    for the lives of your children,
^(AC)who faint for hunger
    at the head of every street.”

²⁰ Look, O Lord, and see!
    ^(AD)With whom have you dealt thus?
^(AE)Should women eat the fruit of their womb,
    the children of ^(AF)their tender care?
Should ^(AG)priest and prophet be killed
    in the sanctuary of the Lord?

²¹ In the dust of the streets
    ^(AH)lie the young and the old;
^(AI)my young women and my young men
    have fallen by the sword;
^(AJ)you have killed them in the day of your anger,
    slaughtering ^(AK)without pity.

²² You summoned as if to ^(AL)a festival day
    ^(AM)my terrors on every side,
^(AN)and on the day of the anger of the Lord
    no one escaped or survived;
^(AO)those whom I held and raised
    my enemy destroyed.