Login Go Premium

Lamentations 1:1-11

Read this passage and open each verse for the full verse feed and commentary tools.

The Sorrows of Zion

1How lonely sits the city

That once had many people!

She has become like a widow

Who was once great among the nations!

She who was a princess among the provinces

Has become a forced laborer!

2She weeps bitterly in the night,

And her tears are on her cheeks;

She has no one to comfort her

Among all her lovers.

All her friends have dealt treacherously with her;

They have become her enemies.

3Judah has gone into exile out of affliction

And harsh servitude;

She lives among the nations,

But she has not found a resting place;

All those who pursued her have overtaken her

In the midst of distress.

4The roads of Zion are in mourning

Because no one comes to an appointed feast.

All her gates are deserted;

Her priests groan,

Her virgins are worried,

And as for Zion herself, it is bitter for her.

5Her adversaries have become her masters,

Her enemies are secure;

For the Lord has caused her grief

Because of the multitude of her wrongdoings;

Her little ones have gone away

As captives led by the enemy.

6All of her splendor

Is gone from the daughter of Zion;

Her leaders have become like deer

That have found no pasture,

And they have fled without strength

From the pursuer.

7In the days of her affliction and homelessness

Jerusalem remembers all her treasures

That were hers since the days of old,

When her people fell into the hand of the adversary

And no one helped her.

The adversaries saw her,

They laughed at her ruin.

8Jerusalem sinned greatly,

Therefore she has become an object of ridicule.

All who honored her despise her

Because they have seen her nakedness;

Even she herself groans and turns away.

9Her uncleanness was in her garment’s seams;

She did not think of her future.

So she has fallen in an astonishing way;

She has no comforter.

“See, Lord, my affliction,

For the enemy has honored himself!”

10The adversary has stretched out his hand

Over all her precious things,

For she has seen the nations enter her sanctuary,

The ones whom You commanded

That they were not to enter Your congregation.

11All her people groan, seeking bread;

They have given their treasures for food

To restore their lives.

“See, Lord, and look,

For I am despised.”