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Lamentations 1

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.”

12“Is it nothing to all you who pass this way?

Look and see if there is any pain like my pain

Which was inflicted on me,

With which the Lord tormented me on the day of His fierce anger.

13“From the height He sent fire into my bones,

And it dominated them.

He has spread a net for my feet;

He has turned me back;

He has made me desolate,

Faint all day long.

14“The yoke of my wrongdoings is bound;

By His hand they are woven together.

They have come upon my neck;

He has made my strength fail.

The Lord has handed me over

To those against whom I am not able to stand.

15“The Lord has thrown away all my strong men

He has called an appointed time against me

To crush my young men;

The Lord has trodden as in a wine press

The virgin daughter of Judah.

16“For these things I weep;

My eyes run down with water;

Because far from me is a comforter,

One to restore my soul.

My children are desolate

Because the enemy has prevailed.”

17Zion stretches out with her hands;

There is no one to comfort her;

The Lord has commanded regarding Jacob

That those around him become his adversaries;

Jerusalem has become a filthy thing among them.

18“The Lord is righteous,

For I have rebelled against His command;

Hear now, all peoples,

And see my pain;

My virgins and my young men

Have gone into captivity.

19“I called to my lovers, but they deserted me;

My priests and my elders perished in the city

While they sought food to restore their strength themselves.

20“See, Lord, for I am in distress;

My spirit is greatly troubled;

My heart is overturned within me,

For I have been very rebellious.

In the street the sword has made women childless;

In the house it is like death.

21“They have heard that I groan;

There is no one to comfort me,

All my enemies have heard of my disaster;

They are joyful that You have done it.

Oh, that You would bring the day which You have proclaimed,

So that they will become like me.

22“May all their wickedness come before You;

And deal with them just as You have dealt with me

For all my wrongdoings.

For my groans are many and my heart is faint.”

Lamentations

Chapter 1

1 of 5