Lamentations 1

How Lonely Sits the City 1How lonely sits the city
   that was full of people!
How like a widow has she become,
   she who was great among the nations!
She who was a princess among the provinces
   has become a slave.

2She weeps bitterly in the night,
   with tears on her cheeks;
among all her lovers
   she has none to comfort her;
all her friends have dealt treacherously with her;
   they have become her enemies.

3Judah has gone into exile because of afflictionOr under affliction
   and hard servitude;
she dwells now among the nations,
   but finds no resting place;
her pursuers have all overtaken her
   in the midst of her distress.Or in the narrow passes

4The roads to Zion mourn,
   for none come to the festival;
all her gates are desolate;
   her priests groan;
her virgins have been afflicted,Septuagint, Old Latin dragged away
   and she herself suffers bitterly.

5Her foes have become the head;
   her enemies prosper,
because the LORD has afflicted her
   for the multitude of her transgressions;
her children have gone away,
   captives before the foe.

6From the daughter of Zion
   all her majesty has departed.
Her princes have become like deer
   that find no pasture;
they fled without strength
   before the pursuer.

7Jerusalem remembers
   in the days of her affliction and wandering
all the precious things
   that were hers from days of old.
When her people fell into the hand of the foe,
   and there was none to help her,
her foes gloated over her;
   they mocked at her downfall.

8Jerusalem sinned grievously;
   therefore she became filthy;
all who honored her despise her,
   for they have seen her nakedness;
she herself groans
   and turns her face away.

9Her uncleanness was in her skirts;
   she took no thought of her future;Or end
therefore her fall is terrible;
   she has no comforter.
"O LORD, behold my affliction,
   for the enemy has triumphed!"

10The enemy has stretched out his hands
   over all her precious things;
for she has seen the nations
   enter her sanctuary,
those whom you forbade
   to enter your congregation.

11All her people groan
   as they search for bread;
they trade their treasures for food
   to revive their strength.
"Look, O LORD, and see,
   for I am despised."

12"Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by?
   Look and see
if there is any sorrow like my sorrow,
   which was brought upon me,
which the LORD inflicted
   on the day of his fierce anger.

13From on high he sent fire;
   into my bonesSeptuagint; Hebrew bones and he made it descend;
he spread a net for my feet;
   he turned me back;
he has left me stunned,
   faint all the day long.

14My transgressions were boundThe meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain into a yoke;
   by his hand they were fastened together;
they were set upon my neck;
   he caused my strength to fail;
the Lord gave me into the hands
   of those whom I cannot withstand.

15The Lord rejected
   all my mighty men in my midst;
he summoned an assembly against me
   to crush my young men;
the Lord has trodden as in a winepress
   the virgin daughter of Judah.

16For these things I weep;
   my eyes flow with tears;
for a comforter is far from me,
   one to revive my spirit;
my children are desolate,
   for the enemy has prevailed."

17Zion stretches out her hands,
   but there is none to comfort her;
the LORD has commanded against Jacob
   that his neighbors should be his foes;
Jerusalem has become
   a filthy thing among them.

18"The LORD is in the right,
   for I have rebelled against his word;
but hear, all you peoples,
   and see my suffering;
my young women and my young men
   have gone into captivity.

19I called to my lovers,
   but they deceived me;
my priests and elders
   perished in the city,
while they sought food
   to revive their strength.

20Look, O LORD, for I am in distress;
   my stomach churns;
my heart is wrung within me,
   because I have been very rebellious.
In the street the sword bereaves;
   in the house it is like death.

21They heardSeptuagint, Syriac Hear my groaning,
   yet there is no one to comfort me.
All my enemies have heard of my trouble;
   they are glad that you have done it.
You have broughtSyriac Bring the day you announced;
   now let them be as I am.

22Let all their evildoing come before you,
   and deal with them
as you have dealt with me
   because of all my transgressions;
for my groans are many,
   and my heart is faint."