Because of the LORD's gracious love we are not consumed, since his compassions never end.

He made my flesh and skin prematurely old; he broke my bones.

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.

He laid siege against me, surrounding me with bitterness and suffering.

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.

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.

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 are grieving, and she is bitter.

In his fierce wrath he cut off all the strength of Israel. He withdrew his protection as the enemy approached. He burned Jacob like a blazing fire consumes everything around it.

Those who enjoyed delicacies lie desolate in the streets. Those who were reared wearing purple scavenge in piles of trash.

Fled from cherished 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.

Jerusalem remembers her time of affliction and misery; all her valued belongings 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.

He has forced me to live in darkness, like those who are long dead.

Jerusalem sinned greatly, and she became unclean. All who honored her now despise her, because they saw her naked. She herself groans and turns her face away.

The adversary seized in his hands everything she valued. She watched the nations enter her sanctuary; those you forbade to enter your place of meeting.

All her people groaned as they searched for food. They traded their valuables in order to eat, to keep themselves alive. Look, LORD, and see how I have become dishonored.

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.

The guilt of my cherished people surpasses the sin of Sodom, which was overthrown in a moment, without a hand to help her.

May it not befall you, 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?

The yoke of my sins was bound on, 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.

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 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 have gone into captivity.

He has walled me in so I cannot escape; he placed heavy chains on me.

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 Judah.

He sent fire from on high, making it penetrate my bones. He stretched out a net at my feet, forcing me to turn back. He made me desolate; I'm fainting all day long.

Because of all this, I weep; my eyes stream with tears because far from me is the comforter of my soul. My children are sorrowful, because the enemy has won.

Zion spreads out her hands; no one is there to comfort her. The LORD has issued an order against Jacob, that all who are around him are to be his enemies; Jerusalem has become unclean among them.

People 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 will become like me.

He impeded my way with blocks of stone, making my paths uneven.

He bent his bow against us 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 Zion he poured out his anger like fire.

I called out to my lovers, but they deceived me. My priests and my elders have died within the city while looking for something to eat to keep themselves alive.

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.

Now their faces are blacker than coal; they are unrecognized in the streets. Their skin clings to their bones; it has become dry like a stick.

Indeed, when I cry out, calling for help, he shuts out my prayer.

We made a deal with the Egyptians and the Assyrians for the price of food.

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 with mourning and lament.

He plowed under his Temple 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.

He forced me off my path, tearing me to pieces and making me desolate.

He is like a bear that lies in wait for me, a lion in hiding.

Her princes were purer than snow, whiter than milk. Their bodies were more ruddy than rubies, their beards like the color of precious stones.

He bent his bow, aiming at me with his arrow.

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.

I am a man familiar with affliction under the rod of God's anger.

Remember my affliction and homelessness wormwood and gall!

Our ancestors sinned and no longer exist yet we continue to bear the consequences of their sin.

I have become a laughingstock to all my people, the object of their taunts throughout the day.

The leaders of cherished 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.

The LORD planned to destroy the walls of cherished 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.

Jerusalem's gates collapsed to the ground; he destroyed and broke the bars of her gates. Both king and prince have gone into captivity. There is no instruction, and the prophets receive no vision from the LORD.

You have removed peace from my life; I have forgotten what prosperity is.

He caused his war arrows to pierce my vital organs.

The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the person who searches for him.

They are new every morning great is your faithfulness!

Everyone who passes by on the road shake their fists at you. They hiss and shake their heads at cherished Jerusalem: "Is this the city men used to call "The Perfection of Beauty,' and "The Joy of the Entire Earth'"?

So I say, "My strength is gone as is my hope in the LORD."

They ask their mothers, "Is there anything to eat or drink?" They faint in the streets of the city like wounded men. Their life ebbs away while they lie on their mother's bosom.

He broke my teeth on gravel, covering me with dust.

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; we have seen it!"

Those who die by the sword are better off than those who die from starvation, who slowly waste away like those pierced through for lack of food from the fields.

Get up and cry aloud in the night, at the beginning of every hour. 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.

My eyes are worn out from crying, my insides are churning, My emotions pour out in grief because my people are destroyed Children and infants faint in the streets of the city.

My mind keeps reflecting on it, and I become depressed.

With their own hands, compassionate women boil their own children they become their food when my beloved people were destroyed.

He has filled me with bitterness, making me drink wormwood.

What can be said about you? To what should you be compared, fair Jerusalem? To what may I liken you, so I may comfort you, fair one of Zion? Indeed, your wound is as deep as the sea who can heal you?

Slaves rule over us, and no one delivers us from their control.

It is good to hope and wait patiently for the LORD's salvation.

How the Lord in his wrath shamed cherished Zion! He cast down from heaven to earth the glory of Israel, He did not remember his footstool in the time of his anger.

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. Instead, they crafted oracles for you that are false and misleading.

Indeed, the Lord will not always reject us

The LORD has exhausted his wrath, pouring out his fierce anger. He kindled a fire in Zion, consuming its foundations.

"The LORD is all I have," says my soul, "Therefore I will trust in him."

We risk our lives to obtain our food, facing death in the desert.

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 of your enemies.

They have raped women in Zion, young women in the towns of Judah.

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?

He has led me brought me into darkness, not into light.

Our skin blisters as from an oven, due to ravaging blasts of the famine.

He truly turned his hand against me, again and again, all day long.

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.

He will endure being slapped in the face, bringing him public disgrace.

It is good when a young man carries the yoke of discipline in his youth.

None of the kings of the earth would have believed, nor the world's inhabitants, that the adversary and the enemy could have breached the gates of Jerusalem.

He is to sit apart and remain silent, because the LORD has laid it upon him.

The Lord swallowed up without pity all of Jacob's habitations. In his wrath he tore down the strongholds of fair Judah. He cast to the ground in dishonor both her kingdom and its rulers.

Due to the sins committed by her prophets, and the iniquities of her priests who shed in her midst, the blood of the righteous,

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.

Celebrate and rejoice, you women of Edom, who live in the land of Uz. But to you the cup also will pass you will become drunk and stripped naked.

The LORD's anointed, the breath of our life, was captured in their pits. About him we had said, "Under his protection we will survive among the nations."

Cry out from your heart to the Lord, wall of fair Zion! Let your tears run down like a river day and night. Allow yourself no rest, and don't stop crying.

How tarnished the gold has become, the finest gold debased! Sacred stones have been scattered at every street corner.

Restore us to yourself, LORD, so that we may return. Renew our days as before,

Let him fall face down in the dust, so there may yet be hope.

people stagger around in the streets like the blind, defiled by blood unclean so that no one is able to touch their clothing.

The joy of our hearts has ceased, and our dancing has turned into dirges.

Our young men must grind grain with a millstone; our youths stumble under the weight of wood.

Princes they have hung by their hands; elders they have disrespected.

The punishment for your sin is complete, you women of Zion, and God will no longer exile you. He will punish your iniquity, you women of Edom, and he will expose your sins.

"Go away! Unclean!" they shouted at them. "Go away! Go away! Don't touch!" When they fled away and wandered, those among the nations decreed, "They cannot live here!"

The nursing child's tongue cleaves to its palate from thirst. Young children beg for bread, but no one gives them any.

Our eyes failed, searching in vain for hope; we kept watching and looking for a nation that would not help.

LORD, remember what has happened to us. Pay attention, and look at our shame!

The LORD himself separated them; he will do nothing more for them. They did not respect their own priests; they did not honor their elders.

Even wild animals nurse, suckling their young; but the women of my people are cruel, like ostriches in the wilderness.

Though the precious people of Zion were like fine gold, how they are valued like clay vessels, the handiwork of a potter!

Our steps were closely stalked, so we couldn't travel on our own streets. Our end is near, our days are over; indeed, our end has come.

Because Mount Zion is desolate; foxes roam around it.

unless you have utterly rejected us and are angry with us without limit.

Our elders have ceased ruling at the gate; our young men have abandoned their music.

You, LORD, are forever your throne endures from generation to generation.

This is why our hearts faint, and why our eyes grow dim:

Our pursuers were swifter than soaring eagles; they pursued us over the mountains, lying in wait for us in the wilderness.

The crown has fallen from our head woe to us, because we have sinned!

Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers, and our homes to foreigners.

So why have you completely forgotten us, forsaking us for so long?

We are now orphans without fathers and our mothers are like widows.

Our pursuers breathe down our necks; we are weary, but there is no rest for us.

We pay to drink our own water, and our own wood is sold to us at high price.

Bitterly she cries in the night, as tears stream down her cheeks. No one consoles her of all her friends. All her neighbors have betrayed her; they have become her enemies.

This is what comes to mind, and therefore I have hope:

Who can command, and it happens, without the Lord having ordered it?

Let us examine our lifestyles, putting them to the test, and turn back to the LORD.

Do not both good and evil things proceed from the mouth of the Most High?

though he causes grief, his compassion abounds according to his gracious love.

When any of the prisoners of the earth are crushed underfoot,

For he does not deliberately hurt or grieve human beings.

Why should anyone living complain, any mortal, about being punished for sin?

Let us lift up our hearts and our hands to God in heaven.

when a person's rights are perverted in defiance of the Most High.

I called on your name, LORD, from the depths of the Pit,

You drew near when I called out to you. You said, "Stop being afraid"

When a man is thwarted in his appeal, does the Lord condone it?

Clothing yourself with anger, you pursued us. You killed without pity,

You have reduced us to scum and garbage among the nations.

What I see grieves my soul because of all the young women of my city.

My eyes run with rivers of tears over the destruction of my cherished people.

Lord, you have defended my cause; you have redeemed my life.

My enemies hunted me like a bird, viciously and without justification.

As for us, we have sinned and rebelled; but you have not pardoned us.

My tears pour down ceaselessly; I am far from relief

You covered yourself with a cloud that prayer cannot pierce.

All our enemies jeer at us with gaping mouths.

Panic and pitfalls beset us, along with devastation and ruin.

They dumped me alive into a pit, sealing me in with stone.

Pay them back, LORD, according to their actions.

the whisperings of my opponents, their scheming against me all day long.

You heard my voice don't close your ear to my sighs and cries.

Pursue them in your anger and destroy them from under the LORD's heaven.

Water closed over my head, and I said, "I'm a dead man."

until the LORD bends down to see from heaven.

LORD, you listened to their insults all their plots against me,

Watch! Whether they sit down or stand up, they mock me with their songs.

You examined their plans for vengeance, all of their plots against me.

Give them an anguished heart; may your curse be upon them!

LORD, you observed how I have been wronged; now make your ruling in my case.