Weeping, she will weep in the night, and her tears upon her cheeks: no comfort to her from all loving her: all her friends dealt faithlessly with her, they were to her for enemies.

Her adversaries were for head, her enemies were secure; for Jehovah afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions: her children went into captivity before the face of him pressing.

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 remembereth in the days of her affliction and of her miseries all her pleasant things that were from the days of old: When her people fell into the hand of the adversary, and none did help her, The adversaries saw her, they did mock at her desolations.

In her skirts were her unclean ways; she gave no thought to her end; and her fall has been a wonder; she has no comforter: see her sorrow, O Lord; for the attacker is lifted up.

The hand of her hater is stretched out over all her desired things; for she has seen that the nations have come into her holy place, about whom you gave orders that they were not to come into the meeting of your people.

“The yoke of my transgressions is bound;
By His hand they are knit and woven together.
They have come upon my neck.
He has made my strength fail;
The Lord has put me into the hand
Of those against whom I cannot stand.

{Samekh} The LORD hath destroyed all the mighty men, that were in me. He hath proclaimed a feast, to slaughter all my best men. The LORD hath trodden down the daughter of Judah, like as it were in a wine press.

For these I weep; mine eye, mine eye will go down with water, for he comforting turning back my soul, removed far off from me: my sons were desolations, for the enemy prevailed.

{Pe} Zion casteth out her hands, and there is no man to comfort her. The LORD hath laid the enemies round about Jacob, and Jerusalem is as it were a menstruous woman in the midst of them.

I sent for my lovers, but they were false to me: my priests and my responsible men were breathing their last breath in the town, while they were looking for food to give them new life.

See, O Jehovah; for straits to me: my bowels were in a ferment; my heart turned in my midst; for embittering, I embittered: without, the sword bereaved; in the house, as death.

He hath bent his bow like an enemy: he stood with his right hand as an adversary, and slew all that were pleasant to the eye in the tabernacle of the daughter of Zion: he poured out his fury like fire.

{He} The LORD is become like as it were an enemy: he hath cast down Israel and all his places. Yea, all his strongholds hath he destroyed, and filled the daughter of Judah with much sorrow and heaviness.

And he hath violently taken away his tabernacle, as if it were of a garden: he hath destroyed his places of the assembly: the LORD hath caused the solemn feasts and sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion, and hath despised in the indignation of his anger the king and the priest.

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.

(Tet) Her city gates have fallen to the ground; he smashed to bits the bars that lock her gates. Her king and princes were taken into exile; there is no more guidance available. As for her prophets, they no longer receive a vision from the Lord.

They sat upon the earth; the old men of the daughter of Zion were silent; they brought up the dust upon their head: they girded on sackcloth: the virgins of Jerusalem brought down their head to the earth.

Mine eyes failed with tears, my bowels were in a ferment, my liver was poured out to the earth, upon the breaking of the daughter of my people; in the fainting of the child and suckling in the wide places of the city.

נ NunYour prophets saw visions for you
that were empty and deceptive;
they did not reveal your guilt
and so restore your fortunes.
They saw oracles for you
that were empty and misleading.

The Lord has done that which was his purpose; he has put into force the orders which he gave in the days which are past; pulling down without pity, he has made your hater glad over you, lifting up the horn of those who were against you.

See, O Lord, and look!
With whom have You dealt thus?
Should women eat their offspring,
The little ones who were born healthy?
Should priest and prophet be slain
In the sanctuary of the Lord?

(Sin/Shin) The young boys and old men lie dead on the ground in the streets. My young women and my young men have fallen by the sword. You killed them when you were angry; you slaughtered them without mercy.

As in the day of a holy meeting you have made fears come round me on every side, and no one got away or was kept safe in the day of the Lord's wrath: those who were folded in my arms, whom I took care of, have been sent to their destruction by my hater.

He hath bent his bow, and made me as it were a mark to shoot at.

The mercies of Jehovah are that we were not consumed, for his compassions were not finished.

Fear and a snare were to us, desolation and breaking

Without cause my enemies
Hunted me down like a bird;

Waters were flowing over my head; I said, I am cut off.

The precious sons of Zion, they who were weighed against pure gold, How are they accounted as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter!

They that did feed delicately are desolate in the streets: they that were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghills.

For the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the sin of Sodom, That was overthrown as in a moment, and no hands were laid upon her.

Her Nazarites were purer than snow, they were whiter than milk, they were more ruddy in body than rubies, their polishing was of sapphire:

Their form dark above blackness; they were not known in the streets: their skin adhered to their bones; it was dried up, it was as wood.

Happier were [the] victims of [the] sword than the victims of famine; they have pined away, very hungry for the crops of my field.

The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children: they were their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people.

They wandered about blind in the streets; they were polluted with blood, so that men could not touch their garments.

Away! unclean! they were crying out to them, Away! away! let there be no touching: when they went away in flight and wandering, men said among the nations, There is no further resting-place for them.

ע AyinAll the while our eyes were failing
as we looked in vain for assistance;
we watched from our towers
for a nation that refused to help.

צ TsadeOur steps were closely followed
so that we could not walk in our streets.
Our end drew near; our time ran out.
Our end had come!

Our pursuers were swifter than the eagles of the heavens: They chased us upon the mountains, they laid wait for us in the wilderness.

We were orphans, no father; our mothers as widows.

Upon our necks were we pursued: we labored and no rest to us.

Our fathers were sinners and are dead; and the weight of their evil-doing is on us.

Women - in Zion, were ravished, virgins, in the cities of Judah!

Princes are hanged up by their hand: the faces of elders were not honoured.

The young men were crushing the grain, and the boys were falling under the wood.

For this our heart was languid; for this our eyes were darkened.