The Lord’s lovingkindnesses indeed never cease,
For His compassions never fail.

He has caused my flesh and my skin to waste away,
He has broken my bones.

How lonely sits the city
That was full of 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!

He has besieged and encompassed me with bitterness and hardship.

Judah has gone into exile under affliction
And under harsh servitude;
She dwells among the nations,
But she has found no rest;
All her pursuers have overtaken her
In the midst of distress.

Her adversaries have become her masters,
Her enemies prosper;
For the Lord has caused her grief
Because of the multitude of her transgressions;
Her little ones have gone away
As captives before the adversary.

The roads of Zion are in mourning
Because no one comes to the appointed feasts.
All her gates are desolate;
Her priests are groaning,
Her virgins are afflicted,
And she herself is bitter.

In fierce anger He has cut off
All the strength of Israel;
He has drawn back His right hand
From before the enemy.
And He has burned in Jacob like a flaming fire
Consuming round about.

Those who ate delicacies
Are desolate in the streets;
Those reared in purple
Embrace ash pits.

All her majesty
Has departed from the daughter of Zion;
Her princes have become like deer
That have found no pasture;
And they have fled without strength
Before the pursuer.

In the days of her affliction and homelessness
Jerusalem remembers all her precious things
That were from the days of old,
When her people fell into the hand of the adversary
And no one helped her.
The adversaries saw her,
They mocked at her ruin.

In dark places He has made me dwell,
Like those who have long been dead.

Jerusalem sinned greatly,
Therefore she has become an unclean thing.
All who honored her despise her
Because they have seen her nakedness;
Even she herself groans and turns away.

The 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 should not enter into Your congregation.

All her people groan seeking bread;
They have given their precious things for food
To restore their lives themselves.
“See, O Lord, and look,
For I am despised.”

Her uncleanness was in her skirts;
She did not consider her future.
Therefore she has fallen astonishingly;
She has no comforter.
“See, O Lord, my affliction,
For the enemy has magnified himself!”

For the iniquity of the daughter of my people
Is greater than the sin of Sodom,
Which was overthrown as in a moment,
And no hands were turned toward her.

“Is it nothing to all you who pass this way?
Look and see if there is any pain like my pain
Which was severely dealt out to me,
Which the Lord inflicted on the day of His fierce anger.

“The yoke of my transgressions is bound;
By His hand they are knit together.
They have come upon my neck;
He has made my strength fail.
The Lord has given me into the hands
Of those against whom I am not able to stand.

“Let all their wickedness come before You;
And deal with them as You have dealt with me
For all my transgressions;
For my groans are many and my heart is faint.”

“The Lord is righteous;
For I have rebelled against His command;
Hear now, all peoples,
And behold my pain;
My virgins and my young men
Have gone into captivity.

He has walled me in so that I cannot go out;
He has made my chain heavy.

“The Lord has rejected all my strong men
In my midst;
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.

“From on high He sent fire into my bones,
And it prevailed over them.
He has spread a net for my feet;
He has turned me back;
He has made me desolate,
Faint all day long.

“For these things I weep;
My eyes run down with water;
Because far from me is a comforter,
One who restores my soul.
My children are desolate
Because the enemy has prevailed.”

Zion stretches out her hands;
There is no one to comfort her;
The Lord has commanded concerning Jacob
That the ones round about him should be his adversaries;
Jerusalem has become an unclean thing among them.

“They have heard that I groan;
There is no one to comfort me;
All my enemies have heard of my calamity;
They are glad that You have done it.
Oh, that You would bring the day which You have proclaimed,
That they may become like me.

He has blocked my ways with hewn stone;
He has made my paths crooked.

He has bent His bow like an enemy;
He has set His right hand like an adversary
And slain all that were pleasant to the eye;
In the tent of the daughter of Zion
He has poured out His wrath like fire.

“I called to my lovers, but they deceived me;
My priests and my elders perished in the city
While they sought food to restore their strength themselves.

“See, O 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 slays;
In the house it is like death.

Their appearance is blacker than soot,
They are not recognized in the streets;
Their skin is shriveled on their bones,
It is withered, it has become like wood.

Even when I cry out and call for help,
He shuts out my prayer.

We have submitted to Egypt and Assyria to get enough bread.

The Lord has become like an enemy.
He has swallowed up Israel;
He has swallowed up all its palaces,
He has destroyed its strongholds
And multiplied in the daughter of Judah
Mourning and moaning.

And He has violently treated His tabernacle like a garden booth;
He has destroyed His appointed meeting place.
The Lord has caused to be forgotten
The appointed feast and sabbath in Zion,
And He has despised king and priest
In the indignation of His anger.

He has turned aside my ways and torn me to pieces;
He has made me desolate.

He is to me like a bear lying in wait,
Like a lion in secret places.

Her consecrated ones were purer than snow,
They were whiter than milk;
They were more ruddy in body than corals,
Their polishing was like lapis lazuli.

He bent His bow
And set me as a target for the arrow.

The Lord has rejected His altar,
He has abandoned His sanctuary;
He has delivered into the hand of the enemy
The walls of her palaces.
They have made a noise in the house of the Lord
As in the day of an appointed feast.

I am the man who has seen affliction
Because of the rod of His wrath.

Remember my affliction and my wandering, the wormwood and bitterness.

Our fathers sinned, and are no more;
It is we who have borne their iniquities.

I have become a laughingstock to all my people,
Their mocking song all the day.

The elders of the daughter of Zion
Sit on the ground, they are silent.
They have thrown dust on their heads;
They have girded themselves with sackcloth.
The virgins of Jerusalem
Have bowed their heads to the ground.

The Lord determined to destroy
The wall of the daughter of Zion.
He has stretched out a line,
He has not restrained His hand from destroying,
And He has caused rampart and wall to lament;
They have languished together.

Her gates have sunk into the ground,
He has destroyed and broken her bars.
Her king and her princes are among the nations;
The law is no more.
Also, her prophets find
No vision from the Lord.

My soul has been rejected from peace;
I have forgotten happiness.

He made the arrows of His quiver
To enter into my inward parts.

The Lord is good to those who wait for Him,
To the person who seeks Him.

They are new every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness.

All who pass along the way
Clap their hands in derision at you;
They hiss and shake their heads
At the daughter of Jerusalem,
“Is this the city of which they said,
‘The perfection of beauty,
A joy to all the earth’?”

So I say, “My strength has perished,
And so has my hope from the Lord.”

They say to their mothers,
“Where is grain and wine?”
As they faint like a wounded man
In the streets of the city,
As their life is poured out
On their mothers’ bosom.

He has broken my teeth with gravel;
He has made me cower in the dust.

All your enemies
Have opened their mouths wide against you;
They hiss and gnash their teeth.
They say, “We have swallowed her up!
Surely this is the day for which we waited;
We have reached it, we have seen it.”

Better are those slain with the sword
Than those slain with hunger;
For they pine away, being stricken
For lack of the fruits of the field.

“Arise, cry aloud in the night
At the beginning of the night watches;
Pour out your heart like water
Before the presence of the Lord;
Lift up your hands to Him
For the life of your little ones
Who are faint because of hunger
At the head of every street.”

My eyes fail because of tears,
My spirit is greatly troubled;
My heart is poured out on the earth
Because of the destruction of the daughter of my people,
When little ones and infants faint
In the streets of the city.

Surely my soul remembers
And is bowed down within me.

The hands of compassionate women
Boiled their own children;
They became food for them
Because of the destruction of the daughter of my people.

He has filled me with bitterness,
He has made me drunk with wormwood.

How shall I admonish you?
To what shall I compare you,
O daughter of Jerusalem?
To what shall I liken you as I comfort you,
O virgin daughter of Zion?
For your ruin is as vast as the sea;
Who can heal you?

Slaves rule over us;
There is no one to deliver us from their hand.

It is good that he waits silently
For the salvation of the Lord.

How the Lord has covered the daughter of Zion
With a cloud in His anger!
He has cast from heaven to earth
The glory of Israel,
And has not remembered His footstool
In the day of His anger.

Your prophets have seen for you
False and foolish visions;
And they have not exposed your iniquity
So as to restore you from captivity,
But they have seen for you false and misleading oracles.

For the Lord will not reject forever,

The Lord has accomplished His wrath,
He has poured out His fierce anger;
And He has kindled a fire in Zion
Which has consumed its foundations.

“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
“Therefore I have hope in Him.”

We get our bread at the risk of our lives
Because of the sword in the wilderness.

The Lord has done what He purposed;
He has accomplished His word
Which He commanded from days of old.
He has thrown down without sparing,
And He has caused the enemy to rejoice over you;
He has exalted the might of your adversaries.

They ravished the women in Zion,
The virgins in the cities of Judah.

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?

He has driven me and made me walk
In darkness and not in light.

Our skin has become as hot as an oven,
Because of the burning heat of famine.

Surely against me He has turned His hand
Repeatedly all the day.

On the ground in the streets
Lie young and old;
My virgins and my young men
Have fallen by the sword.
You have slain them in the day of Your anger,
You have slaughtered, not sparing.

Let him give his cheek to the smiter,
Let him be filled with reproach.

It is good for a man that he should bear
The yoke in his youth.

The kings of the earth did not believe,
Nor did any of the inhabitants of the world,
That the adversary and the enemy
Could enter the gates of Jerusalem.

Let him sit alone and be silent
Since He has laid it on him.

The Lord has swallowed up; He has not spared
All the habitations of Jacob.
In His wrath He has thrown down
The strongholds of the daughter of Judah;
He has brought them down to the ground;
He has profaned the kingdom and its princes.

Because of the sins of her prophets
And the iniquities of her priests,
Who have shed in her midst
The blood of the righteous;

You called as in the day of an appointed feast
My terrors on every side;
And there was no one who escaped or survived
In the day of the Lord’s anger.
Those whom I bore and reared,
My enemy annihilated them.

Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom,
Who dwells in the land of Uz;
But the cup will come around to you as well,
You will become drunk and make yourself naked.

The breath of our nostrils, the Lord’s anointed,
Was captured in their pits,
Of whom we had said, “Under his shadow
We shall live among the nations.”

Their heart cried out to the Lord,
“O wall of the daughter of Zion,
Let your tears run down like a river day and night;
Give yourself no relief,
Let your eyes have no rest.

How dark the gold has become,
How the pure gold has changed!
The sacred stones are poured out
At the corner of every street.

Restore us to You, O Lord, that we may be restored;
Renew our days as of old,

Let him put his mouth in the dust,
Perhaps there is hope.

They wandered, blind, in the streets;
They were defiled with blood
So that no one could touch their garments.

The joy of our hearts has ceased;
Our dancing has been turned into mourning.

Young men worked at the grinding mill,
And youths stumbled under loads of wood.

Princes were hung by their hands;
Elders were not respected.

The punishment of your iniquity has been completed, O daughter of Zion;
He will exile you no longer.
But He will punish your iniquity, O daughter of Edom;
He will expose your sins!

“Depart! Unclean!” they cried of themselves.
“Depart, depart, do not touch!”
So they fled and wandered;
Men among the nations said,
“They shall not continue to dwell with us.”

The tongue of the infant cleaves
To the roof of its mouth because of thirst;
The little ones ask for bread,
But no one breaks it for them.

Yet our eyes failed,
Looking for help was useless;
In our watching we have watched
For a nation that could not save.

Remember, O Lord, what has befallen us;
Look, and see our reproach!

The presence of the Lord has scattered them,
He will not continue to regard them;
They did not honor the priests,
They did not favor the elders.

Even jackals offer the breast,
They nurse their young;
But the daughter of my people has become cruel
Like ostriches in the wilderness.

The precious sons of Zion,
Weighed against fine gold,
How they are regarded as earthen jars,
The work of a potter’s hands!

They hunted our steps
So that we could not walk in our streets;
Our end drew near,
Our days were finished
For our end had come.

Because of Mount Zion which lies desolate,
Foxes prowl in it.

Unless You have utterly rejected us
And are exceedingly angry with us.

Elders are gone from the gate,
Young men from their music.

You, O Lord, rule forever;
Your throne is from generation to generation.

Because of this our heart is faint,
Because of these things our eyes are dim;

Our pursuers were swifter
Than the eagles of the sky;
They chased us on the mountains,
They waited in ambush for us in the wilderness.

The crown has fallen from our head;
Woe to us, for we have sinned!

Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers,
Our houses to aliens.

Why do You forget us forever?
Why do You forsake us so long?

We have become orphans without a father,
Our mothers are like widows.

Our pursuers are at our necks;
We are worn out, there is no rest for us.

We have to pay for our drinking water,
Our wood comes to us at a price.

She weeps bitterly in the night
And her tears are on her cheeks;
She has none to comfort her
Among all her lovers.
All her friends have dealt treacherously with her;
They have become her enemies.

This I recall to my mind,
Therefore I have hope.

Who is there who speaks and it comes to pass,
Unless the Lord has commanded it?

Let us examine and probe our ways,
And let us return to the Lord.

Is it not from the mouth of the Most High
That both good and ill go forth?

For if He causes grief,
Then He will have compassion
According to His abundant lovingkindness.

To crush under His feet
All the prisoners of the land,

For He does not afflict willingly
Or grieve the sons of men.

Why should any living mortal, or any man,
Offer complaint in view of his sins?

We lift up our heart and hands
Toward God in heaven;

To deprive a man of justice
In the presence of the Most High,

I called on Your name, O Lord,
Out of the lowest pit.

You drew near when I called on You;
You said, “Do not fear!”

To defraud a man in his lawsuit—
Of these things the Lord does not approve.

You have covered Yourself with anger
And pursued us;
You have slain and have not spared.

You have made us mere offscouring and refuse
In the midst of the peoples.

My eyes bring pain to my soul
Because of all the daughters of my city.

My eyes run down with streams of water
Because of the destruction of the daughter of my people.

O Lord, You have pleaded my soul’s cause;
You have redeemed my life.

My enemies without cause
Hunted me down like a bird;

We have transgressed and rebelled,
You have not pardoned.

My eyes pour down unceasingly,
Without stopping,

You have covered Yourself with a cloud
So that no prayer can pass through.

All our enemies have opened their mouths against us.

Panic and pitfall have befallen us,
Devastation and destruction;

They have silenced me in the pit
And have placed a stone on me.

You will recompense them, O Lord,
According to the work of their hands.

The lips of my assailants and their whispering
Are against me all day long.

You have heard my voice,
“Do not hide Your ear from my prayer for relief,
From my cry for help.”

You will pursue them in anger and destroy them
From under the heavens of the Lord!

Waters flowed over my head;
I said, “I am cut off!”

Until the Lord looks down
And sees from heaven.

You have heard their reproach, O Lord,
All their schemes against me.

Look on their sitting and their rising;
I am their mocking song.

You have seen all their vengeance,
All their schemes against me.

You will give them hardness of heart,
Your curse will be on them.

O Lord, You have seen my oppression;
Judge my case.