Chet It is of the LORD's mercies that we are not consumed because his mercies never diminish.

Beth My flesh and my skin he has made old; he has broken my bones.

Aleph How does the city sit solitary, that was full of people! The great one among the nations is become as a widow; the princess of provinces is become tributary.

Beth He has built against me and compassed me with gall and travail.

Gimel Judah is gone into captivity because of the affliction and because of the greatness of the servitude; she dwells among the Gentiles; she finds no rest; all her persecutors overtook her between the straits.

He Her enemies have been made the head; those who hated her have been prospered; for the LORD has afflicted her for the multitude of her rebellions; her children are gone into captivity before the enemy.

Daleth The streets of Zion mourn because there are none to come to the solemnities; all her gates are destroyed; her priests sigh, her virgins are afflicted, and she is in bitterness.

Gimel He has cut off in his fierce anger all the horn of Israel; he has caused his right hand to draw back in the presence of the enemy, and he burned in Jacob like a flaming fire, which devours round about.

He Those that did feed delicately are made desolate in the streets; those that were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghills.

Vau And from the daughter of Zion all her beauty is departed; her princes are become like harts that find no pasture, and they are gone without strength before the pursuer.

Zain Jerusalem remembered the days of her affliction and of her rebellions and of all her desirable things that she had in the times of old when her people fell into the hand of the enemy, and no one helped her; the enemies saw her and mocked at her days of rest.

Beth He has set me in dark places as those that are dead for ever.

Cheth Jerusalem has grievously sinned; therefore she is removed; all that honoured her despise her because they have seen her nakedness; yea, she sighs and is turned backward.

Jod The enemy has spread out his hand upon all her precious things, and she saw the Gentiles enter into her sanctuary, whom thou didst command that they should not enter into thy congregation.

Caph All her people sought their bread with sadness; they have given all their precious things for food to maintain life; see, O LORD, and consider, for I am become vile.

Teth Her filthiness is in her skirts; she did not remember her latter end; therefore she came down surprisingly; she has no comforter. O LORD, behold my affliction, for the enemy has magnified himself.

Vau For the iniquity of the daughter of my people has increased more than the sin of Sodom, that was overthrown as in a moment, and companies did not camp upon her.

Lamed Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? behold, and see if there is any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is come unto me because the LORD has afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger.

Nun The yoke of my rebellions is bound in his hand; they are wreathed and come up upon my neck; he has made my strength to fall; the Lord has delivered me into their hands, from whom I am not able to rise up.

Tau Let all their wickedness come before thee; and do unto them as thou hast done unto me for all my rebellions; for my sighs are many, and my heart is filled with pain.

Tzaddi The LORD is righteous, for I have rebelled against his mouth; hear now, all the peoples and see my sorrow; my virgins and my young men are gone into captivity.

Gimel He has hedged me about that I cannot get out; he has made my chain heavy.

Samech The Lord has trodden under foot all my mighty men in the midst of me; he has called a company against me to crush my young men; the Lord has trodden the virgin daughter of Judah as in a winepress.

Mem From upon high he has sent fire into my bones, and it prevails against them; he has spread a net for my feet; he has turned me back; he has made me desolate and always with pain.

Ain For these things I weep; my eyes, my eyes stream with water because the comforter that gives rest unto my soul has left me; my sons are desolate because the enemy prevailed.

Pe Zion spread forth her hands and has no comforter; the LORD gave a commandment against Jacob that his enemies should besiege him; Jerusalem was an abomination in the midst of them.

Schin They have heard that I sigh; and there is no comforter for me; all my enemies have heard of my trouble; they are glad that thou hast done it. Thou hast brought the day that thou hast spoken of, but they shall be like unto me.

Gimel He has enclosed my ways with hewn stone; he has made my paths crooked.

Daleth He has bent his bow like an enemy; he strengthened his right hand as an adversary and slew everything of beauty that could be seen in the tent of the daughter of Zion; he poured out his fury like fire.

Koph I called unto my lovers, but they have deceived me; my priests and my elders in the city perished seeking food to maintain their lives.

Resh Look, O LORD; for I am in distress; my bowels are troubled; my heart is turned within me; for I have grievously rebelled; abroad the sword bereaves; at home there is as death.

Cheth Their visage is blacker than a coal; they are not known in the streets; their skin cleaves to their bones; it is withered; it is dry like a stick.

Gimel Even when I cried and shouted, he shut out my prayer.

We have given the hand to the Egyptians and to the Assyrians to be satisfied with bread.

He The Lord was as an enemy, he has destroyed Israel; he has destroyed all her palaces; he has dissipated his strong holds and has multiplied in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation.

Vau And he has violently taken away his tabernacle as if it were of a garden; he has destroyed his congregation; the LORD has caused the solemnities and sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion and has rejected in the indignation of his anger the king and the priest.

Daleth He has made my ways crooked and pulled me in pieces; he has made me desolate.

Daleth He was unto me as a bear lying in wait and as a lion in secret places.

Zain Her Nazarites were whiter than snow; they were more radiant than milk; their composure had more fire than the precious stones cut from sapphire:

Daleth He has bent his bow and set me as a mark for the arrow.

Zain The Lord has cast off his altar; he has abhorred his sanctuary; he has given up into the hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces; they have shouted in the house of the LORD as in the day of a feast.

Aleph I am a man that sees affliction in the rod of his wrath.

Zain Remember my affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall.

Our fathers have sinned and are dead; and we have borne their chastisements.

He I was a derision to all my people and their song every day.

Jod The elders of the daughter of Zion sat upon the ground and are silent: they have cast up dust upon their heads; they have girded themselves with sackcloth; the daughters of Jerusalem hung their heads down to the ground.

Cheth The LORD has purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion; he has stretched out the line; he has not withdrawn his hand from destroying; therefore he made the rampart and the wall to lament; they were destroyed together.

Teth Her gates were thrown to the ground; he has destroyed and broken her bars; her king and her princes are carried off among the Gentiles; there is no law; nor have her prophets found vision from the LORD.

Vau My soul removed itself far from peace; I forgot about good.

He He has caused the arrows of his quiver to enter into my kidneys.

Teth The LORD is good unto those that wait in him, to the soul that seeks him.

Chet They are new every morning; great is thy faith.

Samech All that passed by clapped their hands over thee and whistled and wagged their heads over the daughter of Jerusalem, saying, Is this the city that men called The perfection of beauty, The joy of the whole earth?

Vau And I said, My strength and my hope of the LORD is perished.

Lamed They said to their mothers, Where is the wheat and the wine? fainting as the dead in the streets of the city, pouring out their souls into their mothers' bosom.

Vau He has broken my teeth with gravel stones; he has covered me with ashes.

Pe All thine enemies opened their mouths regarding thee; they whistled and gnashed their teeth; they said, Swallow her up; certainly this is the day that we looked for; we have found it, we have seen it.

Teth Those slain with the sword are better than those slain with hunger; for these pine away, stricken through for want of the fruits of the earth.

Koph Arise, cry out in the night; in the beginning of the watches; pour out thine heart like water before the face of the Lord; lift up thy hands toward him for the life of thy young children that faint for hunger in the top of every street.

Caph My eyes fail with tears; my bowels are troubled; my liver is poured upon the earth, for the destruction of the daughter of my people because the children and the sucklings faint in the streets of the city.

Zain My soul shall have them still in remembrance because it is humbled in me.

Jod The hands of the compassionate women have cooked their own children; they were their food in the destruction of the daughter of my people.

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

Mem What witness shall I take to thee? Or unto whom shall I liken thee, O daughter of Jerusalem? Unto whom shall I compare thee, that I may comfort thee, O virgin daughter of Zion? for thy breach is as great as the sea: who shall heal thee?

Slaves have ruled over us: there was no one to deliver us out of their hand.

Teth It is good to wait quietly in the salvation of the LORD.

Aleph How has the Lord darkened the daughter of Zion in his anger! He has cast down from heaven unto the earth the beauty of Israel and not remembered his footstool in the day of his anger!

Nun Thy prophets have preached vanity and foolishness unto thee; and they have not uncovered thine iniquity to turn away thy captivity but have preached unto thee vain prophecies and digressions.

Caph For the Lord will not cast off for ever:

Caph The LORD has accomplished his fury; he has poured out his fierce anger and has kindled a fire in Zion, and it has devoured the foundations thereof.

Chet The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore I will wait for him.

We got our bread with the peril of our lives because of the sword of the wilderness.

Ain The LORD has done that which he had determined; he has fulfilled his word that he had commanded from the time of old; he has destroyed and has not forgiven; and he has caused thine enemy to rejoice over thee; he has raised up the horn of thine adversaries.

They ravished the women in Zion and the virgins in the cities of Judah.

Resh Look, O LORD, and consider unto whom thou hast shaken thus. Shall the women eat their fruit, the little ones that they are bringing up? shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord?

Aleph He has led me and brought me into darkness, but not into light.

Our skin became black like an oven because of the terrible famine.

Aleph Surely he is turned against me; he turns his hand against me all the day.

Schin The young and the old lay on the ground in the streets; my virgins and my young men fell by the sword; thou hast slain them in the day of thine anger; thou hast killed and hast not forgiven.

Jod He shall turn his cheek unto him that smites him; he shall be filled with reproach.

Teth It is good for the man if he bears the yoke from his youth.

Lamed The kings of the earth and all the inhabitants of the world never believed that the adversary and the enemy would enter in through the gates of Jerusalem.

Jod He shall sit alone and keep silence because he has borne it upon him.

Beth The Lord has destroyed and has not forgiven; he has destroyed in his wrath all the habitations of Jacob; he has thrown down to the ground the strong holds of the daughter of Judah; he has polluted the kingdom and its princes.

Mem For the sins of her prophets and the iniquities of her priests, that have shed the blood of the just in the midst of her,

Tau Thou hast called as to a day of solemnity my terrors from everywhere, so that in the day of the LORD's anger no one escaped nor remained: those that I have swaddled and brought up my enemy has consumed.

Schin Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom that dwellest in the land of Uz; the cup shall also pass even unto thee; thou shalt be drunken and shalt vomit.

Resh The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the LORD, was taken in their pits, of whom we had said, Under his shadow we shall live among the Gentiles.

Tsade Their heart cried unto the Lord, O wall of the daughter of Zion; let tears run down like a river day and night; give thyself no rest; let not the apple of thine eye cease.

Aleph How is the gold become dim! how is the most fine gold changed! the stones of the sanctuary are scattered through the crossings of every street.

Turn us unto thee, O LORD, and we shall be turned; renew our days as at the beginning.

Jod He shall put his mouth in the dust; if so be there may be hope.

Nun They have wandered blindly in the streets; they were polluted in blood, so that no one could touch their garments.

The joy of our heart is ceased; our dance is turned into mourning.

They took the young men to grind, and the children fell under the wood.

Princes were hanged up by their hand; the countenance of the elders was not honoured.

Tau The punishment of thine iniquity is accomplished, O daughter of Zion; he will never cause thee to be carried away again; he will visit thine iniquity, O daughter of Edom; he will uncover thy sins.

Samech They cried unto them, Depart ye; it is unclean; depart, depart, touch not because they were contaminated; and when they were thrust through, they said among the Gentiles, They shall never dwell here again.

Daleth The tongue of the sucking child cleaves to the roof of his mouth for thirst; the young children ask for bread, and there was no one to break it unto them.

Ain As for us, our eyes have failed in seeking our vain help; in our watching we have watched for people that cannot save us.

Remember, O LORD, what is come upon us; look, and behold our reproach.

Pe The anger of the LORD has separated them; he will never look upon them again. They did not respect the countenance of the priests, nor did they have compassion on the elders.

Gimel Even the sea monsters draw out the breast; they give suck to their young ones; the daughter of my people is cruel like the ostriches in the wilderness.

Beth The sons of Zion, precious and esteemed more than pure gold, how are they taken for earthen vessels, the work of the hands of the potter!

Tzaddi They hunt our steps that we cannot walk in our streets; our end came near; our days were fulfilled; for our end is come.

Because of the mountain of Zion, which is desolate, the foxes walk upon it.

For in stepping back thou hast rejected us; thou hast become very angry against us.

The elders have ceased from the gate, the young men from their music.

Thou, O LORD, shall remain for ever; thy throne from generation to generation.

For this our heart is saddened; for these things our eyes are become dim.

Koph Our persecutors were swifter than the eagles of the heaven; they pursued us upon the mountains; they laid wait for us in the wilderness.

The crown is fallen from our head; woe now unto us, for we have sinned!

Our inheritance is turned to strangers, our houses to aliens.

Why should thou forget us for ever and forsake us for such a long time?

We are orphans without father; our mothers are as widows.

Our necks are under persecution; we are become tired and have no rest.

We have drunk our water for money; our wood is sold unto us.

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

Zain This shall go down into my heart; therefore I shall wait.

Mem Who shall he be that saith that something comes which the Lord has not sent?

Nun Let us search out our ways, and seek, and turn again to the LORD.

Mem Out of the mouth of the most High proceeds not evil and good?

Caph But though he causes grief, yet he will also have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies.

Lamed To crush under his feet all the prisoners of the earth,

Caph For he does not afflict nor grieve the sons of men from his heart.

Mem Why does the living man have pain, the man in his sins?

Nun Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens.

Lamed To turn aside the right of a man before the face of the most High,

Koph I called upon thy name, O LORD, out of the low dungeon.

Koph Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee; thou didst say, Fear not.

Lamed To subvert a man in his cause, the Lord does not approve.

Samech Thou hast unfurled anger and persecuted us; thou hast slain, thou hast not forgiven.

Samech Thou hast made us as the offscouring and abomination in the midst of the peoples.

Ain My eyes make my soul sad because of all the daughters of my city.

Pe My eyes stream with rivers of water for the destruction of the daughter of my people.

Resh O Lord, thou hast pleaded the cause of my soul; thou hast redeemed my life.

Tzaddi My enemies hunted me like a bird, without cause.

Nun We have rebelled and been disloyal; therefore thou hast not forgiven.

Ain My eyes run down, and cease not, for there is no relief,

Samech Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud that our prayer should not pass through.

Pe All our enemies have opened their mouths upon us.

Pe Fear and a snare is come upon us, desolation and destruction.

Tzaddi They bound up my life in the dungeon, and cast a stone upon me.

Tau Render unto them a recompense, O LORD, according to the work of their hands.

Schin The words of those that rose up against me, and their design against me all the day.

Koph Thou hast heard my voice; do not hide thine ear at my cry that I might breath.

Tau Persecute them in thy anger and cut them off from under the heavens, oh LORD.

Tzaddi Waters flowed over my head; then I said, I am dead.

Ain Until the LORD looks down, and beholds from the heavens.

Schin Thou hast heard their reproach, O LORD, and all their imaginations against me;

Schin Behold their sitting down, and their rising up; I am their music.

Resh Thou hast seen all their vengeance and all their imaginations against me.

Tau Give them sorrow of heart; thy curse unto them.

Resh O LORD, thou hast seen where I was wrong; plead thou my cause.