{Khet} Namely, that the mercies of the LORD are not clean gone, and that his loving-kindness ceaseth not.

{Beth} My flesh and my skin hath he made old, my bones hath he bruised.

{Aleph} Alas, how sitteth the city so desolate, that some time was full of people? How is she become like a widow, which was the lady of all nations? How is she brought under tribute, that ruled all lands?

He hath builded round about me, and closed me in with gall and travail.

{Gimel} Judah is taken prisoner, because she was defiled: and for serving so many strange gods, she dwelleth now among the heathen. She findeth no rest: all they that persecuted her, took her in strait places where she could not escape.

{He} Her enemies have been rulers over her, and have prospered: because the LORD hath chastened her for her great wickedness. Her children are led away captive before their enemy.

{Daleth} The streets of Zion mourn, because no man cometh to the solemn feasts. All her gates are desolate; her priests make lamentation; her maidens are careful; and she herself is in great heaviness.

{Gimel} In the wrath of his indignation he hath broken all the horn of Israel: he hath withdrawn his righthand from the enemy. Yea, a flame of fire is kindled in Jacob, and hath consumed up all round about.

{He} They that were wont to fair delicately, perish in the streets; they that afore were brought up in purple, make now much of dung.

{Vav} All the beauty of the daughter of Zion is away, her princes are become like harts that find no pasture. They are driven away before their enemy, so that they have no more power.

{Zayin} Now doth Jerusalem remember the time of her misery and disobedience, yea the joy and pleasure that she hath had in times past: seeing her people is brought down through the power of their enemy, and there is no man for to help her. Her enemies stand looking at her, and laughing her Sabbath days to scorn.

He hath set me in darkness, as they that be dead forever.

{Khet} Jerusalem sinned ever more and more, therefore is she come in decay. All they that had her in honour, despise her: for they have seen her filthiness. Yea she sigheth and is ashamed of herself.

{Yod} The enemy hath put his hand to all the precious things that she had, yea even before her eyes came the Heathen in and out of the Sanctuary: whom thou, nevertheless, hast forbidden to come within thy congregation.

{Khaf} All her people seek their bread with heaviness, and look: what precious things every man hath, that giveth he for meat to save his life. Consider, O LORD, and see, how vile I am become.

{Tet} Her skirts are defiled, she remembered not what would follow: therefore is her fall so great, and there is no man to comfort her. O LORD, consider my trouble, for my enemy hath the upper hand.

{Vav} The sin of the daughter of my people is become greater than the wickedness of Sodom, that suddenly was destroyed, and not taken with hands.

{Lamed} O ye all that go fore by, behold and see, if there be any sorrow like unto mine. wherewith the LORD hath troubled me in the day of his fearful wrath.

{Nun} The yoke of my transgression is come at the last; with his hand hath he taken it up, and put it about my neck. My strength is gone: the LORD hath delivered me into those hands, whereout I cannot quit myself.

{Tav} From thee shall come all their adversity: thou shalt pluck them away, even as thou hast plucked me, because of all my wickedness. For my sorrow is very great, and my heart is heavy.

{Tsadi} The LORD is righteous, for I provoked his countenance unto anger. O take heed all ye people, and consider my heaviness: My maidens and my young men are led away in to captivity.

{Gimel} He hath so hedged me in, that I cannot get out; and hath laid heavy links upon me.

{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.

{Mem} From above hath he sent down a fire into my bones: and it burned them cruelly. He hath laid a net for my feet, and thrown me wide open: he hath made me desolate, so that I must ever be mourning.

{Ayin} Therefore do I weep, and mine eyes gush out of water: for the comforter that should quicken me is far from me. My children are driven away. For why? The enemy hath gotten the over hand.

{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.

{Shin} They hear my mourning, but there is none that will comfort me. All my enemies have heard of my trouble, and are glad thereof, because thou hast done it. But thou shalt bring forth the time, when they also shall be like unto me.

He hath stopped up my ways with four square stones, and made my paths crooked.

{Daleth} He hath bent his bow like an enemy, he hath fastened his righthand as an adversary: and everything that was pleasant to see, he hath smitten it down. He hath poured out his wrath like a fire, into the tabernacle of the daughter of Zion.

{Kuf} I called for my lovers, but they beguiled me; for my Priests and counselors, but they perished: even while they sought for meat, to save their lives.

{Res} Consider, O LORD, how I am troubled: my womb is disquieted, my heart turneth about in me, and I am full of heaviness. The sword hurteth me without, and within I am like unto death.

{Khet} But now their faces are very black: Insomuch, that thou shouldest not know them in the streets. Their skin cleaveth to their bones; It is withered, and become like a dry stock.

Though I cry and call piteously, yet heareth he not my prayer.

Afore time we yielded ourselves to the Egyptians, and now to the Assyrians, only that we might have bread enough.

{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.

{Vav} Her tabernacle - which was like a garden of pleasure - hath he destroyed; her high solemn feasts hath he put down. The LORD hath brought it so to pass, that the high solemn feasts and Sabbaths in Zion are clean forgotten. In his heavy displeasure hath he made the king and priests to be despised.

He hath marred my ways, and broken me in pieces: he hath laid me waste altogether.

{Daleth} He layeth wait for me like a Bear, and as a lion in a hole.

{Zayin} Her abstainers were whiter than the snow or milk: their colour was fresh red as the Coral, their beauty like the Sapphire.

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

{Zayin} The LORD hath forsaken his own altar, and is wroth with his own sanctuary, and hath given the walls of their towers into the hands of the enemy. Their enemies made a noise in the house of the LORD, as it had been in a solemn feast day.

{Aleph} I am the man, that, through the rod of his wrath, have experience of misery.

{Zayin} O remember yet my misery and my trouble; the wormwood and the gall.

Our fathers, which now are gone, have sinned; and we must bear their wickedness.

I am laughed to scorn of all my people; they make songs upon me all the day long.

{Yod} The Senators of the daughter Zion sit upon the ground in silence: they have strawed ashes upon their heads, and girded themselves with sackcloth. The maidens of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground.

{Khet} The LORD thought to break down the walls of the daughter Zion; he spread out his line, and drew not in his hand, till he had destroyed them. Therefore mourn the turrets and the broken walls together.

{Tet} Her ports are cast down to the ground, her bars are broken and smitten in sunder: her king and princes are carried away to the gentiles. They have neither law nor Prophets, nor yet any vision from the LORD.

He hath put my soul out of rest; I forget all good things.

{He} The arrows of his quiver hath he shot, even into my reins.

{Tet} O how good is the LORD unto them that put their trust in him, and to the soul that seeketh after him?

His faithfulness is great and reneweth itself as the morning.

{Samekh} All they that go by thee clap their hands at thee - hissing and wagging their heads upon the daughter Jerusalem - and say, "Is this the city that men call so fair, wherein the whole land rejoiceth?"

I thought in myself, "I am undone; there is no hope for me in the LORD."

{Lamed} Even when they spake to their mothers, "Where is meat and drink?" For while they so said, they fell down in the streets of the city, like as they had been wounded, and some died in their mothers' bosom.

{Vav} He hath smitten my teeth in pieces, and rolled me in the dust.

{Ayin} All thine enemies gape upon thee, whispering and biting their teeth, saying, "Let us devour, for the time that we looked for is come: we have found and seen it."

{Tet} They that be slain with the sword, are happier than such as die of hunger, and perish away famishing for the fruits of the field.

{Kuf} Stand up and make thy prayer in the first watch of the night; pour out thine heart like water before the LORD. Lift up thine hands for the lives of thy young children that die of hunger in the streets.

{Khaf} Mine eyes begin to fail me through weeping, my body is disquieted, my liver is poured upon the earth, for the great hurt of my people, seeing the children and babes did swoon in the streets of the city.

Yea, thou shalt remember them, for my soul melteth away in me.

{Yod} The women, which of nature are pitiful, have sodden their own children with their hands that they might be their meat, in the miserable destruction of the daughter of my people.

He hath filled me with bitterness, and given me wormwood to drink.

{Mem} What shall I say of thee, O thou daughter Jerusalem? To whom shall I liken thee? To whom shall I compare thee, O thou daughter Zion, to comfort thee withal? Thy hurt is like a main sea: who may heal thee?

Servants have the rule of us, and no man delivereth us out of their hands.

O how good is it, with stillness, to wait and tarry for the health of the LORD?

{Aleph} Alas, how hath the LORD darkened the daughter of Zion so sore in his wrath? As for the honour of Israel, he hath casten it down from heaven: How happeneth it, that he remembered not his own foot stool when he was angry?

{Nun} Thy prophets have looked out vain and foolish things for thee: they have not showed thee of thy wickedness, to keep thee from captivity; but have overladen thee, and through falsity scattered thee abroad.

{Khaf} For the LORD will not forsake forever.

{Khaf} The LORD hath performed his heavy wrath; he hath poured out the furiousness of his displeasure. He hath kindled a fire in Zion, which hath consumed the foundations thereof.

"The LORD is my portion," sayeth my soul; therefore will I hope in him.

We must get our living with the peril of our lives because of the drought of the wilderness.

{Pe} The LORD hath fulfilled the thing that he was purposed to do; and performed that he had devised long ago. He hath destroyed; and not spared. He hath caused thine adversary to triumph over thee; and set up the horn of thine enemy.

The wives are ravished in Zion, and the maidens in the cities of Judah.

{ Res} Behold, O LORD, and consider: why hast thou gathered me up so clean? Shall the women then eat their own fruit; even children of a span long? Shall the priests and prophets be slain thus in the Sanctuary of the LORD?

He drove me forth, and led me: Yea, into darkness, but not in to light.

Our skin is as it had been burnt in an oven, for very sore hunger.

Against me only he turneth his hand, and layeth it ever upon me.

{Shin} Young and old lie behind the streets, upon the ground; my maidens and young men are slain with the sword: whom thou in the day of thy wrathful indignation hast put to death. Yea, even thou hast put them to death, and not spared them.

He offereth his cheek to the smiter; he will be content with reproves.

O how good is it, for a man, to take the yoke upon him from his youth up?

{Lamed} Neither the kings of the earth, nor all the inhabiters of the world, would have believed that the enemy and adversary should have come in at the gates of the city of Jerusalem.

{Yod} He sitteth alone, he holdeth him still, and dwelleth quietly by himself.

{Beth} The LORD hath cast down all the glory of Jacob without any favour: all the strong places of the daughter Judah hath he broken in his wrath, and thrown them down to the ground: her kingdom and her princes hath he suspended.

{Mem} Which nevertheless is come to pass for the sins of her prophets, and for the wickedness of her priests that have shed innocents' blood within her.

{Tav} My neighbours that are round about me hast thou called, as it were to a feast day: so that in the day of the LORD's wrath none escaped, neither was any left behind. Those that I had brought up and nourished, hath mine enemy destroyed.

{Shin} And thou, O daughter Edom, that dwellest in the land of Uz, be glad and rejoice: for the cup shall come unto thee also, which when thou suppest of thou shalt be drunk.

{Res} The very breath of our mouth, even the anointed LORD himself, shall be taken in our sins; of whom we say, "Under his shadow we shall be preserved among the Heathen."

{Tsadi} Let thine heart cry unto the LORD, O thou city of the daughter Zion; let thy tears run down like a river day and night. Rest not, and let not the apple of thine eye leave off.

{Aleph} O how is the gold become so dim? How is the goodly colour of it so sore changed? And the stones of the sanctuary thus scattered in the corner of every street?

O LORD, turn thou us unto thee: and so shall we be turned. Renew our days as in old time,

He layeth his face upon the earth, if, percase, there happen to be any hope.

{Nun} So that these blind men went stumbling in the streets, and stained themselves with blood, which else would touch no bloody cloth.

The joy of our heart is gone, our merry query is turned into mourning.

they have taken young men's lives from them, and the boys are hanged up upon trees.

The princes are hanged up with the hand of the enemies; they have not spared the old sage men;

{Tav} Thy sin is well punished, O thou daughter Zion: he shall not suffer thee to be carried away anymore. But thy wickedness, O daughter Edom, shall he visit, and for thy sins' sake, he shall lead thee into captivity.

{Samekh} But they cried unto every man, "Flee the staining! Away, get you hence, touch it not! Yea," say they, "ye must be burnt: ye must dwell among the Gentiles, and bide no longer here."

{Daleth} The tongues of the sucking children, cleave to the roof of their mouths for very thirst. The young children ask bread, but there is no man that giveth it them.

{Pe} Wherefore yet our eyes fail us, while we look for vain help: seeing we be ever waiting upon a people that can do us no good.

{The Prayer of Jeremiah} Call to remembrance, O LORD, what we have suffered; consider and see our confusion.

{Ayin} The countenance of the LORD hath banished them, and shall never look more upon them: For they themselves neither regarded the priests, nor pitied the elders.

{Gimel} The Dragons give their young ones suck with bare breasts: but the daughter of my people is cruel, and dwelleth in the wilderness like the Ostriches.

{Beth} The children of Zion that were always in honour, and clothed with the most precious gold: how are they now become like the earthen vessels which be made with the potter's hand?

{Tsadi} They lay so sharp wait for us, that we can not go safe upon the streets: for our end is come, our days are fulfilled, our end is here.

because of the hill of Zion that is destroyed: Insomuch that the foxes run upon it.

for thou hast now banished us long enough, and hast been sore displeased at us.

The elders sit no more under the gates, and the young men use no more the playing of Music.

But thou, O LORD, that remainest for evermore, and thy seat, world without end:

Therefore our heart is full of heaviness, and our eyes dim:

{Kuf} Our persecutors are swifter than the Eagles of the air, they followed upon us over the mountains, and laid wait for us in the wilderness.

The garland of our head is fallen: alas, that ever we sinned so sore!

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

Wherefore wilt thou still forget us, and forsake us so long?

We are become careful and fatherless, and our mothers are as the widows.

Our necks are under persecution, we are weary, and have no rest.

We are fain to drink our own water for money, and our own wood must we buy with money.

{Beth} She weepeth sore in the night, so that the tears run down her cheeks: for among all her lovers, there is none that giveth her any comfort. Yea, her next friends transgress against her, and are become her enemies.

While I consider these things in my heart, I get a hope again.

{Mem} What is he then that sayeth, "There should something be done without the LORD's commandment:

{Nun} Let us look well upon our own ways, and remember ourselves, and turn again to the LORD.

out of the mouth of the most Highest goeth not evil and good"?

But though he do cast off, yet according to the multitude of his mercies, he receiveth to grace again.

{Lamed} To tread all the prisoners of the earth under his feet.

For he doth not plague, and cast out the children of men from his heart.

Wherefore then murmureth the living man, let him murmur at his own sin.

Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto the God that is in heaven.

To move the judgment of man before the most highest.

{Kuf} I called upon thy name, O LORD, out of the deep pit.

Thou hast inclined thyself unto me, when I called upon thee, and haste said, "Fear not."

To condemn a man in his cause; The LORD hath no pleasure in such things.

{Samekh} Thou hast covered us in thy wrath, and persecuted us, thou hast slain us, without any favour.

Thou hast made us outcasts, and to be despised among the Heathen.

Mine eye breaketh my heart, because of all the daughters of my city.

Whole rivers of water gush out of mine eyes, for the great hurt of my people.

{Res} Thou, O LORD, hast maintained the cause of my soul, and hast redeemed my life.

{Tsadi} Mine enemies hunted me out sharply, like a bird; yea, and that without a cause.

We have been dissemblers, and have offended; will thou therefore not be intreated?

{Pe} Mine eyes run, and cannot cease, for there is no rest.

Thou hast hid thyself in a cloud, that our prayer should not go through.

{Ayin} All our enemies gape upon us.

Fear and snare is come upon us; yea, despite and destruction.

They have put down my life into a pit, and laid a stone upon me.

{Tav} Reward them, O LORD, according to the work of their hands.

The lips of mine enemies, and their devices that they take against me, all the day long.

Thou hast heard my voice, and hast not turned away thine ears from my sighing and crying.

Persecute them, O LORD, with thine indignation, and root them out from under the heaven.

They poured water upon my head, then thought I, "Now am I undone."

O LORD, when will thou look down from heaven, and consider?

{Shin} Thou hast heard their despiteful words, O LORD; yea, and all their imaginations against me.

Thou seest also their sitting down and their rising up. They make their songs of nothing but me.

Thou hast well considered how they go about to do me harm, and that all their counsels are against me.

Give them the thing, that their own heart is afraid of: even thy curse.

O LORD, thou hast seen my blasphemers; take thou my cause upon thee.