She weeps bitterly 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 have become her enemies.

Judah has gone into exile because of affliction and harsh servitude; she dwells among the nations, she finds no rest: all her persecutors overtook her in the midst of her distress.

The roads to Zion mourn, because no one comes to the solemn assembly; all her gates are desolate, her priests groan: her virgins are afflicted, and she herself is in bitterness.

Jerusalem remembers in the days of her affliction and wandering 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 desolations.

Jerusalem has grievously sinned; therefore she has become as an unclean thing; all who honored her despise her, because they have seen her nakedness: yes, she groans, and turns away.

Her filthiness was in her skirts; she did not remember her latter end; therefore her fall was astonishing; she has no comforter. "Look, LORD, on my affliction, for the enemy has magnified himself."

The adversary has spread out his hand on all her precious things: for she has seen that the nations have entered into her sanctuary, concerning whom you commanded that they should not enter into your assembly.

Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look, and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow, which is brought on me, with which the LORD has afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger.

From on high he has sent fire into my bones, and it overcame them. He has spread a net for my feet, he has turned me back. He has made me desolate and faint all the day.

The Lord has rejected all my mighty men in my midst; he has called a solemn assembly against me to crush my young men. The Lord has trodden as in a winepress the virgin daughter of Judah.

Zion spreads forth her hands; there is none to comfort her. The LORD has commanded concerning Jacob, that those who are around him should be his adversaries. Jerusalem is among them as an unclean thing.

I called for my lovers, but they deceived me. My priests and my elders perished in the city, while they searched for food to refresh their souls.

See, LORD, for I am in distress; my stomach churns; my heart is turned within me; for I have grievously rebelled. Outside the sword bereaves, inside there is death.

How the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger. He has cast down from heaven to the earth the splendor of Israel, and hasn't remembered his footstool in the day of his anger.

The Lord has swallowed up all the habitations of Jacob, and has not pitied. He has thrown down in his wrath the strongholds of the daughter of Judah. He has brought them down to the ground; he has humiliated the kingdom and its rulers.

He has cut off in fierce anger all the strength of Israel. He has drawn back his right hand before the enemy. He has blazed in Jacob like a flaming fire, which devours all around.

He has bent his bow like an enemy; his right hand he has positioned like an adversary. He killed all that were pleasant to the eye. In the tent of the daughter of Zion he has poured out his wrath like fire.

The Lord has become as an enemy; he has swallowed up Israel; he has swallowed up all her palaces and has destroyed its strongholds. He has multiplied in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation.

He has done violence to his temple, as if it were a garden; he has destroyed his place of assembly. The LORD has caused solemn assembly and Sabbath to be forgotten in Zion. He has spurned in his fierce anger the king and the priest.

The Lord has rejected his altar, he has disowned his sanctuary, and has given up into the hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces. They have made a shout in the house of the LORD, as in the day of a solemn assembly.

The elders of the daughter of Zion sit on the ground in silence. They have cast up dust on their heads; they have clothed themselves with sackcloth. The virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground.

My eyes are worn out from weeping, my stomach is churning. My heart is poured on the earth, because of the destruction of the daughter of my people, because the young children and the infants faint in the streets of the city.

They tell their mothers, "Where is grain and wine?" When they faint as the wounded in the streets of the city, as their lives fade away in their mothers' bosom.

The LORD has done that which he purposed, he has fulfilled his word that he commanded in the days of old. He has thrown down, and has not pitied. He has caused the enemy to gloat over you and exalted the horn of your adversaries.

Arise, cry out in the night, at the beginning of the watches. Pour out your heart like water before the face of the Lord. Lift up your hands toward him for the life of your young children, that faint for hunger at the head of every street.

Look, LORD, and see to whom you have done like this. Shall the women eat their fruit, the children that are dandled in the hands? Shall the priest and the prophet be killed in the sanctuary of the Lord?

The youth and the old man lie on the ground in the streets; my virgins and my young men have fallen by the sword. You have killed them in the day of your anger; you have slaughtered, without pity.

You have called, as in the day of a solemn assembly, my terrors on every side. There was none that escaped or remained in the day of the LORD's anger. Those that I have borne and brought up has my enemy destroyed.

He has led me and caused me to walk in darkness, and not in light.

He has made me to dwell in dark places, like those that have been long dead.

He has walled me in, so I can't escape; he has made my chains heavy.

Yes, when I cry, and call for help, he shuts out my prayer.

He is to me as a bear lying in wait, as a lion in hiding.

He has obstructed my path, and torn me in pieces; he has made me desolate.

He has filled me with bitterness, he has given me in full measure wormwood.

He has also broken my teeth with gravel; he has pressed me down in the dust.

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

Let him sit alone and keep silence when he is disciplining him.

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

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

You have made us rubbish and refuse in the midst of the peoples.

Fear and the pit have come on us, devastation and destruction.

They have cut off my life in a pit, and have cast a stone on me.

I called on your name, LORD, out of the depths of the pit.

You drew near in the day that I called on you; you said, "Do not be afraid."

You will pursue them in anger, and destroy them from under the heavens of the LORD.

Even the jackals offer the breast, they nurse their young ones, but the daughter of my people has become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness.

The nursing infant's tongue sticks to the roof of his mouth for thirst. The young children ask for bread, but no one gives to them.

Those who ate delicacies are destitute in the streets. Those who were brought up in purple embrace ash heaps.

For the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the sin of Sodom, which was overthrown in an instant, and no hands were laid on her.

They appear darker than soot; they are not known in the streets. Their skin cleaves to their bones; it is withered and has become as dry as a stick.

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

The LORD has accomplished his wrath, he has poured out his fierce anger; he has kindled a fire in Zion, which has devoured its foundations.

It is because of the sins of her prophets, and the iniquities of her priests, that have shed the blood of the just in the midst of her.

They wander as blind men in the streets, they are polluted with blood, so that men can't touch their garments.

"Turn away." they cried to them, "Unclean. depart, depart, do not touch." When they fled away and wandered, men said among the nations, "They shall not live here anymore."

Our eyes still fail, looking in vain for our help. In our watching we have watched for a nation that could not save.

They hunt our steps, so that we can't go in our streets. Our end is near, our days are fulfilled; for our end has come.

Our pursuers were swifter than the eagles of the sky. They chased us on the mountains, they lay in wait for us in the wilderness.

The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the LORD, was taken in their pits; of whom we said, "Under his shadow we can live among the nations."

Rejoice and be glad, daughter of Edom, that dwell in the land of Uz. The cup shall pass through to you also; you will get drunk, and shall make yourself naked.

Remember, LORD, what has come on us. Look, and see our disgrace.

Our pursuers are on our necks; we are weary, and have no rest.

We get our bread at the peril of our lives, because of the sword in the wilderness.

Our skin is hot like an oven, because of the burning heat of famine.

They raped the women in Zion, the virgins in the cities of Judah.

For the mountain of Zion, which is desolate; the foxes walk on it.

Why do you keep on forgetting us? Why do you forsake us so long?

Restore us to you, LORD, and we shall be restored; renew our days as in former times,