She weeps bitterly in the night, her tears [are] on her cheeks; she has no comforter among all her lovers. All her friends have been unfaithful to her; they have become her enemies.

The ways to Zion, are mourning, because none come to her appointed feasts, All her gates, are desolate, her priests, are sighing, - her virgins, are grieved, and, she, it is bitter for her.

Her adversaries have become chief, her foes, are at ease, for, Yahweh, hath grieved her, because of the multitude of her transgressions, - Her children, have gone into captivity, before the adversary.

And from the daughter of Zion all her majesty is departed: Her princes are become like harts that find no pasture, And they are gone without strength before the pursuer.

Great is the sin of Jerusalem; for this cause she has become an unclean thing: all those who gave her honour are looking down on her, because they have seen her shame: now truly, breathing out grief, she is turned back.

{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.

The adversary hath spread out his hand upon all her pleasant things: For she hath seen that the nations are entered into her sanctuary, Concerning whom thou didst command that they should not enter into thine assembly.

All her people, are sighing, seeking bread, They have given their precious things for food, to bring back life, - Behold, O Yahweh, and discern, that I have become worthless.

The yoke of my transgressions is bound by his hand; They are knit together, they are come up upon my neck; he hath made my strength to fail: The Lord hath delivered me into their hands, against whom I am not able to stand.

For these things, am, I, weeping, Mine eye, mine eye, is running down with waters, for, far from me, is any who could comfort, could bring back my life, - My sons are amazed, for strong is the foe.

Zion spreadeth forth her hands; there is none to comfort her; Jehovah hath commanded concerning Jacob, that they that are round about him should be his adversaries: Jerusalem is among them as an unclean thing.

Jehovah is righteous; for I have rebelled against his commandment: Hear, I pray you, all ye peoples, and behold my sorrow: My virgins and my young men are gone into captivity.

See, O Yahweh, that I am in distress, Mine inward parts, are in ferment, My heart is turned within me, for I have obstinately rebelled, - Without, bereaveth the sword, Within, is like death,

They hear that I was groaning; [there is] no comforter for me. All my enemies have heard my misery, they are pleased that you have done it. Bring [that] day that you have proclaimed, And let them be like me.

Let all their wickedness, come in, before thee, and deal thou severely with them, according as thou hast dealt severely with me, for all my transgressions; for many are my sighs, and, my heart, is sick.

{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.

Her gates, have sunk in the earth, He hath destroyed and broken in pieces, her bars, - Her king and her princes, are among the nations, There is no instruction, Even her prophets, have found no vision, from Yahweh.

Seated on the ground, in silence, are the elders of the daughter of Zion, They have lifted up dust on their head, have girded themselves with sackcloth, - Bowed down to the ground is the head, of the virgins of Jerusalem.

Blinded with tears are mine eyes, In ferment is my body, Poured out to the earth is my grief, for the sore hurt of the daughter of my people, - when child and suckling are swooning, in the broadways of the city.

To their mothers, they keep saying, Where are corn and wine? Swooning off, like one thrust through, in the broadways of the city, pouring out their life into the bosom of their mothers.

The visions which your prophets have seen for you are false and foolish; they have not made clear to you your sin so that your fate might be changed: but they have seen for you false words, driving you away.

All your haters are opening their mouths wide against you; making hisses and whistling through their teeth, they say, We have made a meal of her: certainly this is the day we have been looking for; it has come, we have seen it.

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.

Arise, cry out in the night, At the beginning of the watches, pour out, like waters, thy heart, right before the face of My Lord, - Lift up, above thee, the palms of thy hands, for the life of thy children, who are swooning for hunger, at the top of all the streets!

See, O Jehovah, and behold to whom thou hast done thus! Shall the women eat their fruit, the children that are dandled in the hands? Shall the priest and the prophet be slain 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 are fallen by the sword: Thou hast slain them in the day of thine anger; thou hast slaughtered, and not pitied.

{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.

He hath set me in dark places, as they that are dead of old.

He walled up my ways with cut stone; my paths are crooked.

My soul has been cast far away from peace;
I have forgotten happiness.

And I said, My strength and my hope from Jehovah are gone.

It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.

They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.

The Lord is good to those who are waiting for him, to the soul which is looking for him.

When any of the prisoners of the earth are crushed underfoot,

when a person's rights are perverted in defiance of the Most High.

The mouths of all our haters are open wide against us.

Fear and the pit are come upon us, devastation and destruction.

Rivers of water are running down from my eyes, for the destruction of the daughter of my people.

My eyes are streaming without stopping, they have no rest,

They, have laid snares, for me as a bird, who are mine enemies without cause:

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

The lips of mine assailants, and their mutterings, are against me, all the day;

Take note of them when they are seated, and when they get up; I am their song.

How is the gold become dim! how is the most fine gold changed! the stones of the sanctuary are poured out at the head of every street.

The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, how are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter!

Even wild animals nurse, suckling their young; but the women of my people are cruel, like ostriches in the wilderness.

The tongue of the child at the breast is fixed to the roof of his mouth for need of drink: the young children are crying out for bread, and no man gives it to them.

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

Their visage is blacker than a coal; they are not known in the streets: their skin cleaveth to their bones; it is withered, it is become like a stick.

They that are slain with the sword are better than they that are slain with hunger: for these pine away, stricken through for want of the fruits of the field.

{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.

Because of the sins of her prophets, The iniquities of her priests, Who are shedding in her midst the blood of the righteous,

They wander as blind men in the streets, they are polluted with blood, So that men cannot touch their garments.

(Samek) People cry to them, "Turn away! You are unclean! Turn away! Turn away! Don't touch us!" So they have fled and wander about; but the nations say, "They may not stay here any longer."

פ PeThe Lord Himself has scattered them;
He regards them no more.
The priests are not respected;
the elders find no favor.

Our eyes are still wasting away in looking for our false help: we have been watching for a nation unable to give salvation.

They hunt our steps, that we cannot go in our streets: our end is near, our days are fulfilled; for our end is come.

Our persecutors are swifter than the eagles of heaven: they pursued us upon the mountains, they laid wait for us in the wilderness.

Our heritage is given up to men of strange lands, our houses to those who are not our countrymen.

We are orphans and fatherless, our mothers are as widows.

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

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

Our fathers have sinned, and are not; and we have borne their iniquities.

Servants are ruling over us, and there is no one to make us free from their hands.

Women are raped in Zion,
girls in the cities of Judah.

Princes are hung up by their hands;
elders are shown no respect.

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

Elders are no longer at the gate, young men no longer play stringed instruments.

The crown has been taken from our head: sorrow is ours, for we are sinners.

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

For wild animals are prowling over Mount Zion, which lies desolate.

You, O Lord, are seated as King for ever; the seat of your power is eternal.

Unless you have utterly rejected us, unless you are angry with us beyond measure.