ב BetShe weeps aloud during the night,
with tears on her cheeks.
There is no one to offer her comfort,
not one from all her lovers.
All her friends have betrayed her;
they have become her enemies.

Jerusalem remembered in the days of her affliction and of her miseries all her pleasant things that she had in the days of old, when her people fell into the hand of the enemy, and none did help her: the adversaries saw her, and did mock at her sabbaths.

(Khet) Jerusalem committed terrible sin; therefore she became an object of scorn. All who admired her have despised her because they have seen her nakedness. She groans aloud and turns away in shame.

Uncleanness has soiled her skirts, and she gave no thought to what would follow. She fell in such a startling way, with no one to comfort her. Look, LORD, upon my affliction, because my enemy is boasting.

I called to those loving me, they deceived me: my priests and my old men expired in the city, for they sought food for them, and they will turn back their souls.

They have heard that I sigh: there is none to comfort me: all mine enemies have heard of my trouble; they are glad that thou hast done it: thou wilt bring the day that thou hast called, and they shall be like unto me.

He bent his bow against us as would an enemy, his right hand cocked as would an adversary. He has killed everyone in whom we took pride; in the tent of cherished Zion he poured out his anger like fire.

They sat upon the earth; the old men of the daughter of Zion were silent; they brought up the dust upon their head: they girded on sackcloth: the virgins of Jerusalem brought down their head to the earth.

The LORD hath done that which he had devised; he hath fulfilled his word that he had commanded in the days of old: he hath thrown down, and hath not pitied: and he hath caused thine enemy to rejoice over thee, he hath set up the horn of thine adversaries.

Arise, cry aloud in the night, At the beginning of the watches. Pour out as water thy heart, Over against the face of the Lord, Lift up unto Him thy hands, for the soul of thine infants, Who are feeble with hunger at the head of all out-places.

The young and the old 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 killed, and not pitied.

Wilt thou proclaim, like the day of an appointed meeting - My terrors round about? when there was not - in the day of the anger of Yahweh - fugitive or survivor, - Those whom I dandled and reared, my foe hath destroyed.

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

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

Thou wilt cast of my soul from peace: I forgat good.

Thou wilt, indeed remember, that, bowed down concerning myself, is my soul;

Let him offer his cheek
to the one who would strike him;
let him be filled with shame.

Thou didst cover with anger, and thou wilt pursue us: thou didst slay, thou didst not pity.

Thou heardest my voice: thou wilt not hide thine ear at my breathing, at my cry.

Thou wilt render unto them a recompense, O Jehovah, according to the work of their hands.

Thou wilt give them hardness of heart, thy curse unto them.

Thou wilt pursue them in anger, and destroy them from under the heavens of Jehovah.

Even wild dogs, draw out the breast, give suck to their whelps - The daughter of my people, hath become cruel, like the ostriches in the desert.

The kings of the earth, and all the inhabitants of the world, would not have believed that the adversary and the enemy should have entered into the gates of Jerusalem.

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

The face of the Lord has sent them in all directions; he will no longer take care of them: they had no respect for the priests, they gave no honour to the old men.

Our eyes failed, searching in vain for hope; we kept watching and looking for a nation that would not help.

We get our bread at the risk of our lives
Because of the sword [of the Arabs] in the wilderness [who may attack if we go out to harvest the crop].

Their hands put princes to death by hanging: the faces of old men were not honoured.

The old men are no longer seated in the doorway, and the music of the young men has come to an end.

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

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

Turn thou us unto thee, O LORD, and we shall be turned; renew our days as of old.