(Alef)Alas! The city once full of people now sits all alone! The prominent lady among the nations has become a widow! The princess who once ruled the provinces has become a forced laborer!

(Bet) She weeps bitterly at night; tears stream down her cheeks. She has no one to comfort her among all her lovers. All her friends have betrayed her; they have become her enemies.

(Gimel) Judah has departed into exile under affliction and harsh oppression. She lives among the nations; she has found no resting place. All who pursued her overtook her in narrow straits.

Her adversaries have become her masters,
Her enemies prosper;
For the Lord has caused her grief
Because of the multitude of her transgressions;
Her young children have gone
Into captivity before the enemy.

(Vav) All of Daughter Zion's splendor has departed. Her leaders became like deer; they found no pasture, so they were too exhausted to escape from the hunter.

Jerusalem sinned greatly;
Therefore she has become an unclean thing [and has been removed].
All who honored her [now] despise her
Because they have seen her nakedness;
Even she herself groans and turns [her face] away.

(Tet) Her menstrual flow has soiled her clothing; she did not consider the consequences of her sin. Her demise was astonishing, and there was no one to comfort her. She cried, "Look, O Lord, on my affliction because my enemy boasts!"

The adversary has spread out his hand
Over all her precious and desirable things;
For she has seen the [Gentile] nations enter her sanctuary (the Jerusalem temple)—
The ones whom You commanded
That they should not enter into Your congregation [not even in the outer courts].

Breathing out grief all her people are looking for bread; they have given their desired things for food to give them life: see, O Lord, and take note; for she has become a thing of shame.

(Lamed) Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by on the road? Look and see! Is there any pain like mine? The Lord has afflicted me, he has inflicted it on me when he burned with anger.

(Mem) He sent down fire into my bones, and it overcame them. He spread out a trapper's net for my feet; he made me turn back. He has made me desolate; I am faint all day long.

(Nun) My sins are bound around my neck like a yoke; they are fastened together by his hand. He has placed his yoke on my neck; he has sapped my strength. The Lord has handed me over to those whom I cannot resist.

(Samek) He rounded up all my mighty ones; The Lord did this in my midst. He summoned an assembly against me to shatter my young men. The Lord has stomped like grapes the virgin daughter, Judah.

(Ayin) I weep because of these things; my eyes flow with tears. For there is no one in sight who can comfort me or encourage me. My children are desolated because an enemy has prevailed.

(Pe) Zion spread out her hands, but there is no one to comfort her. The Lord has issued a decree against Jacob; his neighbors have become his enemies. Jerusalem has become like filthy garbage in their midst.

See, O Yahweh, that {I am in distress}; {my stomach} is in torment, my heart has turned inside me because I have certainly rebelled. From outside a sword brings bereavement, inside the house [it is] like death.

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 proclaimed, and they shall be like unto me.

Let all their wickedness come before thee; And do unto them, as thou hast done unto me for all my transgressions: For my sighs are many, and my heart is faint.

(Alef) Alas! The Lord has covered Daughter Zion with his anger. He has thrown down the splendor of Israel from heaven to earth; he did not protect his temple when he displayed his anger.

The Lord has swallowed up; He has not spared
All the country places of Jacob.
In His wrath He has thrown down
The strongholds of the Daughter of Judah (Jerusalem).
He has brought them down to the ground [in disgrace];
He has debased the kingdom and its princes.

In fierce anger He has cut off and destroyed
Every horn of Israel.
He has withdrawn His right hand
From the presence of the enemy.
And He has burned in Jacob like a flaming fire
Consuming all around.

(Dalet) He prepared his bow like an enemy; his right hand was ready to shoot. Like a foe he killed everyone, even our strong young men; he has poured out his anger like fire on the tent of Daughter Zion.

The Lord has become like an enemy;
He has swallowed up Israel.
He has swallowed up all its palaces;
He has destroyed its strongholds
And multiplied in the Daughter of Judah
Mourning and lamentation (expressions of grief).

(Vav) He destroyed his temple as if it were a vineyard; he destroyed his appointed meeting place. The Lord has made those in Zion forget both the festivals and the Sabbaths. In his fierce anger he has spurned both king and priest.

The Lord has rejected His altar;
He has abandoned His sanctuary.
He has given into the hand of the enemy
The walls of her palaces;
They have made a noise in the house of the Lord
As on a day of an appointed feast.

It is the Lord's purpose to make waste the wall of the daughter of Zion; his line has been stretched out, he has not kept back his hand from destruction: he has sent sorrow on tower and wall, they have become feeble together.

Her gates have sunk into the ground;
He has destroyed and broken her bars.
Her king and her princes are [exiled] among the nations;
The law is no more.
Also, her prophets no longer find
Vision from the Lord.

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.

(Ayin) The Lord has done what he planned; he has fulfilled his promise that he threatened long ago: He has overthrown you without mercy and has enabled the enemy to gloat over you; he has exalted your adversaries' power.

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) As if it were a feast day, you call enemies to terrify me on every side. On the day of the Lord's anger no one escaped or survived. My enemy has finished off those healthy infants whom I bore and raised.

(Alef) I am the man who has experienced affliction from the rod of his wrath.

He has led me and made me walk
In darkness and not in light.

Surely He has turned His hand against me
Repeatedly all the day.

(Bet) He has made my mortal skin waste away; he has broken my bones.

He has besieged and surrounded me with bitter hardship.

He has made me reside in deepest darkness like those who died long ago.

(Gimel) He has walled me in so that I cannot get out; he has weighted me down with heavy prison chains.

Also, when I cry out desperately for help, he has shut out my prayer.

He has blocked every road I take with a wall of hewn stones; he has made every path impassable.

He has obstructed my paths and torn me to pieces; he has made me desolate.

He has bent His bow
And set me as a target for the arrow.

He has caused the arrows of His quiver
To enter my inner parts.

He has given me my fill of bitter herbs and made me drunk with bitterness.

He has broken my teeth with gravel;
He has [covered me with ashes and] made me cower in the dust.

My soul has been rejected from peace;
I have forgotten happiness.

So I said, "My endurance has expired; I have lost all hope of deliverance from the Lord."

My soul continually remembers them
And is bowed down within me.

Let him sit alone [in hope] and keep quiet,
Because God has laid it on him [for his benefit].

Though he causes us grief, he then has compassion on us according to the abundance of his loyal kindness.

For he has no pleasure in troubling and causing grief to the children of men.

In his doing wrong to a man in his cause, the Lord has no pleasure.

Who is there who speaks and it comes to pass,
Unless the Lord has authorized and commanded it?

We have transgressed and have rebelled; thou hast not pardoned.

Thou hast covered with anger and pursued us; thou hast slain, thou hast not pitied.

Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud, so that no prayer can pass through.

Thou hast made us an off-scouring and refuse in the midst of the peoples.

Fear and a snare has come upon us, desolation and destruction.

until the Lord looks down from heaven and sees what has happened.

Water has flown over my head, I said, "I am cut off."

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

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

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

O Jehovah, thou hast seen my wrong; judge thou my cause.

Thou hast seen all their vengeance and all their devices against me.

Thou hast heard their reproach, O Jehovah, and all their devices against me,

(Alef)Alas! Gold has lost its luster; pure gold loses value. Jewels are scattered on every street corner.

Even the jackals offer the breast,
They nurse their young;
But the daughter of my people has become cruel
Like ostriches in the wilderness [that desert their young].

(Khet) Now their appearance is darker than soot; they are not recognized in the streets. Their skin has shriveled on their bones; it is dried up, like tree bark.

The Lord has fulfilled His wrath;
He has poured out His fierce anger
And has kindled a fire in Zion
That has consumed her foundations.

It is because of the sins of her prophets and the evil-doing of her priests, by whom the blood of the upright has been drained out in her.

(Pe) The Lord himself has scattered them; he no longer watches over them. They did not honor the priests; they did not show favor to the elders.

The enemy hunted our steps,
So that we could not walk in our streets;
Our end drew near,
Our days were finished
For our end had come.

The punishment of your iniquity has been completed, O daughter of Zion;
He will exile you no longer.
But He will punish your iniquity, O daughter of Edom;
He will expose your sins!

O Lord, reflect on what has happened to us; consider and look at our disgrace.

Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers,
Our houses to foreigners.

Our skin has become as hot as an oven,
Because of the burning heat of famine.

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

The joy of our hearts has ended;
Our dancing has been turned into mourning.

The crown has fallen from our head; woe to us, for we have sinned!

Because of this, our heart has become faint, because of these, our eyes have become dim.

because of Mount Zion, which lies desolate
and has jackals prowling in it.

But thou hast utterly rejected us; Thou art very wroth against us.