She is sorrowing bitterly in the night, and her face is wet with weeping; among all her lovers she has no comforter: all her friends have been false to her, they have become her haters.

Judah has been taken away as a prisoner because of trouble and hard work; her living-place is among the nations, there is no rest for her: all her attackers have overtaken her in a narrow place.

Those who are against her have become the head, everything goes well for her haters; for the Lord has sent sorrow on her because of the great number of her sins: her young children have gone away as prisoners before the attacker.

And all her glory has gone from the daughter of Zion: her rulers have become like harts with no place for food, and they have gone in flight without strength before the attacker.

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.

The hand of her hater is stretched out over all her desired things; for she has seen that the nations have come into her holy place, about whom you gave orders that they were not to come into the meeting of your people.

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.

A watch is kept on my sins; they are joined together by his hand, they have come on to my neck; he has made my strength give way: the Lord has given me up into the hands of those against whom I have no power.

The Lord is upright; for I have gone against his orders: give ear, now, all you peoples, and see my pain, my virgins and my young men have gone away as prisoners.

See, O Lord, for I am in trouble; the inmost parts of my body are deeply moved; my heart is turned in me; for I have been uncontrolled: outside the children are put to the sword, and in the house there is death.

Give ear to the voice of my grief; I have no comforter; all my haters have news of my troubles, they are glad because you have done it: let the day of fate come when they will be like me.

Let all their evil-doing come before you; do to them as you have done to me for all my sins: for loud is the sound of my grief, and the strength of my heart is gone.

The Lord has given up his altar and has been turned in hate from his holy place; he has given up into the hands of the attacker the walls of her great houses: their voices have been loud in the house of the Lord as in the day of a holy meeting.

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 doors have gone down into the earth; he has sent destruction on her locks: her king and her princes are among the nations where the law is not; even her prophets have had no vision from the Lord.

The responsible men of the daughter of Zion are seated on the earth without a word; they have put dust on their heads, they are clothed in haircloth: the heads of the virgins of Jerusalem are bent down to the earth.

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.

Look! O Lord, see to whom you have done this! Are the women to take as their food the fruit of their bodies, the children who are folded in their arms? are the priest and the prophet to be put to death in the holy place of the Lord?

The young men and the old are stretched on the earth in the streets; my virgins and my young men have been put to the sword: you have sent death on them in the day of your wrath, causing death without pity.

As in the day of a holy meeting you have made fears come round me on every side, and no one got away or was kept safe in the day of the Lord's wrath: those who were folded in my arms, whom I took care of, have been sent to their destruction by my hater.

By him I have been made to go in the dark where there is no light.

My flesh and my skin have been used up by him and my bones broken.

He has kept me in dark places, like those who have been long dead.

By him my ways have been turned on one side and I have been pulled in bits; he has made me waste.

I have become the sport of all the peoples; I am their song all the day.

By him my teeth have been broken with crushed stones, and I am bent low in the dust.

My soul is sent far away from peace, I have no more memory of good.

This I keep in mind, and because of this I have hope.

It is through the Lord's love that we have not come to destruction, because his mercies have no limit.

I said to myself, The Lord is my heritage; and because of this I will have hope in him.

For though he sends grief, still he will have pity in the full measure of his love.

We have done wrong and gone against your law; we have not had your forgiveness.

Covering yourself with wrath you have gone after us, cutting us off without pity;

You have made us like waste and that for which there is no use, among the peoples.

Fear and deep waters have come on us, wasting and destruction.

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

They who are against me without cause have gone hard after me as if I was a bird;

They have put an end to my life in the prison, stoning me with stones.

You came near in the day when I made my prayer to you: you said, Have no fear.

O Lord, you have taken up the cause of my soul, you have made my life safe.

O Lord, you have seen my wrong; be judge in my cause.

You have seen all the evil rewards they have sent on me, and all their designs against me.

Their bitter words have come to your ears, O Lord, and all their designs against me;

Even the beasts of the waste land have full breasts, they give milk to their young ones: the daughter of my people has become cruel like the ostriches in the waste land.

Their face is blacker than night; in the streets no one has knowledge of them: their skin is hanging on their bones, they are dry, they have become like wood.

Those who have been put to the sword are better off than those whose death is caused by need of food; for these come to death slowly, burned up like the fruit of the field.

The hands of kind-hearted women have been boiling their children; they were their food in the destruction of the daughter of my people.

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

Have joy and be glad, O daughter of Edom, living in the land of Uz: the cup will be given to you in your turn, and you will be overcome with wine and your shame will be seen.

Our attackers are on our necks: overcome with weariness, we have no rest.

We have given our hands to the Egyptians and to the Assyrians so that we might have enough bread.

Why have we gone from your memory for ever? why have you been turned away from us for so long?

But you have quite given us up; you are full of wrath against us.