The elders of the daughter of Zion sit upon the ground. They keep silence. They have cast up dust upon their heads. They have girded themselves with sackcloth. The virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground.

What shall I testify to thee? What shall I liken to thee, O daughter of Jerusalem? What shall I compare to thee, that I may comfort thee, O virgin daughter of Zion? For thy breach is great like the sea; who can heal thee?

All who pass by clap their hands at thee. They hiss and wag their head at the daughter of Jerusalem, [saying], Is this the city that men called The perfection of beauty, The joy of the whole earth?

The kings of the earth did not believe, nor all the inhabitants of the world, that the adversary and the enemy would enter into the gates of Jerusalem.