Her (ceremonial) uncleanness was on her skirts;
She did not [seriously] consider her future.
Therefore she has come down [from throne to slavery] in an astonishing manner;
She has no comforter.
“O Lord” [cries Jerusalem], “look at my affliction,
For the enemy has magnified himself [in triumph]!”

“Is it nothing to you, all you who pass this way?
Look and see if there is any pain like my pain
Which was severely dealt out to me,
Which the Lord has inflicted [on me] on the day of His fierce anger.

“From on high He sent fire into my bones,
And it prevailed over them.
He has spread a net for my feet;
He has turned me back.
He has made me desolate and hopelessly miserable,
Faint all the day long.

“The yoke of my transgressions is bound;
By His hand they are knit and woven together.
They have come upon my neck.
He has made my strength fail;
The Lord has put me into the hand
Of those against whom I cannot stand.

“The Lord has rejected all the strong men
In my midst;
He has proclaimed an established time against me
To crush my young men.
The Lord has trampled down as in a wine press
The Virgin Daughter of Judah.

“I weep for these things;
My eyes overflow with tears,
Because a comforter,
One who could restore my soul, is far away from me.
My children are desolate and perishing,
For the enemy has prevailed.”

“The Lord is righteous and just;
For I have rebelled against His commandment (His word).
Hear now, all you peoples,
And look at my pain;
My virgins and my young men
Have gone into captivity.

“I [Jerusalem] called to my lovers (political allies), but they deceived me.
My priests and my elders perished in the city
While they looked for food to restore their strength.

“See, O Lord, how distressed I am!
My spirit is deeply disturbed;
My heart is overturned within me and cannot rest,
For I have been very rebellious.
In the street the sword kills and bereaves;
In the house there is [famine, disease and] death!

“People have heard that I groan,
That I have no comforter [in You].
All my enemies have heard of my desperation;
They are delighted [O Lord] that You have done it.
Oh, that You would bring the day [of judgment] which You have proclaimed
So that they will become like me.

“Let all their wickedness come before You;
And deal with them as You have dealt with me
Because of all my transgressions;
For my groans are many and my heart is faint.”

My eyes fail because of tears [mourns Jeremiah],
My spirit is deeply disturbed;
My heart is poured out on the earth [in grief]
Because of the destruction of the daughter of my people [Jerusalem],
When little ones and infants faint
In the streets of the city.

How shall I console you?
To what shall I compare you,
O Daughter of Jerusalem?
With what shall I compare you, so that I may comfort you,
O Virgin Daughter of Zion?
For your ruin is as vast as the sea;
Who can heal you?

The young and the old
Lie on the ground in the streets;
My virgins and my young men
Have fallen by the sword.
You have killed them in the day of Your anger,
You have slaughtered, not sparing.

You [Lord] called as in the day of an appointed feast
My terrors (dangers) on every side;
And there was no one who escaped or survived
In the day of the Lord’s anger.
Those I have cared for and brought up with tenderness,
My enemy annihilated them.

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.

He has caused my flesh and my skin to waste away;
He has shattered my bones.

He has besieged and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship.

He has made me live in dark places
Like those who have long been dead.

He walled me in so that I cannot get out;
He has weighted down my chain.

Even when I cry out and shout for help,
He shuts out my prayer.

He has blocked my ways with cut stone;
He has made my paths crooked.

He is to me like a bear lying in wait,
And like a lion [hiding] in secret places.

He has turned aside my ways and torn me in 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.

I have become the [object of] ridicule to all my people,
And [the subject of] their mocking song all the day.

He has filled me with bitterness;
He has made me drunk with wormwood (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 cast far away from peace;
I have forgotten happiness.

So I say, “My strength has perished
And so has my hope and expectation from the Lord.”

Remember [O Lord] my affliction and my wandering, the wormwood and the gall (bitterness).

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

“The Lord is my portion and my inheritance,” says my soul;
“Therefore I have hope in Him and wait expectantly for Him.”

Let him put his mouth in the dust [in recognition of his unworthiness];
There may yet be hope.

My eyes overflow with streams of tears
Because of the destruction of the daughter of my people (Jerusalem).

My eyes overflow unceasingly,
Without stopping,

My eyes [see things that] bring pain to my soul
Because of all the daughters of my city.

Without cause my enemies
Hunted me down like a bird;

They silenced me in the pit
And placed a stone over me.

The waters ran down on my head;
I said, “I am cut off (destroyed)!”

You have heard my voice,
“Do not hide Your ear from my prayer for relief,
From my cry for help.”

O Lord, You have pleaded my soul’s cause [You have guided my way and protected me];
You have rescued and redeemed my life.

O Lord, You have seen the wrong [done to me];
Judge my case.

You have seen all their vengeance,
All their schemes against me.

You have heard their reproach, O Lord,
And all their schemes against me.

The lips and whispering of my assailants
Are against me all day long.

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].

For the [punishment of the] wickedness of the daughter of my people [Jerusalem]
Is greater than the [punishment for the] sin of Sodom,
Which was overthrown in a moment,
And no hands were turned toward her [to offer help].

The hands of compassionate women
Boiled their own children;
They became food for them
Because of the destruction of the daughter of my people [Judah].

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].