{Aleph} Alas, how sitteth the city so desolate, that some time was full of people? How is she become like a widow, which was the lady of all nations? How is she brought under tribute, that ruled all lands?

{Beth} She weepeth sore in the night, so that the tears run down her cheeks: for among all her lovers, there is none that giveth her any comfort. Yea, her next friends transgress against her, and are become her enemies.

{Gimel} Judah is taken prisoner, because she was defiled: and for serving so many strange gods, she dwelleth now among the heathen. She findeth no rest: all they that persecuted her, took her in strait places where she could not escape.

{Daleth} The streets of Zion mourn, because no man cometh to the solemn feasts. All her gates are desolate; her priests make lamentation; her maidens are careful; and she herself is in great heaviness.

{Vav} All the beauty of the daughter of Zion is away, her princes are become like harts that find no pasture. They are driven away before their enemy, so that they have no more power.

{Zayin} Now doth Jerusalem remember the time of her misery and disobedience, yea the joy and pleasure that she hath had in times past: seeing her people is brought down through the power of their enemy, and there is no man for to help her. Her enemies stand looking at her, and laughing her Sabbath days to scorn.

{Khet} Jerusalem sinned ever more and more, therefore is she come in decay. All they that had her in honour, despise her: for they have seen her filthiness. Yea she sigheth and is ashamed of herself.

{Tet} Her skirts are defiled, she remembered not what would follow: therefore is her fall so great, and there is no man to comfort her. O LORD, consider my trouble, for my enemy hath the upper hand.

{Nun} The yoke of my transgression is come at the last; with his hand hath he taken it up, and put it about my neck. My strength is gone: the LORD hath delivered me into those hands, whereout I cannot quit myself.

{Samekh} The LORD hath destroyed all the mighty men, that were in me. He hath proclaimed a feast, to slaughter all my best men. The LORD hath trodden down the daughter of Judah, like as it were in a wine press.

{Ayin} Therefore do I weep, and mine eyes gush out of water: for the comforter that should quicken me is far from me. My children are driven away. For why? The enemy hath gotten the over hand.

{Pe} Zion casteth out her hands, and there is no man to comfort her. The LORD hath laid the enemies round about Jacob, and Jerusalem is as it were a menstruous woman in the midst of them.

{Tsadi} The LORD is righteous, for I provoked his countenance unto anger. O take heed all ye people, and consider my heaviness: My maidens and my young men are led away in to captivity.

{Res} Consider, O LORD, how I am troubled: my womb is disquieted, my heart turneth about in me, and I am full of heaviness. The sword hurteth me without, and within I am like unto death.

{Shin} They hear my mourning, but there is none that will comfort me. All my enemies have heard of my trouble, and are glad thereof, because thou hast done it. But thou shalt bring forth the time, when they also shall be like unto me.

{Tav} From thee shall come all their adversity: thou shalt pluck them away, even as thou hast plucked me, because of all my wickedness. For my sorrow is very great, and my heart is heavy.

{Aleph} Alas, how hath the LORD darkened the daughter of Zion so sore in his wrath? As for the honour of Israel, he hath casten it down from heaven: How happeneth it, that he remembered not his own foot stool when he was angry?

{Gimel} In the wrath of his indignation he hath broken all the horn of Israel: he hath withdrawn his righthand from the enemy. Yea, a flame of fire is kindled in Jacob, and hath consumed up all round about.

{Daleth} He hath bent his bow like an enemy, he hath fastened his righthand as an adversary: and everything that was pleasant to see, he hath smitten it down. He hath poured out his wrath like a fire, into the tabernacle of the daughter of Zion.

{He} The LORD is become like as it were an enemy: he hath cast down Israel and all his places. Yea, all his strongholds hath he destroyed, and filled the daughter of Judah with much sorrow and heaviness.

{Zayin} The LORD hath forsaken his own altar, and is wroth with his own sanctuary, and hath given the walls of their towers into the hands of the enemy. Their enemies made a noise in the house of the LORD, as it had been in a solemn feast day.

{Khaf} Mine eyes begin to fail me through weeping, my body is disquieted, my liver is poured upon the earth, for the great hurt of my people, seeing the children and babes did swoon in the streets of the city.

{Lamed} Even when they spake to their mothers, "Where is meat and drink?" For while they so said, they fell down in the streets of the city, like as they had been wounded, and some died in their mothers' bosom.

{Mem} What shall I say of thee, O thou daughter Jerusalem? To whom shall I liken thee? To whom shall I compare thee, O thou daughter Zion, to comfort thee withal? Thy hurt is like a main sea: who may heal thee?

{Samekh} All they that go by thee clap their hands at thee - hissing and wagging their heads upon the daughter Jerusalem - and say, "Is this the city that men call so fair, wherein the whole land rejoiceth?"

{Ayin} All thine enemies gape upon thee, whispering and biting their teeth, saying, "Let us devour, for the time that we looked for is come: we have found and seen it."

{Tav} My neighbours that are round about me hast thou called, as it were to a feast day: so that in the day of the LORD's wrath none escaped, neither was any left behind. Those that I had brought up and nourished, hath mine enemy destroyed.

He hath set me in darkness, as they that be dead forever.

{Daleth} He layeth wait for me like a Bear, and as a lion in a hole.

He hath bent his bow, and made me as it were a mark to shoot at.

I thought in myself, "I am undone; there is no hope for me in the LORD."

His faithfulness is great and reneweth itself as the morning.

"The LORD is my portion," sayeth my soul; therefore will I hope in him.

{Tet} O how good is the LORD unto them that put their trust in him, and to the soul that seeketh after him?

O how good is it, with stillness, to wait and tarry for the health of the LORD?

O how good is it, for a man, to take the yoke upon him from his youth up?

{Mem} What is he then that sayeth, "There should something be done without the LORD's commandment:

{Nun} Let us look well upon our own ways, and remember ourselves, and turn again to the LORD.

Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto the God that is in heaven.

{Samekh} Thou hast covered us in thy wrath, and persecuted us, thou hast slain us, without any favour.

Thou hast made us outcasts, and to be despised among the Heathen.

{Ayin} All our enemies gape upon us.

Fear and snare is come upon us; yea, despite and destruction.

{Pe} Mine eyes run, and cannot cease, for there is no rest.

Give them the thing, that their own heart is afraid of: even thy curse.

{Aleph} O how is the gold become so dim? How is the goodly colour of it so sore changed? And the stones of the sanctuary thus scattered in the corner of every street?

{Gimel} The Dragons give their young ones suck with bare breasts: but the daughter of my people is cruel, and dwelleth in the wilderness like the Ostriches.

{Daleth} The tongues of the sucking children, cleave to the roof of their mouths for very thirst. The young children ask bread, but there is no man that giveth it them.

{Vav} The sin of the daughter of my people is become greater than the wickedness of Sodom, that suddenly was destroyed, and not taken with hands.

{Zayin} Her abstainers were whiter than the snow or milk: their colour was fresh red as the Coral, their beauty like the Sapphire.

{Khet} But now their faces are very black: Insomuch, that thou shouldest not know them in the streets. Their skin cleaveth to their bones; It is withered, and become like a dry stock.

{Tet} They that be slain with the sword, are happier than such as die of hunger, and perish away famishing for the fruits of the field.

{Mem} Which nevertheless is come to pass for the sins of her prophets, and for the wickedness of her priests that have shed innocents' blood within her.

{Pe} Wherefore yet our eyes fail us, while we look for vain help: seeing we be ever waiting upon a people that can do us no good.

{Tsadi} They lay so sharp wait for us, that we can not go safe upon the streets: for our end is come, our days are fulfilled, our end is here.

{Kuf} Our persecutors are swifter than the Eagles of the air, they followed upon us over the mountains, and laid wait for us in the wilderness.

{Shin} And thou, O daughter Edom, that dwellest in the land of Uz, be glad and rejoice: for the cup shall come unto thee also, which when thou suppest of thou shalt be drunk.

{Tav} Thy sin is well punished, O thou daughter Zion: he shall not suffer thee to be carried away anymore. But thy wickedness, O daughter Edom, shall he visit, and for thy sins' sake, he shall lead thee into captivity.

Our inheritance is turned to the strangers, and our houses to the aliens.

We are become careful and fatherless, and our mothers are as the widows.

Servants have the rule of us, and no man delivereth us out of their hands.

Our skin is as it had been burnt in an oven, for very sore hunger.

The elders sit no more under the gates, and the young men use no more the playing of Music.

The joy of our heart is gone, our merry query is turned into mourning.

The garland of our head is fallen: alas, that ever we sinned so sore!

Therefore our heart is full of heaviness, and our eyes dim:

because of the hill of Zion that is destroyed: Insomuch that the foxes run upon it.

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

O LORD, turn thou us unto thee: and so shall we be turned. Renew our days as in old time,

for thou hast now banished us long enough, and hast been sore displeased at us.