The ways of Zion are sad, because no one comes to the holy meeting; all her doorways are made waste, her priests are breathing out sorrow: her virgins are troubled, and it is bitter for her.

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.

Jerusalem keeps in mind, in the days of her sorrow and of her wanderings, all the desired things which were hers in days gone by; when her people came into the power of her hater and she had no helper, her attackers saw their desire effected on her and made sport of her destruction.

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.

In her skirts were her unclean ways; she gave no thought to her end; and her fall has been a wonder; she has no comforter: see her sorrow, O Lord; for the attacker is lifted up.

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.

Come to me, all you who go by! Keep your eyes on me, and see if there is any pain like the pain of my wound, which the Lord has sent on me in the day of his burning wrath.

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 has made sport of all my men of war in me, he has got men together against me to send destruction on my young men: the virgin daughter of Judah has been crushed like grapes under the feet of the Lord.

For these things I am weeping; my eye is streaming with water; because the comforter who might give me new life is far from me: my children are made waste, because the hater is strong.

Zion's hands are outstretched; she has no comforter; the Lord has given orders to the attackers of Jacob round about him: Jerusalem has become like an unclean thing among them.

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.

I sent for my lovers, but they were false to me: my priests and my responsible men were breathing their last breath in the town, while they were looking for food to give them new life.

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.

His bow has been bent for the attack, he has taken his place with his hand ready, in his hate he has put to death all who were pleasing to the eye: on the tent of the daughter of Zion he has let loose his passion like fire.

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.

My eyes are wasted with weeping, the inmost parts of my body are deeply moved, my inner parts are drained out on the earth, for the destruction of the daughter of my people; because of the young children and babies at the breast who are falling without strength in the open squares of the town.

They say to their mothers, Where is grain and wine? when they are falling like the wounded in the open squares of the town, when their life is drained out on their mother's breast.

What example am I to give you? what comparison am I to make for you, O daughter of Jerusalem? what am I to make equal to you, so that I may give you comfort, O virgin daughter of Zion? for your destruction is great like the sea: who is able to make you well?

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.

The Lord has done that which was his purpose; he has put into force the orders which he gave in the days which are past; pulling down without pity, he has made your hater glad over you, lifting up the horn of those who were against you.

Let your cry go up to the Lord: O wall of the daughter of Zion, let your weeping be flowing down like a stream day and night; give yourself no rest, let not your eyes keep back the drops of sorrow.

Up! give cries in the night, at the starting of the night-watches; let your heart be flowing out like water before the face of the Lord, lifting up your hands to him for the life of your young children who are falling down, feeble for need of food, at the top of every street.

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.

They are new every morning; great is your good faith.

The Lord is good to those who are waiting for him, to the soul which is looking for him.

Let us make search and put our ways to the test, turning again to the Lord;

Lifting up our hearts with our hands to God in the heavens.

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

The mouths of all our haters are open wide against us.

Rivers of water are running down from my eyes, for the destruction of the daughter of my people.

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;

Waters were flowing over my head; I said, I am cut off.

I was making prayer to your name, O Lord, out of the lowest prison.

My voice came to you; let not your ear be shut to my breathing, to my cry.

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

Take note of them when they are seated, and when they get up; I am their song.

You will let their hearts be covered over with your curse on them.

How dark has the gold become! how changed the best gold! the stones of the holy place are dropping out at the top of every street.

The valued sons of Zion, whose price was the best gold, are looked on as vessels of earth, the work of the hands of the potter!

The tongue of the child at the breast is fixed to the roof of his mouth for need of drink: the young children are crying out for bread, and no man gives it to them.

Those who were used to feasting on delicate food are wasted in the streets: those who as children were dressed in purple are stretched out on the dust.

Her holy ones were cleaner than snow, they were whiter than milk, their bodies were redder than corals, their form was as the sapphire:

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.

They are wandering like blind men in the streets, they are made unclean with blood, so that their robes may not be touched by men.

Away! unclean! they were crying out to them, Away! away! let there be no touching: when they went away in flight and wandering, men said among the nations, There is no further resting-place for them.

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

They go after our steps so that we may not go in our streets: our end is near, our days are numbered; for our end has come.

Those who went after us were quicker than the eagles of the heaven, driving us before them on the mountains, waiting secretly for us in the waste land.

Our breath of life, he on whom the holy oil was put, was taken in their holes; of whom we said, Under his shade we will be living among the nations.

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.

The punishment of your evil-doing is complete, O daughter of Zion; never again will he take you away as a prisoner: he will give you the reward of your evil-doing, O daughter of Edom; he will let your sin be uncovered.

Keep in mind, O Lord, what has come to us: take note and see our shame.

Our heritage is given up to men of strange lands, our houses to those who are not our countrymen.

We are children without fathers, our mothers are like widows.

We give money for a drink of water, we get our wood for a price.

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.

Our fathers were sinners and are dead; and the weight of their evil-doing is on us.

Servants are ruling over us, and there is no one to make us free from their hands.

We put our lives in danger to get our bread, because of the sword of the waste land.

Our skin is heated like an oven because of our burning heat from need of food.

Their hands put princes to death by hanging: the faces of old men were not honoured.

The young men were crushing the grain, and the boys were falling under the wood.

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 is ended; our dancing is changed into sorrow.

The crown has been taken from our head: sorrow is ours, for we are sinners.

Because of this our hearts are feeble; for these things our eyes are dark;

You, O Lord, are seated as King for ever; the seat of your power is eternal.

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

Make us come back to you, O Lord, and let us be turned; make our days new again as in the past.

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