The roads to Zion are in mourning
Because no one comes to the appointed feasts.
All her gates are desolate;
Her priests are groaning,
Her virgins are grieved and suffering,
And she suffers bitterly.

All her people groan, seeking bread;
They have exchanged their desirable and precious things for food
To restore their lives.
“See, O Lord, and consider
How despised and repulsive I have become!”

“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.

“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.

“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.

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?

All your enemies
Have opened their mouths wide against you;
They [scornfully] hiss and gnash their teeth.
They say, “We have swallowed her up!
Certainly this is the day for which we waited;
We have reached it, we have seen it!”

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

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

It is because of the Lord’s lovingkindnesses that we are not consumed,
Because His [tender] compassions never fail.

The Lord is good to those who wait [confidently] for Him,
To those who seek Him [on the authority of God’s word].

Let him give his cheek to the one who strikes him;
Let him be filled with reproach.

To deprive a man of justice
In the presence of the Most High,

Why should any living mortal, or any man,
Complain [of punishment] in view of his sins?

You have covered Yourself with a cloud
So that no prayer can pass through.

They wandered, blind, in the streets;
They were defiled with blood
So that no one could touch their garments.

The enemy hunted our steps,
So that we could not walk in our streets;
Our end drew near,
Our days were finished
For our end had come.

Rejoice and be glad, O Daughter of Edom,
Who lives in the land of Uz.
But the cup [of the wine of God’s wrath] will pass to you as well;
You will become drunk and make yourself naked.

O Lord, remember what has come upon us;
Look, and see our reproach (national disgrace)!

Elders are gone from the gate;
Young men from their music.

Because of this our heart is faint,
Because of these things our eyes are dim.

Why do You forget us forever?
Why do You forsake us so long?