How doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people! how is she become as a widow! she that was great among the nations, and princess among the provinces, how is she become tributary.

And from the daughter of Zion all her beauty hath departed: her princes are become like harts that find no pasture, and they are gone without strength before the pursuer.

Jerusalem remembered in the days of her affliction and of her miseries all her pleasant things that she had in the days of old, when her people fell into the hand of the enemy, and none helped her: the adversaries saw her, and mocked at her sabbaths.

Jerusalem hath grievously sinned; therefore she is removed: all that honored her despise her, because they have seen her nakedness: yes, she sigheth and turneth backward.

The adversary hath spread out his hand upon all her pleasant things: for she hath seen that the heathen entered into her sanctuary, whom thou didst command that they should not enter into thy congregation.

Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? behold, and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow, which hath fallen upon me, with which the LORD hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger.

For these things I weep; my eye, my eye runneth down with water, because the comforter that should relieve my soul is far from me: my children are desolate, because the enemy prevailed.

Zion spreadeth forth her hands, and there is none to comfort her: the LORD hath commanded concerning Jacob, that his adversaries should be around him: Jerusalem is as a menstruous woman among them.

They have heard that I sigh: there is none to comfort me: all my enemies have heard of my trouble; they are glad that thou hast done it: thou wilt bring the day that thou hast called, and they shall be like me.

He hath bent his bow like an enemy: he stood with his right hand as an adversary, and slew all that were pleasant to the eye in the tabernacle of the daughter of Zion: he poured out his fury like fire.

What thing shall I take to witness for thee? what thing shall I liken to thee, O daughter of Jerusalem? What shall I equal 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 that 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 call the Perfection of beauty, the Joy of the whole earth?

All thy enemies have opened their mouth against thee: they hiss and gnash the teeth: they say, We have swallowed her up: certainly this is the day that we looked for; we have found, we have seen it.

The LORD hath done that which he had devised; he hath fulfilled his word that he had commanded in the days of old: he hath thrown down, and hath not pitied: and he hath caused thy enemy to rejoice over thee, he hath set up the horn of thy adversaries.

Arise, cry out in the night: in the beginning of the watches pour out thy heart like water before the face of the Lord: lift up thy hands towards him for the life of thy young children, that faint for hunger at the head of every street.

Thou hast called as in a solemn day my terrors around, so that in the day of the LORD'S anger none escaped nor remained: those that I have swaddled and brought up, hath my enemy consumed.

I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.

He hath set me in dark places, as they that are dead of old.

He hath hedged me about, that I cannot get out: he hath made my chain heavy.

It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.

The LORD is good to them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him.

It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD.

It is good for a man that he should bear the yoke in his youth.

He giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him: he is filled full with reproach.

Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth it not?

Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud, that our prayer should not pass through.

Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee: thou saidst, Fear not.

The lips of those that rose up against me, and their device against me all the day.

They that fed delicately are desolate in the streets: they that were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghills.

For the punishment of the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the punishment of the sin of Sodom, that was overthrown as in a moment, and no hands stayed on her.

Her Nazarites were purer than snow, they were whiter than milk, they were more ruddy in body than rubies, their polishing was of sapphire:

Their visage is blacker than a coal; they are not known in the streets: their skin cleaveth to their bones; it is withered, it is become like a stick.

They that are slain with the sword are better than they that are slain with hunger: for these pine away, stricken through for want of the fruits of the field.

The kings of the earth, and all the inhabitants of the world, would not have believed that the adversary and the enemy would have entered into the gates of Jerusalem.

For the sins of her prophets, and the iniquities of her priests, that have shed the blood of the just in the midst of her.

They have wandered as blind men in the streets, they have polluted themselves with blood, so that men could not touch their garments.

As for us, our eyes as yet failed for our vain help: in our watching we have watched for a nation that could not save us.

They hunt our steps, that we cannot go in our streets: our end is near, our days are fulfilled; for our end is come.

Our persecutors are swifter than the eagles of heaven: they pursued us upon the mountains, they laid wait for us in the wilderness.

Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, that dwellest in the land of Uz; the cup also shall pass through to thee: thou shalt be drunken, and shalt make thyself naked.

Servants have ruled over us: there is none that doth deliver us out of their hand.

The crown is fallen from our head: woe to us, that we have sinned!