She weeps bitterly in the night, her tears [are] on her cheeks; she has no comforter among all her lovers. All her friends have been unfaithful to her; they have 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.

All her majesty has gone away from the daughter of Zion; her princes have become like young stags that have not found pasture; they have gone away without strength, before the pursuer.

Jerusalem remembers the days of her misery and wanderings, all her treasures that were from the days of long ago. When her people fell into [the] hand of the enemy, there was no one helping her; the enemies saw her, they mocked at her destruction.

Jerusalem, hath grievously sinned, For this cause, unto exile, hath she been delivered, - All who used to honour her, have despised her, for they have descried her unseemliness, yea, she herself, hath sighed, and turned back.

His hand, hath the adversary spread out, over all her precious things, - for she saw that, the nations, entered her sanctuary, as to whom thou didst command they should not enter - in the convocation - unto thee!

All her people, are sighing, seeking bread, They have given their precious things for food, to bring back life, - Behold, O Yahweh, and discern, that I have become worthless.

The yoke of my transgressions, hath been bound, by his hand - They have intertwined themselves, have come up on my neck, it hath paralysed my strength, - My Lord, hath delivered me, into the hands of those against whom I cannot rise up.

Zion spreadeth forth her hands; there is none to comfort her; Jehovah hath commanded concerning Jacob, that they that are round about him should be his adversaries: Jerusalem is among them as an unclean thing.

I called to my lovers, they, deceived me, My priests and mine elders, in the city, have breathed their last, - for they sought them food, that they might bring back their life.

They have heard - that, sighing am, I, and am saying - There is none to comfort me, All my foes, - having heard of my calamity - have rejoiced, because, thou, hast done it, - thou hast brought in the day thou didst proclaim, So let them become like me.

My Lord hath rejected his altar, hath abhorred his sanctuary, hath delivered, into the hand of the foe, the walls of her castles, - A voice, have they uttered in the house of Yahweh, as on the day of an appointed assembly.

Yahweh hath devised to lay in ruins, the wall of the daughter of Zion, he hath stretched out a line, he hath not turned back his hand from swallowing up, - Thus hath he caused to mourn - rampart and wall, together, have they languished!

(Tet) Her city gates have fallen to the ground; he smashed to bits the bars that lock her gates. Her king and princes were taken into exile; there is no more guidance available. As for her prophets, they no longer receive a vision from the Lord.

Seated on the ground, in silence, are the elders of the daughter of Zion, They have lifted up dust on their head, have girded themselves with sackcloth, - Bowed down to the ground is the head, of the virgins of Jerusalem.

To their mothers, they keep saying, Where are corn and wine? Swooning off, like one thrust through, in the broadways of the city, pouring out their life into the bosom of their mothers.

Thy prophets, have had visions for thee, false and foolish, and have not unveiled thine iniquity, to turn back thy captivity, - Yea they have had visions for thee, oracles of falsehood, and enticements!

They clap hands over you, all who pass along the way; they hiss and they shake their head, at the daughter of Jerusalem. Is this the city of which it is said, "A perfection of beauty, a joy for all the earth?"

All thy foes, have opened wide, over thee their mouth, They have hissed, and gnashed their teeth, They have said - We have swallowed her up! Surely, this, is the day for which we have waited, We have found! We have seen!

(Qof) Get up! Cry out in the night when the night watches start! Pour out your heart like water before the face of the Lord! Lift up your hands to him for your children's lives; they are fainting at every street corner.

See, O Yahweh, and do consider, to whom thou hast acted thus severely, - Will women, devour, their own fruit - the children they have dandled? Shall priest and prophet, be slain in the sanctuary of My Lord?

They lie in [the] soil of [the] streets, young and old; my young women and young men, they have fallen by the sword; you have slain on the day of {your anger}, you have slaughtered and not shown mercy.

Thou dost call as at a day of appointment, My fears from round about, And there hath not been in the day of the anger of Jehovah, An escaped and remaining one, They whom I stretched out and nourished, My enemy hath consumed!

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

I am laughed to scorn of all my people; they make songs upon me all the day long.

The lovingkindnesses of Yahweh, verily they are not exhausted, Verily! not at an end, are his compassions:

They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.

My eyes are streaming without stopping, they have no rest,

They, have laid snares, for me as a bird, who are mine enemies without cause:

They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and cast a stone upon me.

They poured water upon my head, then thought I, "Now am I undone."

You have seen all the evil rewards they have sent on me, and all their designs against me.

The lips of mine enemies, and their devices that they take against me, all the day long.

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

ת TavYou will pay them back what they deserve, Lord,
according to the work of their hands.

The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, how are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter!

Even the sea-monsters draw out the breast, they nurse their young ones: the daughter of my people is become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness.

Cleaved hath the tongue of a suckling unto his palate with thirst, Infants asked bread, a dealer out they have none.

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

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 hands of the pitiful women have boiled their own children: they were their food in the destruction of the daughter of my people.

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

They cried to them, Depart ye; it is unclean; depart, depart, touch not: when they fled away and wandered, they said among the heathen, They shall no more sojourn there.

The anger of the LORD hath divided them; he will no more regard them: they respected not the persons of the priests, they favored not the elders.

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.

We are pursued -- they are breathing down our necks; we are weary and have no rest.

Our fathers have sinned, they are no more; we bear their iniquity.

They ravished the women in Zion, and the maids in the cities of Judah.

They hang princes by their hand; they do not show respect before elders.

They took the young men to grind, and the children fell under the wood.