All her people sigh, they seek bread; they have given their precious things for food to refresh the soul. "Look, LORD, and see, for I am despised."

Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look, and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow, which is brought on me, with which the LORD has afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger.

My transgressions are bound into a yoke; by his hand they are fastened together, they are set upon my neck; he has made my strength to fail. The Lord has delivered me into their hands, against whom I am not able to stand.

Zion spreads forth her hands; there is none to comfort her. The LORD has commanded concerning Jacob, that those who are around him should be his adversaries. Jerusalem is among them as an unclean thing.

I called for my lovers, but they deceived me. My priests and my elders perished in the city, while they searched for food to refresh their souls.

See, LORD, for I am in distress; my stomach churns; my heart is turned within me; for I have grievously rebelled. Outside the sword bereaves, inside there is death.

They have heard that I groan; there is none to comfort me. All my enemies have heard of my trouble; they are glad that you have done it. Bring the day that you have proclaimed, so that they shall end up like me.

Let all their wickedness come before you. Do to them, as you have done to me for all my transgressions. For my groans are many, and my heart is faint.

The elders of the daughter of Zion sit on the ground in silence. They have cast up dust on their heads; they have clothed themselves with sackcloth. The virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground.

They tell their mothers, "Where is grain and wine?" When they faint as the wounded in the streets of the city, as their lives fade away in their mothers' bosom.

All that pass by clap their hands at you, they hiss and wag their head at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying, "Is this the city that men called 'The perfection of beauty,' 'The joy of the whole earth'?"

All your enemies have opened wide their mouth against you. 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."

Their heart cried to the Lord. O wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears run down like a river day and night. Give yourself no respite; do not let your tears cease.

Look, LORD, and see to whom you have done like this. Shall the women eat their fruit, the children that are dandled in the hands? Shall the priest and the prophet be killed in the sanctuary of the Lord?

You have called, as in the day of a solemn assembly, my terrors on every side. There was none that escaped or remained in the day of the LORD's anger. Those that I have borne and brought up has my enemy destroyed.

I have become a laughingstock to all my people, and their song all the day.

Let him put his mouth to the dust, there may yet be hope.

You have covered yourself with a cloud, so that no prayer can pass through.

All our enemies have opened their mouth wide against us.

You have seen all their vengeance and all their plots against me.

You have heard their insults, LORD, and all their plots against me.

The lips of those that rose up against me, and their plots against me all day long.

Behold their sitting down, and their rising up; I am their mocking song.

You will render to them what they deserve, LORD, according to the work of their hands.

Even the jackals offer the breast, they nurse their young ones, but the daughter of my people has become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness.

Her consecrated ones were purer than snow, whiter than milk; their bodies more ruddy than rubies, their appearance was like lapis lazuli.

They appear darker than soot; they are not known in the streets. Their skin cleaves to their bones; it is withered and has become as dry as a stick.

Those who are killed with the sword are better than those who are killed with hunger; those who waste away, pierced through, for lack of the fruits of the field.

The hands of the compassionate women have cooked their own children; they were their food in the destruction of the daughter of my people.

They wander as blind men in the streets, they are polluted with blood, so that men can't touch their garments.

The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the LORD, was taken in their pits; of whom we said, "Under his shadow we can live among the nations."

Rejoice and be glad, daughter of Edom, that dwell in the land of Uz. The cup shall pass through to you also; you will get drunk, and shall make yourself naked.

Our fathers sinned, and are no more; we have borne their iniquities.

Servants rule over us: There is none to deliver us out of their hand.

Princes were hung by their hands; elders were shown no respect.

The elders have gone from the gate, the young men from their music.