How solitary and lonely sits the city [Jerusalem]
That was [once] full of people!
How like a widow she has become.
She who was great among the nations!
The princess among the provinces,
Has become a forced laborer!

{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.

In the days of her affliction and homelessness
Jerusalem remembers all her precious things
That she had from the days of old,
When her people fell into the hand of the adversary,
And no one helped her,
The enemy saw her,
They mocked at her downfall.

Jerusalem sinned a sin; for this she was for a removing: all honoring her despised her, for they saw her nakedness: also she sighed, and she will turn away behind.

(Tet) Her menstrual flow has soiled her clothing; she did not consider the consequences of her sin. Her demise was astonishing, and there was no one to comfort her. She cried, "Look, O Lord, on my affliction because my enemy boasts!"

All her people sighing, seeking bread; they gave from their delights for food to turn back the soul: see, O Jehovah, and regard; for I was despised.

“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 yoke of my sins was bound on, fastened together by his hand. They settled on my neck; he caused my strength to fail. The LORD placed me in the power of those I cannot resist.

Zion spread forth her hands, none comforting for her: Jehovah commanded for Jacob, his adversaries round about him: Jerusalem was for uncleanness within them.

(Resh) Look, O Lord! I am distressed; my stomach is in knots! My heart is pounding inside me. Yes, I was terribly rebellious! Out in the street the sword bereaves a mother of her children; Inside the house death is present.

They hear that I was groaning; [there is] no comforter for me. All my enemies have heard my misery, they are pleased that you have done it. Bring [that] day that you have proclaimed, And let them be like me.

{Aleph} Alas, how hath the LORD darkened the daughter of Zion so sore in his wrath? As for the honour of Israel, he hath casten it down from heaven: How happeneth it, that he remembered not his own foot stool when he was angry?

(Gimel) In fierce anger he destroyed the whole army of Israel. He withdrew his right hand as the enemy attacked. He was like a raging fire in the land of Jacob; it consumed everything around it.

(Dalet) He prepared his bow like an enemy; his right hand was ready to shoot. Like a foe he killed everyone, even our strong young men; he has poured out his anger like fire on the tent of Daughter Zion.

The Lord was as an enemy: he hath swallowed up Israel, he hath swallowed up all her palaces: he hath destroyed his strong holds, and hath increased in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation.

{Vav} Her tabernacle - which was like a garden of pleasure - hath he destroyed; her high solemn feasts hath he put down. The LORD hath brought it so to pass, that the high solemn feasts and Sabbaths in Zion are clean forgotten. In his heavy displeasure hath he made the king and priests to be despised.

(Khet) The Lord was determined to tear down Daughter Zion's wall. He prepared to knock it down; he did not withdraw his hand from destroying. He made the ramparts and fortified walls lament; together they mourned their ruin.

Mine eyes failed with tears, my bowels were in a ferment, my liver was poured out to the earth, upon the breaking of the daughter of my people; in the fainting of the child and suckling in the wide places of the city.

They say to their mothers, Where is corn and wine? when they swooned as the wounded in the streets of the city, when their soul was poured out into their mothers' bosom.

All who pass along the way
Clap their hands in derision at you;
They scoff and shake their heads
At the Daughter of Jerusalem, saying,
“Is this the city that was called
‘The perfection of beauty,
The joy of all the earth’?”

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.

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 was unto me as a bear lying in wait, and as a lion in secret places.

I was a derision to all my people; and their song all the day.

(Mem) Whose command was ever fulfilled unless the Lord decreed it?

They who are against me without cause have gone hard after me as if I was a bird;

The waters closed over my head; I thought I was about to die.

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

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 suckling, cleaveth to the roof of his mouth for thirst, - Young children, have asked bread, there was none, to break, it to them.

(Vav) The punishment of my people exceeded that of of Sodom, which was overthrown in a moment with no one to help her.

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 form dark above blackness; they were not known in the streets: their skin adhered to their bones; it was dried up, it was as wood.

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

They cried unto them, Depart! Unclean! Depart! depart, touch not! When they fled away, and wandered about, it was said among the nations, They shall no more sojourn there.

Yet our eyes failed,
Looking for help was useless;
In our watching we have watched
For a nation that could not save.

They hunted our steps from going in our streets; our end was near, our days were fulfilled, for our end has come.

(Resh) Our very life breath -- the Lord's anointed king -- was caught in their traps, of whom we thought, "Under his protection we will survive among the nations."

Thine iniquity was finished, O daughter of Zion; he will not add to carry thee into exile: reviewing thine iniquity, O daughter of Edom, he uncovered upon thy sins.

Remember, O Jehovah, what was to us: look and see our reproach.

Our inheritance was turned to strangers, our houses to foreigners.

Our skin was black like an oven because of the terrible famine.

The joy of our heart ceased; our dance was turned to mourning.

For this our heart was languid; for this our eyes were darkened.

For mount Zion was laid waste, the foxes went upon it.