Lamentations 1

1How the city sits alone that once was crowded with people! She has become like a widow, she who was great among the nations; the princess of the provinces is now put to forced labor.

2Bitterly she weeps through the night, with tears on her cheeks; of all her lovers there is not one to comfort her; all her friends have betrayed her and turned into her enemies.

3Judah has gone into exile after misery and hard servitude; she lives among the nations and finds no place to rest; all who chased her have caught her in the narrow passes.

4The roads to Zion mourn, for no one comes to the festivals; all her gates are deserted, her priests groan; her young women grieve, and she herself is in bitter pain.

5Her foes have become her masters, her enemies live at ease, for the LORD has brought grief on her for her many rebellions; her little ones have gone into captivity ahead of the foe.

6All her splendor has gone from Daughter Zion; her officials are like deer that find no pasture; they stumble on without strength ahead of the hunter.

7In the days of her misery and homelessness Jerusalem remembers all the treasures that were hers in days gone by. When her people fell into the foe’s hands and no one came to help her, her foes looked on and laughed at her ruin.

8Jerusalem has sinned greatly, and so she has become unclean; all who honored her despise her, for they have seen her naked; she herself groans and turns her face away.

9Her skirts are stained with her uncleanness; she gave no thought to where she was heading; her fall has been beyond belief, and there is no one to comfort her. Look, LORD, at my misery, for the enemy has triumphed!

10The foe has reached out his hand for all her treasures; she has watched the nations enter her sanctuary, the very ones you forbade to enter your assembly.

11All her people groan as they search for bread; they trade their treasures for food to stay alive. Look, LORD, and take notice, for I am treated as worthless.

12Does it mean nothing to you, all you who travel this road? Look closely and see whether any pain is like my pain, the pain that was brought on me, which the LORD laid on me on the day of his blazing anger.

13From on high he sent fire into my bones, and it overpowered them; he spread a net to catch my feet and turned me back; he has left me devastated and sick all day long.

14My rebellions are bound into a yoke by his hand; they are lashed together and laid on my neck; he has drained my strength; the Lord has handed me over to those I cannot stand up to.

15The Lord has cast away all the warriors within my walls; he has summoned an assembly against me to crush my young men; the Lord has trampled Virgin Daughter Judah as grapes are trodden in a winepress.

16For all this I weep; my eyes stream, stream with tears, for no one is near to comfort me, no one to revive my spirit; my children are left forlorn, for the enemy has won.

17Zion stretches out her hands, but no one comforts her; the LORD has given orders against Jacob that his neighbors be his foes; Jerusalem has become something unclean among them.

18The LORD is in the right, for I rebelled against his word. Listen, all you peoples, and look at my pain: my young women and my young men have gone into captivity.

19I called to my lovers, but they let me down; my priests and my elders breathed their last in the city as they searched for food to keep themselves alive.

20Look, LORD, how distressed I am! My stomach churns; my heart is overturned inside me, for I have rebelled so deeply. Out in the street the sword takes my children; indoors there is only death.

21People have heard my groaning, with no one to comfort me. My enemies have all heard of my disaster and are glad that you have done this. Bring on the day you announced, and let them become as I am!

22Let all their wickedness come before you; deal with them as you have dealt with me for all my rebellions, for my groans are many and my heart is sick.