The Desolate City

• that was full of people!
• She has become like a widow,
  • once great among the nations!
• Like a woman of nobility in the provinces,
  • she has become a forced laborer.
  • 2  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.
  • 3  and under hard servitude;
• she lives among the nations,
  • she has not found a resting place;
• all her pursuers have overtaken her
  • amidst her distress.
  • 4 are mourning because no one comes to the festival.
• All her gates are desolate,
  • her priests groan;
• her young women are worried,
  • and she herself suffers bitterly.
  • 5 her[fn] her enemies are at ease;
• Yahweh has made her suffer
  • because of the greatness of her transgressions.
• Her children have gone away,
  • captive before the foe.
  • 6  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.
  • 7  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.
  • 8  thus she became an objection of derision;
• all those who honored her despise her
  • because they have seen her nakedness.
• She herself groans
  • and turns away.
  • 9 was in her skirts; she did not remember her future,
• she has descended beyond understanding,
  • there is no comforter for her.
• See, O Yahweh, my persecution!
  • My enemy has been made great!
  • 10  over all her treasures;
• for she has seen the nations,
  • they entered her sanctuary,
• those whom you commanded not to enter
  • in your assembly.
  • 11  they are searching for bread.
• They give their treasures for food,
  • to bring back life.
• See, O Yahweh, and look,
  • how I am despised.
  • 12 [fn] Look and see
• if there is sorrow like my sorrow,[fn]
  • which was dealt to me,
• which Yahweh inflicted
  • on the[fn]
  • 13  into my bones he let it descend.
• He spread out a net for my feet;
  • he turned me back,
• he gave me devastation,
  • fainting all day.
  • 14 as a yoke, with his hand it was fastened together;
• it was put on my neck
  • and caused my strength to fail.
• The Lord gave me into the hands
  • of those whom I cannot withstand.
  • 15  all my mighty ones in my midst.
• He called an assembly against me,
  • to crush my young men;
• like in a wine press,
  • the Lord has trodden on
• the virgin daughter of Judah.
  • 16 things, I am weeping,[fn]
• because a comforter is far from me,
  • one to restore my life.
• My sons are desolate
  • because the enemy has prevailed.
  • 17  there is no one to comfort her.
• Yahweh has commanded against Jacob,
  • that those surrounding him[fn] should be his enemies;
• Jerusalem has become
  • a defilement among them.
  • 18  I have rebelled against[fn]
• Please hear, all the nations,
  • And see my pain;
• My young women[fn] and young men
  • went into captivity.
  • 19  they themselves deceived me;
• my priests and elders perished in the city
  • when they sought food for themselves
    • to revive their life.[fn]
  • 20 [fn] [fn] is in torment,
• my heart has turned inside me
  • because I have certainly rebelled.
• From outside a sword brings bereavement,
  • inside the house it is like death.
  • 21  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,[fn]
  • And let them be like me.
  • 22  and deal with them
• just as you have dealt with me
  • because of all my crimes;
• for my groaning is much and my heart is faint.

The Lord is Angry

• the Lord has covered the daughter of Zion in a cloud!
• He has thrown down from heavens to earth
  • the splendor of Israel,
• and he has not remembered his footstool
  • in the day of[fn]
  • 2  to all the dwellings of Jacob;
• he has broken down in his wrath
  • the fortifications of the daughter of Judah;
• he has leveled to the ground, he has dishonored
  • the kingdom and its commanders.[fn]
  • 3 [fn] all the might of Israel;
• he has withdrawn his right hand
  • from the faces of the enemy,
• and he has burned in Jacob like a flaming fire,
  • it has consumed all around.
  • 4  he has set his right hand
• like a foe, and he has slain
  • all the treasures of the eye;[fn]
• in the tent of the daughter of Zion,
  • he has poured out his anger like fire.
  • 5  he has destroyed Israel;
• he has destroyed all its citadel fortresses;[fn]
  • he has ruined all its fortifications
• and multiplied lamentation and mourning
  • in the daughter of Judah.
  • 6 [fn] place like the garden; he has ruined his appointed feasts;
• Yahweh has made them forget in Zion
  • [fn] and Sabbath,
• and he has despised in his anger
  • king and priest.
  • 7  he has rejected his sanctuary;
• he has delivered into the hands of the enemy
  • the walls of its citadel fortresses.[fn]
• They have cried out in the house of Yahweh
  • like a day of an appointed feast.
  • 8  the wall of the daughter of Zion.
• He measured with a line; he has not restrained
  • his hand from destroying;
• he caused rampart and wall to mourn;
  • together they have languished away.
  • 9  he has ruined and broken her bars,
• her kings and its princes are among the nations;
  • there is no more law.[fn]
• Also, her prophets have not found
  • a revelation from Yahweh.
  • 10  the elders of the daughter of Zion are silent.
• They cast dust on their head,
  • they have put on sackcloth;
• the young women of Jerusalem
  • have bowed their head down to the ground.
  • 11 [fn] [fn] is in torment,
• [fn] is poured out on the earth
  • because of the destruction of the daughter of my people,
• because child and babe faint
  • in the public squares of a city.
  • 12  “Where is the bread and wine?”
• as they faint like the wounded
  • in the public squares of a city,
• as their life is being poured out
  • onto the bosom of their mothers.
  • 13  O daughter of Jerusalem?
• To what can I liken you so that I can comfort you,
  • O virgin daughter of Zion?
• For your destruction is as vast as the sea;
  • who can heal you?
  • 14  false and worthless;
• they have not exposed your sin,
  • to restore your fortune;
• they have seen oracles for you,
  • false and misleading.
  • 15  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?”
  • 16  all your enemies.
• They hiss and gnash a tooth,
  • and they say, “We have destroyed her!
• Surely this is the day we have hoped for;
  • we have found it, we have seen it!”
  • 17  he has fulfilled his promise
• that he ordained from the days of old;
  • he has demolished and not shown mercy;
• he has made an enemy rejoice over you,
  • he has exalted the[fn] of your foes.
  • 18  “O wall of the daughter of Zion,
• let tears stream down like a river;
  • day and night,
• do not give yourself relief,
  • do not give your eyes rest.
  • 19  at the beginning of the night watches;
• pour out your heart like water,
  • before the face of the Lord.
• Lift to him your hands,
  • for the life of your children,
• who faint in starvation,
  • at the head of all streets.”
  • 20  With whom have you dealt thus?
• Should women eat their young
  • children of tender care?
• Should priest and prophet be slain
  • in the sanctuary of the Lord?
  • 21 the soil of the streets, young and old;
• my young women[fn] and young men,
  • they have fallen by the sword;
• you have slain on the day of[fn]
  • you have slaughtered and not shown mercy.
  • 22  as if for a feast day;
• no one on the day of Yahweh’s anger
  • is a fugitive and a survivor;
• whoever I have cared for and reared,
  • my enemy has destroyed.

Israel’s Affliction

• under the rod of his wrath.
  • 2  darkness and not light.
  • 3  all day long.
  • 4  he has broken my bones.
  • 5 [fn] and engulfed me with bitterness and hardship.
  • 6  like the dead of long ago.
  • 7  he has made my bronze fetters heavy.
  • 8  he shuts out my prayers.
  • 9  he has made my paths crooked.
  • 10 is like a bear lying in wait, a lion in hiding.
  • 11  he has caused me desolation.
  • 12  as the target for the arrow.
  • 13 [fn] into my kidneys.
  • 14  their mocking song all day long.
  • 15  he has drenched me with wormwood.
  • 16  he has trampled me down in ash.
  • 17  I have forgotten goodness.
  • 18  my expectation from Yahweh.”
  • 19  the wormwood[fn] and venom!
  • 20  and bows down within me.
  • 21 [fn] therefore I will hope.
  • 22  his compassions do not come to an end.
  • 23 They are new in the morning, great is your faithfulness.
  • 24  says my soul,
    • “Thus I will hope on him.”
  • 25  to the person that seeks him.
  • 26 It is good to wait in silence for the salvation of Yahweh.
  • 27 It is good for a man who carries the yoke of his childhood.
  • 28  when he[fn] has laid it on him.
  • 29 [fn] his mouth in the dust; perhaps there is hope.
  • 30  let him be filled with disgrace.
  • 31  forever.
  • 32  according to the greatness of his royal love.
  • 33 [fn] or grieve[fn]
  • 34  all the prisoners of the earth;
  • 35 [fn] before the face of the Most High;
  • 36  —the Lord has not found delight in these things.
  • 37 [fn] and it will happen if the Lord has not commanded it?
  • 38 Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that disaster and good will come?
  • 39  about his sin?
  • 40  let us return to Yahweh.
  • 41  to God in the heavens.
  • 42  you have not forgiven.
  • 43 yourself[fn] and pursued us, you have slain and not shown mercy.
  • 44 [fn]
  • 45  in the midst of the nations.
  • 46  have opened their mouth against us.
  • 47  desolation and destruction.
  • 48  because of the destruction of the daughter of my people.
  • 49  without respite,
  • 50  and sees from heaven.
  • 51  because of all the daughters of my city.
  • 52  like a bird.
  • 53 [fn] they have thrown a stone at me.
  • 54  I said, “I am cut off.”
  • 55  from the depths of the pit.
  • 56  to my cry for help, for my relief!”
  • 57 when I called you, you said, “Do not fear!”
  • 58 [fn] you have redeemed my life.
  • 59  judge my case.
  • 60  all there plans against me.
  • 61  all their plans against me.
  • 62  are against me all day long.
  • 63  I am their mocking song.
  • 64  according to the work of their hands.
  • 65  curse them!
  • 66 [fn] and destroy them from under the heavens of Yahweh.

Zion Is Punished

• the pure gold has changed.
• The stones of holiness are scattered
  • at the head of every street.
  • 2  weighed against fine gold,
• how they are thought of as earthen vessels of clay,
  • the work of the potter’s hands.
  • 3  and nurses their cubs;
• but the daughter of my people has become ruthless,
  • like ostriches in the wilderness.
  • 4  to its palate in thirst.
• Children beg for food,
  • [fn]
  • 5  they are ruined in the streets;
• the ones nurtured in purple
  • lie on piles of trash.
  • 6  than the sin of Sodom;
• it was overthrown in a moment
  • and no hands were laid on her.
  • 7  they were whiter than milk;
• their bodies were more ruddy than rubies,
  • sapphire their appearance.
  • 8 Now their appearance is blacker than soot, they are not recognized in the streets;
• their skin has shriveled on their bones,
  • it has become dry like wood.
  • 9 the victims of the sword than the victims of famine;
• they have pined away, very hungry
  • for the crops of my field.
  • 10 The hands of compassionate women, have cooked their children;
• they became as something to eat
  • in the destruction of the daughter of my people.
  • 11  he has poured out[fn]
• he has kindled a fire in Zion,
  • it consumed her[fn] foundations.
  • 12 The kings of the earth did not believe, and all the inhabitants of the world,
• that a foe and an enemy could enter
  • into the gates of Jerusalem.
  • 13  the guilt of her priests,
• who shed blood in her midst,
  • of righteous people.
  • 14  they were defiled with the blood,
• their clothes
  • could not be touched.
  • 15  “Go away! Go away! Do not touch!”
• so they left, they left; it was said among the nations,
  • “[fn]
  • 16  he will no longer watch over them;
• [fn]
  • they did not show mercy to elders.
  • 17  looking for our help in vain;
• in our watchtower, we kept watch
  • for a nation that could not save.
  • 18  from walking in our streets;
• our end has come near,[fn]
  • our end has come.
  • 19  than the eagles of the heavens;
• they chased us on the mountains,
  • they have set an ambush for us in the desert.
  • 20  was captured in their pits;
• of whom we said, “In his shadow
  • we will live among the nations.”
  • 21  you who dwell in the land of Uz;
• but to you also the cup will pass,
  • you will become drunk and strip yourself bare.
  • 22 punishment of your iniquity is completed, O daughter of Zion, your exile will not continue;
• but he will punish your iniquity, O daughter of Edom,
  • he will reveal your sins.

A Request for Mercy

• take note, and see our disgrace!
  • 2  our houses, to foreigners.
  • 3  our mothers are like widows.
  • 4 [fn] our wood comes to us at a price.
  • 5  we are weary, there is no rest for us.
  • 6 and Assyria to be satisfied with food.
  • 7  we bear their iniquity.
  • 8  there is no one to deliver us from their hand.
  • 9 [fn] because of the sword of the desert.
  • 10  because of the scorching famine.
  • 11  young women[fn] in the cities of Judah.
  • 12  they do not show respect before elders.
  • 13  and boys stumble under the wood.
  • 14  young men no longer play stringed instruments.
  • 15  our circle-dancing has changed to a mourning ceremony.
  • 16  woe to us, for we have sinned!
  • 17  because of these, our eyes have become dim.
  • 18 [fn]
  • 19  on your throne for generation to generation.
  • 20  Why have you forsaken us[fn]
  • 21  renew our days as of old.
  • 22  unless you are angry with us beyond measure.