1 

Ah, how lonely lies the city,

once so full of folk,

once a power among the nations,

like a poor widow!

she queened it over towns,

and is now a thrall!--

2 

sobbing sorely in the night,

tears upon her cheek;

of all her allies there is none

to aid her;

her friends have all betrayed her

and turned foes.

3 

To an exile of sad slavery

has Judah departed,'

to settle among pagans,

with no peace;

and in her anguish her pursuers

overtook her.

4 

The paths to Sion are woebegone,

bereft of pilgrims;

her gates are all deserted,

and her priests despair,

her maidens have been dragged away--

ah, bitter is her lot!

5 

Her foes have now the upper hand,

her enemies exult--

it is her punishment from the Eternal

for her many sins.

Foes force her children into exile

in front of them;

6 

from Sion all her splendour

has departed;

her leaders are like harts that find

no pasture,

the pursuer drives them feebly

in front of him.

7 

Jerusalem recalls

her stress and scattering,

when helpless her folk fell

into the foeman’s hand,

and the foe gazed gloating

on her downfall.

8 

Jerusalem, for her dire sins,

is flung aside;

all who honoured her despise her--

they have seen her naked shame;

she moans the while,

and turns her face away.

9 

Her filth clung to her skirts,

she was a fetid rag;

she never thought of what would follow,

and so her fall was tragic.

“How insolent is the foe, O thou Eternal!

See what I suffer!”

10 

The foe has laid his hands

on all her treasures;

she has seen pagans pushing

into her shrine,

men thou didst forbid to enter

thy community.

11 

All her folk are moaning

in the search for food,

bartering their treasures

for bare sustenance.

“Behold, O thou Eternal,

how I am abased!

12 

And you who pass by, look,

look all of you and see

if there is any agony like this

dealt out to me,

by the Eternal in his anger fierce

afflicting me.

13 

He sent a fever down

to waste my limbs;

he spread a net to catch my feet;

he thwarted me;

faint he left me and forlorn,

all day long.

14 

He singled out my sins,

then twisted them together,

and bound them as a yoke upon my neck,

till I am worn;

the Lord has consigned me to a foe

whom I cannot withstand.

15 

My Lord himself has flouted

all my heroes,

summoning a triumphant host

to shatter my warriors;

in the winepress the Lord has been trampling

upon Judah.

16 

For all this I weep,

tears stream from my eyes;

none beside me to relieve me,

none to revive me;

my children lie forlorn,

for the foe has prevailed.”

17 

Sion is stretching her hands out,

but none relieves her;

for the Eternal has ordered all around

to oppose Jacob,

and Jerusalem is but to them

a fetid rag.

18 

“The Eternal is right,

for I did rebel!

But listen, O peoples, all of you,

look at my agony;

my maidens and my youth

are in captivity.

19 

I called to my allies,

and they failed me;

in the city my priests and sheikhs

are dying of hunger,

searching for bare sustenance,

and searching all in vain.

20 

O thou Eternal, consider my anguish,

my soul is wretched,

my heart writhing,

and my vitals burn;

outside, the sword is slaying,

and inside, the plague.

21 

Listen to my moaning,

with none to relieve me.

My foes have all heard of my plight--

and they are glad of it,

glad thou hast punished me, as thou didst threaten,

for my sins.

22 

But let their evil hour arrive,

let them fare as I fare;

as thou hast done to me,

so do to them--

give them as many groans as mine,

a heart as sore!”