LAM C1 C2 C3 C4 C5

OEB LAM Chapter 1

◄ LAM 1 ► ║ ©

1 Alas! How lonely the city

Once crowded with people.

She that was great among nations

Is now as a widow.

She that was queen of the provinces

Now is a vassal.

2 Sore, sore she weeps in the night;

There are tears on her cheecks.

Now there is no one to comfort

Of all those that loved her.

All her friends have proved faithless,

And turned to be foes.

3 From sorrow and toil into exile

Hath Judah departed;

And now is her home with the hearthen,

And no rest she findeth.

In the midst of her straits her pursuers

Have all overtaken her.

4 The highways to Zion lie mourning,

For pilgrims are none.

All desolate now are her gates,

And her priest are in sorrow.

Her virgins are dragged away far;

She herself is in bitterness.

5 Supreme her foes are now,

And her enemies triumph.

The Lord hath afflicted her sore

For her manifold sins.

Gone are her little once captive

In front of the foe.

6 The glory is vanished clean

From the daughter of Zion.

Her princes are like unto harts

That can nowhere find pasture;

All feeble they move on their way

With pursuers behind them.

7 Jerusalem calleth to mind

The days of her travail,

When into the hands of the foemen

Her people fell helpless.

The mocking foe feasted his eyes

On her sore desolation.

8 Jerusalem hath grievously sinned,

And so she hath fallen.

All they that honoured despise her

At sight of her nakedness.

She meanwhile groaneth and moaneth

And turneth her backward.

9 Her filthiness clung to her skirts;

She became all abhorrent.

To the future she gave not a thought,

So her fall was appalling.

Behold, O Lord, what I suffer

From the insolent foe.

10 The foeman hath stretched out his hand

To secure all her treasures.

The hearthen she saw enter in

And her temple profane–

Even those Thou forbadest to mix

With Thine own congregation.

11 Her people all groan and moan

In their search after bread.

They have given away their treasures

For food to revive them.

Behold, O Jehovah, and see

How abject am I.

12 All ye that pass by, I appeal to you,

Look ye and see;

Has there ever been sorrow like mine,

Like that dealt out to me,

When the Lord, in His fierce indignation,

Did put me to grief?

13 He hurled down fire from on high;

It hath entered my bones.

A net He hath spread for my feet;

He hath turned me backward.

Faint He hath left me and desolate

All the day long.

14 A watch He hath kept on my sins;

And into a yoke

For my neck with His hands He hath twined them.

Then, crippling my strength,

He hath given me into the hands

Of a foe irresistible.

15 The Lord hath hurled to the ground

All the strong men within me.

He hath summoned a festal assembly

To crush my young (warriors).

The Lord in His wine-press hath trodden

The daughter of Judah.

16 For these things I weep without creasing;

Mine eyes stream with tears;

For none have I now by my side

To refresh me and comfort me.

My children are clean distraught,

For the foe hath prevailed.

17 Zion hath stretched forth her hands;

There is no one to comfort her.

On her neighbours the Lord laid a charge

To be hostile to Jacob;

And now is Jerusalem vile

And abhorrent among them.

18 As for the Lord, He is just;

For the rebel was I.

Ye peoples all, hear, I entreat you,

And look on my sorrow.

Together my maidens and youths

Are gone into captivity.

19 I called upon those that had loved me,

But they have deceived me.

In the city my priest and mine elders

Have perished of hunger.

For the bread they searched in their need,

But their search was in vain.

20 Look, Lord, for distress is upon me,

And ferment within me.

Within me my heart writhes with pain,

That, for playing the rebel,

The sword dealeth death in the streets,

In the houses the pestilence.

21 Listen to these my sighs;

There is no one to comfort me.

My foes have all heard with delight

Of the evil Thou wroughtest me,

Bringing the day Thou proclaimedst

For all of my sins.

22 Let their wickedness all come before Thee;

Let them fare like me;

And do even so unto them

As Thou didst unto me.

For my sighs are many and many,

And sore is my heart.

Lament over the Sorrows of Jerusalem

The Divine Judgment and the Inconsolable Sorrow

◄ LAM 1 ► ║ ©

LAM C1 C2 C3 C4 C5