1 א (Alef)

1 Oh dear, how she sits alone, that city, a mighty people.

Once powerful among the nations, she’s become like a widow.

≈From being a princess among the provinces, she became a slave.

ב (Beyt)

2 She weeps excessively in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks.

Despite having many lovers, no one brings her comfort.

≈All her friends betrayed her—they’ve become her enemies instead.

ג (Gimel)

3 Yehudah (Judah) is exiled and made to experience suffering and harsh slavery.

She sits among the nations but finds no rest.

All who pursue her, overtake her in the midst of distress.

ד (Dalet)

4 The roads of Tsiyyon (Zion) mourn—no one’s coming to the scheduled festivals.

All her gates are desolate. Her priests are groaning.

Her young women are grieving and she makes herself bitter.

ה (He)

5 Her enemies have become her masters—her enemies prosper

because Yahweh has made her suffer due to her frequent disobedience.

Her children get taken away as captives by the enemy.

ו (Vav)

6 All her splendour was sent out from the daughter that’s Tsiyyon.

Her leaders have become like deer—they can’t find a pasture

so they have very little strength as they flee from the pursuer.

ז (Zayin)

7 Yerushalem remembers the days of her suffering and her homelessness,

all her treasures which were from former days.

When her people fell into the hand of the enemy and there was no one to help her,

her enemies saw her—they laughed over her destruction.

ח (Het)

8 Yerushalem disobeyed terribly, therefore, she became filth.

All her glory is scorned, because they’ve seen her nakedness.

Again, she groans and turns away.

ט (Tet)

9 Her uncleanness is in her skirt.

She didn’t remember her end and her descent was marvellous.

There wasn’t any comforter for her.

“Oh, Yahweh, see my suffering, because the enemy is powerful.”

י (Yod)

10 The enemy spread his hand over all her treasures.

So, she saw the nations; they entered her sanctuary—

those who you had forbidden to enter into your gathering place.

כ (Kaf)

11 All her people are groaning, searching for bread.

They give their treasures to restore life with food.

“O, Yahweh, look and see, for I have become worthless.

ל (Lamed)

12 Is it nothing to you, all those going past on the road?

Look and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow, which has been forced on me,

which Yahweh inflicted on the day of his fierce anger.

מ (Mem)

13 He sent fire dwon from on high into my bones.

He spread a net for my feet and turned me away.

He made me desolate—feeling faint every day.

נ (Nun)

14 The yoke of my disobedience is bound.

With his hand it’s assembled together and placed on my neck.

My strength is gone so now I stumble.

My master arranged for me to be captured and I couldn’t defend myself.

ס (Samek)

15 My master has rejected all my mighty warriors protecting me.

He has told us exaxtly when he plans to destroy my young men.

My master has stomped on the grapes for Yehudah’s virgin daughter.

ע (Ayin)

16 As a result of those things, I weep.

My eyes, oh dear, my eyes overflow with water

because the comforter is far from me—one who restores my life.

My sons have become desolate, because the enemy is made mighty.”

פ (Pe)

17 Tsiyyon has spread her hands wide—there is no comforter for her.

Yahweh commanded that those surrounding Yakov become his enemies.

Yerushalem has become filth in the middle of them.

צ (Tsade)

18 “Yahweh is surely righteous, but I disobeyed his command.

Hear, all peoples, and see my sorrow.

My young men and women have been taken into captivity.

ק (Qof)

19 I called to my lovers but they deceived me.

My priests and my elders perished in the city,

while they searched for food to stay alive.

ר (Resh)

20 Look, O Yahweh, because I’m engulfed—my stomach churns.

My heart is undone within me, because I’ve disobeyed grievously.

Out in the street, the sword bereaves.

Inside the house, there’s death.

ש (Sin/Shin)

21 Take notice because I’m groaning.

There’s no comforter for me.

All my enemies heard my trouble—they rejoiced that you did it.

You brought about the day of punishment that you declared,

yet may those persecutors become like me.

ת (Tav)

22 May all their evil be noticed by you,

and deal with them just as you have dealt with me because of all my disobedience,

because my groans are many and my heart is faint.”

2 א (Alef)

2 Oh dear, how my master engulfed the daughter that’s Tsiyyon in his anger.

He’s thrown Yisrael’s splendour down from heaven to earth.

And he hasn’t remembered the footstool of his feet on the day of his anger.

ב (Beyt)

2 My master devoured—he didn’t show compassion on all the pastures of Yakov.

In his fury, he knocked down the fortifications of the daughter of Yehudah.

He struck the earth with disgrace—the kingdom and its leaders.

ג (Gimel)

3 With fierce anger he cut off all of Yisrael’s power.

He stopped using his strength to protect her from the enemy.

And he has burned Yakov—it consumed the surroundings like a fire.

ד (Dalet)

4 He’s bent his bow like an enemy.

His sword hand is posed like an adversary.

And he has slain all those precious to the eye in the tent of the daughter that’s Tsiyyon.

He has poured out his rage like fire.

ה (He)

5 My master has become like an enemy—he’s swallowed up Yisrael.

He has swallowed up all her palaces—he’s destroyed its fortifications.

And he has multiplied mourning and lamentation within the daughter of Yehudah.

ו (Vav)

6 And he was violent with his garden tabernacle—he ruined his appointed place.

Yahweh has caused the appointed festival and Sabbath to be forgotten in Tsiyyon.

And he has despised the king and priest in his indignant anger.

ז (Zayin)

7 My master has rejected his altar—he abandoned his sanctuary.

He has allowed the enemy to enter via the walls of her palaces.

They raised a shout in Yahweh’s house, like on an appointed festival day.

ח (Het)

8 Yahweh planned to destroy the wall of the daughter that’s Tsiyyon.

He stretched out the measuring line.

He didn’t withhold his hand from devouring,

and he’s brought the ramparts and wall to mourning. Together they wasted away.

י (Yod)

9 Her gates sank into the ground.

He has destroyed and shattered their locking bars.

Her king and her leaders are among the nations. There’s no law.

Also, her prophets don’t receive any visions from Yahweh.

י (Yod)

10 They sit on the ground.

The elders of the daughter that’s Tsiyyon are silenced.

They have thrown up dust on their heads and put on sackcloth.

Yerushalem’s young women have bowed their heads to the ground.

כ (Kaf)

11 My eyes have failed with tears.

My stomach churns.

My inner parts are poured out to the ground, because of the destruction of the daughter of my people,

when child and infant faint in the streets of the town.

ל (Lamed)

12 They ask their mothers, “Where’s our food and drink?”

when they faint like the slain in the streets of the city,

when they die slowly in their mothers’ laps.

מ (Mem)

13 What can I testify to you?

To what can I compare you, daughter of Yerushalem?

To what can I liken you, that I may comfort you, virgin daughter that’s Tsiyyon?

For your brokenness is as great as the sea.

Who can heal you?

נ (Nun)

14 Your prophets have ‘seen’ false and worthless visions for you,

and they didn’t expose your disobedience, to restore your fortunes,

but they have ‘received’ false and enticing messages for you.

ס (Samek)

15 All those passing on the road clap their hands at you.

They hiss and shake their heads at the daughter of Yerushalem.

“Is this the city that they called ‘the fullness of beauty that makes the whole world happy’?”

ע (Ayin)

16 All your enemies spoke out against you.

They hiss and grind their teeth.

They say, “We have devoured.

Surely this is the time we’d longed for.

We have found, we have seen.

פ (Pe)

17 Yahweh has done what he planned to finish.

His word, which he commanded from days before, he has overthrown and showed no compassion.

And the enemy rejoiced over you.

He has enabled your enemies to get stronger.

צ (Tsade)

18 Their heart cried out to my master,

“You walls of the daughter that’s Tsiyyon.”

Like a tearful river, let your tears flow down day and night.

Don’t allow yourself any relief from it.

Don’t rest your eyes from the tears.

ק (Qof)

19 Arise, shout in the night at the beginning of the night watches.

Pour out your heart like water in front of my master.

Lift up your hands to him for the life of your children who’re fainting with hunger at the end of every street.”

ר (Resh)

20 Look, Yahweh, and see those you have dealt with in this way.

Should women eat their own newborn children?

Should priests and prophets be slaughtered in my master’s sanctuary?

ש (Sin/Shin)

21 The young and the old lie down in the dirt in the streets.

My young men and women have fallen by the sword.

You’ve had them struck down—at the time of your anger you slaughtered.

You showed no compassion.

ת (Tav)

22 You’ve summoned terrors to surround me like summoning people to a festival day,

and there wasn’t anyone who escaped or survived on the day of Yahweh’s anger.

Those who I birthed and multiplied, my enemy has ended.

3 א (Alef)

3 I am the man made to suffer from the rod of his fury.

2 He led me and took me into darkness—not light.

3 He certainly turned against me—he put the screws on me all day.

ב (Beyt)

4 He made my skin and my flesh waste away.

He shattered my bones.

5 He built a ramp up against me

and besieged me with bitterness and hardship.

6 He makes me live in darkness

like the dead of long ago.

ג (Gimel)

7 He built a wall around me so I can’t escape.

He made my chains heavy.

8 Even though I call out and cry for help,

he shuts out my prayer.

9 He made roadblocks with large cut stones.

≈He made it difficult to get anywhere.

ד (Dalet)

10 He’s a bear lying in wait for me—

a lion hiding ready to attack.

11 He obstructed my paths and tore me apart.

He’s isolated me.

12 He bent his bow back

and set me up like a target for an arrow.

ה (He)

13 He pierced my kidneys

with the arrows from his quiver.

14 I became a joke to all the people groups—

the one they mocked all day long.

15 He filled me with bitterness.

He stuffed me with bitter herbs.

ו (Vav)

16 He made my teeth grind with gravel.

He made me cower in the dust.

17 Now I can’t find any inner peace.

I’ve forgotten what prosperity is.

18 Then I said, “My endurance has come to an end,

as has my hope in Yahweh.”

ז (Zayin)

19 Remember my suffering and my wanderings,

the wormwood and bitterness.

20 It continually remembers

and my insides turn to butter.

21 I bring that to mind,

therefore I have hope.

ח (Het)

22 Yahweh’s loyal commitment doesn’t cease.

His mercy doesn’t end.

23 His loyal commitment and his mercy are new morning by morning.

He is very faithful.

24 “Yahweh is my portion,” I told myself,

“therefore, I’ll place my hope in him.”

ט (Tet)

25 Yahweh is good to those who depend on him—

to anyone sincerely wanting to follow him.

26 It is good to be silent and wait

for Yahweh to rescue us.

27 It’s good for people to experience hardship while they’re young.

י (Yod)

28 A person should sit alone and stay quiet

when they’ve been disciplined by Yahweh.

29 Let him put his mouth in the dust—

perhaps there’s hope.

30 Let him offer his cheek to the person striking him.

Let him be filled with shame.

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