UST GEN EXO LEV NUM DEU JOS JDG RUTH 1 SAM 2 SAM 1 KI 2 KI 1 CHR 2 CHR EZRA NEH EST JOB PSA PROV ECC SNG ISA JER LAM EZE DAN HOS JOEL AMOS OBA YNA MIC NAH HAB ZEP HAG ZEC MAL MAT MARK LUKE YHN ACTs ROM 1 COR 2 COR GAL EPH PHP COL 1 TH 2 TH 1 TIM 2 TIM TIT PHM HEB YAC 1 PET 2 PET 1 YHN 2 YHN 3 YHN YUD REV

LAM C1 C2 C3 C4 C5

UST LAM Chapter 1

◄ LAM 1 ► ║ ═ ©

1 ALEPH

 Jerusalem, the city that was once so full of people,

is now empty and deserted.

It was once the greatest city among all the nations,

but now it is like a widow—alone and without protection.

It was once honored among the provinces like a princess,

but now her people are forced to do slave labor.

BETH

2 Jerusalem’s inhabitants weep and cry bitterly all through the night;

tears run down their cheeks.

None of the nations that loved them

have come to comfort them.

All their allies have turned against them;

they have all become their enemies.

GIMEL

3 Enemies drove the people of Judah out to other countries,

and made them suffer greatly as slaves.

They live among foreign nations,

where they find no peace or rest.

Their enemies caught up with them;

they were trapped and could not escape.

DALETH

4 No one comes to Zion anymore for the sacred festivals,

so the roads to the city are silent and empty.

The city gates stand deserted;

the priests groan in sorrow.

The young women of the city are grieving,

and the whole city is filled with bitterness.

5 Jerusalem’s enemies have become rulers over it;

its adversaries are doing well.

Yahweh has caused it to suffer greatly,

because of all the ways its people sinned against him.

Its children have been taken captive

and marched away before the enemy.

WAW

6 All the glory and beauty that Zion once had

has left it completely.

Its leaders are like deer that are starving

because they cannot find any grass to eat.

They stumble along weakly

with the enemy chasing them.

ZAYIN

7 Now as Jerusalem suffers in exile and misery,

its people remember all the good things that they had in former times.

When the enemy conquered the people,

no one came to help them.

Some enemies watched

and laughed contemptuously as others destroyed the city.

HETH

8 Jerusalem’s people sinned so greatly

that the city became something everyone treated as filthy and defiling.

All those who had honored it now despise it,

because they have seen how shamefully disgraced it has become.

Now its people moan

and humbly hide.

TETH

9 Everyone can see that the people in Jerusalem have made themselves impure by sinning,

but its people never thought about what would happen to them as a result.

The enemy devastated Jerusalem in a terrible way;

no one has come to comfort its people.

They cried out, “Yahweh, see how we are suffering!

The enemy has triumphed over us!”

YODH

10 The enemy took possession of all its precious treasures.

Its people watched as foreign nations entered the temple—

the nations that you, Yahweh, had commanded

to stay out of your holy place.

KAPH

11 All the people groan and search for food.

They have traded their precious things just to get something to eat

so that they can stay alive.

They cried out, “Yahweh, look at us!

See how people treat us contemptuously!”

LAMEDH

12 Jerusalem’s people cried out to those passing by the ruined city,

“Do you not care at all about what has happened to us?

Look around you and see—

has anyone ever suffered as much as we have suffered?

Yahweh inflicted this terrible pain on us

on the day when he was fiercely angry.

MEM

13 He sent fire down from above

that burned deep inside us.

He set a trap that caught our feet

and forced us to turn back.

He left us devastated and abandoned,

exhausted and miserable all day long.

NUN

14 God tied our sins around our necks like a heavy yoke;

they are twisted tightly together so that we cannot remove them.

They are piled onto our necks and weigh us down,

so that we have no strength left.

The Lord handed us over

to enemies we have no power to defeat.

SAMEKH

15 The Lord has despised and rejected all our warriors.

He called our enemies together at the right time

to destroy our young men.

The Lord has crushed the people of Judah

like someone treading on grapes in a winepress.

AYIN

16 These are the things we weep over, weeping without stopping;

our eyes overflow with tears.

There is no one near us to comfort us

or to restore our strength.

Our children have been left with nothing,

because the enemy has overcome us.”

17 Zion’s people reach out their hands, pleading for help,

but no one comes to comfort them.

Yahweh ordered that all the nations surrounding Jacob would become his enemies.

Jerusalem has become something all the neighboring nations treat as defiling and avoid.

TSADHE

18 Jerusalem’s people said, “Yahweh is righteous,

because we disobeyed his commands.

Listen, all you peoples of the world,

and see what great pain we are in.

Our young women and young men

have been taken away as captives.

QOPH

19 We called to our allies for help,

but they completely betrayed us.

Our priests and our elders

died in the city,

while they were desperately searching for food

just to stay alive.

RESH

20 Yahweh, look at how much we are suffering!

Our stomachs churn with anguish;

our hearts are completely devastated within us,

because we have deeply and truly rebelled against you.

In the streets, the sword kills people;

inside the city, people are dying like a plague.

SIN

21 People have heard us groaning in misery,

but no one has come to comfort us.

All our enemies have heard about the disaster that came upon us;

they are glad about it,

because you are the one who brought it.

Bring the day of punishment that you promised,

when they will suffer as we have suffered!

TAW

22 Let all the evil things they have done come to your attention,

and punish them for what they have done.

Treat them the way you treated us

for all the ways we sinned against you.

We are constantly sighing and groaning,

and we grieve greatly.”

LAM C1 C2 C3 C4 C5