¹How the city which was so populous

Remains alone and has become like a widow!

She who was great among the nations

– A princess among the states –

Has become tribute-paying.

²She weeps and weeps at night,

And her tears are on her cheeks.

She has no-one comforting her among all her lovers.

All her friends have betrayed her;

They have become her enemies.

³Judah has gone into exile

In affliction and in severe enslavement.

She dwells among the Gentiles;

She has not found rest.

All those who pursue her have caught up with her,

Putting her in straits.

⁴The roads of Zion mourn

For want of any coming to the festival.

All her gates are desolate,

Her priests sigh,

Her virgins grieve

– And it is bitter to her.

⁵Her adversaries have become the head,

Her enemies prosper,

For the Lord has afflicted her

Because of the large number of her transgressions.

Her young children have gone into captivity

In front of the adversary.

⁶And all her splendour has departed from the daughter of Zion,

And her princes, who were like deer,

Did not find pasture,

And they went powerlessly in front of the pursuer.

⁷Jerusalem remembered in the days of her affliction and her wanderings

All her valuable objects

Which she had in the old days,

When her people fell into the hand of the adversary,

And there was no-one to help her.

The adversaries saw her

And mocked her demise.

⁸Jerusalem has committed a sin,

Which is why she has become displaced.

All those who honoured her disparage her,

For they have seen her nakedness,

As she herself sighs and turns back.

⁹Her uncleanness is in her skirts;

She is not mindful of her final state,

And she has plummeted astonishingly.

There is no-one comforting her.

O Lord, look at my affliction,

For the enemy has become powerful.

¹⁰The adversary has spread his hand over all her valuable objects,

For she has seen how the Gentiles have entered her sanctuary,

Whereas you commanded

That they should not come into your convocation.

¹¹All her people sigh and seek bread.

They have given their desirable objects in exchange for food

To refresh themselves.

O Lord, look and see,

For I have become contemptible.

¹²Is it not of concern to you,

All you who pass by the way?

Look and see if there is any grief like my grief

Which has been dealt out to me,

Because the Lord has afflicted me

On the day of his furious anger.

¹³He has sent fire into my bones from above,

And it has subdued them.

He has spread a net for my feet,

He has turned me back;

He has made me desolate,

And ailing all day long.

¹⁴The yoke of my transgressions has been fastened by his hand.

They are intertwined,

They have come on my neck;

He has made my strength falter.

The Lord^* has delivered me into the hands

Of those from whom I cannot get up.

¹⁵The Lord^* has removed all my valiant men within my confines.

He has called an assembly against me

To crush my youths.

The Lord^* has trodden the wine press,

Which is the virgin daughter of Judah.

¹⁶Over these things I weep.

My eye, my eye is running with water,

For the comforter is far from me,

Who would refresh my being.

My sons have become devastated,

For the enemy has prevailed.

¹⁷Zion has spread out her hands;

She has no comforter.

The Lord has commanded concerning Jacob,

“Let his adversaries be round about him”,

And Jerusalem has become an unclean woman among them.

¹⁸The Lord is righteous,

For I have rebelled against his word.

Hear now, all you nations,

And look at my grief –

My virgins and my young men have gone into captivity.

¹⁹I called on my lovers,

But they have been treacherous to me.

My priests and my elders in the city expired

When they sought food for themselves

To revive themselves.

²⁰O Lord, see how I am in straits.

My innards are turbulent;

My heart is overturned inside me,

For I have rebelled badly.

Outside the sword has bereaved me;

Inside it is deathly.

²¹They have heard that I am sighing

– That I have no comforter.

All my enemies have heard of my misfortune;

They rejoice because you have done this,

But you will bring about the day which you have proclaimed,

And they will become like me.

²²Let all their wickedness come before you,

And treat them severely as you have treated me severely

For all my transgressions.

For my sighs are many,

And my heart is ailing.