Lam 1 | LSB | STEP | Aleph How lonely sits the city That was great with people! She has become like a widow Who was once great among the nations! She who was a princess among the provinces Has become a forced laborer!

Lamentations 1

Zion Lays Desolate

Aleph

1 How lonely sits the city
That was great with people!
She has become like a widow
Who was once great among the nations!
She who was a princess among the ^{▼▼Or districts}provinces
Has become a forced laborer!
Beth

2 She weeps bitterly in the night,
And her tears are on her cheeks;
She has none to comfort her
Among all her lovers.
All her friends have dealt treacherously with her;
They have become her enemies.
Gimel

3 Judah has gone into exile because of affliction
And because of great slavery;
She sits among the nations,
But she has found no rest;
All her pursuers have overtaken her
In the midst of ^{▼▼Or narrow places}distress.
Daleth

4 The roads ^{▼▼Or to}of Zion are in mourning
Because no one comes to the appointed times.
All her gates are desolate;
Her priests are sighing,
Her virgins are grieving,
And she herself ^{▼▼Or suffers bitterly}is bitter.
He

5 Her adversaries have become ^{▼▼Lit head}her masters;
Her enemies are complacent;
For ^{▼▼The personal covenant name of God, a form of I AM WHO I AM, cf. Ex 3:14-15}Yahweh has caused her grief
Because of the greatness of her transgressions;
Her infants have gone away
As captives before the adversary.
Vav

6 So all her majesty
Has gone out from the daughter of Zion;
Her princes have become like deer
That have found no pasture;
So they have ^{▼▼Lit gone}fled without strength
Before the pursuer.
Zayin

7 In the days of her affliction and homelessness
Jerusalem remembers all her precious things
That were from the days of old,
When her people fell into the hand of the adversary
And no one helped her.
The adversaries saw her;
They laughed at her ^{▼▼Lit cessation}ruin.
Heth

8 Jerusalem sinned greatly;
Therefore she has become an impure thing.
All who honored her despise her
Because they have seen her nakedness;
Even she herself sighs and turns away.
Teth

9 Her uncleanness was in her skirts;
She did not remember her future.
Therefore she has gone down astonishingly;
She has no comforter.
“See, O Yahweh, my affliction,
For the enemy has magnified himself!”
Yodh

10 The adversary has stretched out his hand
Over all her desirable things,
For she has seen the nations enter her sanctuary,
The ones whom You commanded
That they should not enter into Your assembly.
Kaph

11 All her people are sighing, seeking bread;
They have given their desirable things for food
To restore their souls.
“See, O Yahweh, and look,
For I am despised.”
Lamedh

12 “Is it nothing to all you who pass this way?
Look and see if there is any ^{▼▼Or sorrow}pain like my ^{▼▼Or sorrow}pain
Which was dealt severely to me,
Which Yahweh grieved me with on the day of His burning anger.
Mem

13 “From on high He sent fire into my bones,
And it dominated them.
He has spread a net for my feet;
He has turned me back;
He has made me desolate,
^{▼▼ Or Sick}Faint all day long.
Nun

14 “The yoke of my transgressions is bound;
By His hand they are knit together.
They have come upon my neck;
He has made my strength stumble.
The Lord has given me into the hands
Of those against whom I am not able to stand.
Samekh

15 “The Lord has rejected all my mighty men
In my midst;
He has called an appointed time against me
To break my young men;
The Lord has trodden as in a wine press
The virgin daughter of Judah.
Ayin

16 “For these things I am weeping;
^{▼▼ Lit My eye, my eye}My eyes run down with water;
Because far from me is a comforter,
One who restores my soul.
My children are desolate
Because the enemy has prevailed.”
Pe

17 Zion stretches out her hands;
There is no one to comfort her;
Yahweh has commanded concerning Jacob
That the ones round about him should be his adversaries;
Jerusalem has become an impure thing among them.
Tsadhe

18 “Yahweh is righteous;
For I have rebelled against His ^{▼▼Lit mouth}command;
Hear now, all peoples,
And behold my ^{▼▼Or sorrow}pain;
My virgins and my young men
Have gone into captivity.
Qoph

19 “I called to my lovers, but they deceived me;
My priests and my elders breathed their last in the city
While they sought food for themselves in order to restore their souls.
Resh

20 “See, O Yahweh, for I am in distress;
My ^{▼▼Lit inward parts are in ferment}inmost being is greatly disturbed;
My heart is overturned within me,
For I have been very rebellious.
In the street the sword bereaves;
In the house it is like death.
Shin

21 “They have heard that I am sighing;
There is no one to comfort me;
All my enemies have heard of the ^{▼▼Or calamity}evil done to me;
They rejoice that You have done it.
You have brought the day which You have proclaimed,
So that they will become like me.
Tav

22 “Let all their evil come before You;
And deal severely with them as You have dealt severely with me
For all my transgressions;
For my groans are great and my heart is faint.”