Lamentations of Jeremiah

Chapter 1

1 And it came to pass, after Israel had been taken captive and Jerusalem laid waste, that Jeremiah sat weeping and lamented this lamentation over Jerusalem and said: How does the city sit solitary, she that was full of peoples? She has become as a widow, she that was great among the nations; she that was a ruler among the provinces has become tributary.

2 Weeping she wept in the night, and her tears are upon her cheeks, and there is none to comfort her of all who love her; all her friends have dealt treacherously with her, they have become her enemies.

3 Judea has been carried away captive because of her humiliation and because of the multitude of her servitude; she dwells among the nations, she has found no rest; all her pursuers have overtaken her in the midst of those who afflict her.

4 The ways of Zion mourn, because there are none who come to the feast; all her gates are destroyed, her priests groan, her virgins are led away, and she herself is embittered within herself.

5 Those who afflict her have become the head, and her enemies prosper, for the Lord has humbled her because of the multitude of her ungodly deeds; her infants have gone into captivity before the face of the afflicter.

6 And all her beauty has gone out from the daughter of Zion; her princes have become like rams that find no pasture, and they went without strength before the face of the pursuer.

7 Jerusalem remembered the days of her humiliation and her rejections, all her desirable things that were from the days of old, when her people fell into the hands of the afflicter and there was none to help her; her enemies saw and laughed at her removal.

8 Jerusalem has sinned a sin; therefore she has become a wandering; all who honored her have humbled her, for they have seen her shame; and she herself groans and has turned backward.

9 Her uncleanness is at her feet; she did not remember her end; and she has come down astonishingly, there is none to comfort her. Behold, O Lord, my humiliation, for the enemy has been magnified.

10 The afflicter has stretched out his hand upon all her desirable things; for she has seen nations entering into her sanctuary—those whom you commanded should not enter into your assembly.

11 All her people groan, seeking bread; they have given her desirable things for food, to restore the soul. Behold, O Lord, and look, for I have become dishonored.

12 Is it nothing to you, all you who pass along the way? Turn and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow, which has come upon me; the Lord, speaking against me, has humbled me in the day of the wrath of his anger.

13 From his height he sent fire; he brought it down into my bones; he spread a net for my feet; he turned me backward; he has made me desolate, in pain all the day.

14 Watch has been kept over my ungodly deeds; they were entwined in my hands; they came up upon my neck; my strength has failed, for the Lord has put pains into my hands; I shall not be able to stand.

15 The Lord has removed all my mighty ones from my midst; he has called against me a time to crush my chosen ones; the Lord has trodden a winepress for the virgin daughter of Judah; over these things I weep.

16 My eye has brought down water, for he who comforts me, who restores my soul, has been removed far from me; my sons have become desolate, for the enemy has prevailed.

17 Zion has spread out her hands; there is none to comfort her; the Lord has commanded concerning Jacob; those who afflict him are round about him; Jerusalem has become as one set apart in their midst.

18 The Lord is righteous, for I have embittered his mouth. Hear now, all you peoples, and see my sorrow: my virgins and my young men have gone into captivity.

19 I called my lovers, but they deceived me; my priests and my elders failed in the city, for they sought food for themselves to restore their souls, and found none.

20 Behold, O Lord, for I am afflicted; my belly is troubled, and my heart is turned within me, for provoking I have provoked; outside the sword has bereaved me of children, as death does within the house.

21 Hear now that I groan; there is none to comfort me; all my enemies have heard of my troubles and rejoiced, for you have done it; you have brought on the day, you have called the time, and they have become like me.

22 May all their wickedness come before your face; and glean them, as they made a gleaning for all my sins; for many are my groanings, and my heart is grieved.

Chapter 2

1 How has the Lord in his anger covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud! He has cast down from heaven to earth the glory of Israel, and did not remember his footstool in the day of his anger.

2 The Lord has drowned, without sparing, all the beautiful things of Jacob; he has torn down in his wrath the strongholds of the daughter of Judah; he has brought them down to the ground; he has profaned her king and her rulers.

3 He has broken in the anger of his wrath every horn of Israel; he has turned back his right hand from before the enemy, and has kindled in Jacob a flame like fire, and it has devoured everything round about.

4 He has bent his bow like an enemy; he has made firm his right hand like an adversary, and has slain all that was desirable to my eyes in the tent of the daughter of Zion; he has poured out his wrath like fire.

5 The Lord has become like an enemy; he has drowned Israel; he has drowned all her palaces; he has destroyed his strongholds, and has multiplied for the daughter of Judah her that is humbled and brought low.

6 And he has spread abroad his dwelling like a vine; he has destroyed his feast. The Lord has forgotten what he made in Zion, feast and sabbath, and in the indignation of his anger he has provoked king and priest and ruler.

7 The Lord has cast off his altar; he has shaken off his sanctuary; he has broken with the hand of the enemy the wall of her palaces; they gave voice in the house of the Lord as on a feast day.

8 And the Lord turned to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion; he stretched out the measuring line; he did not turn back his hand from trampling, and the rampart mourned, and the wall grew weak together with it.

9 Her gates are sunk into the ground; he has destroyed and shattered her bars; her king and her rulers are among the nations; there is no law, and indeed her prophets have seen no vision from the Lord.

10 The elders of the daughter of Zion have sat upon the ground; they have kept silence; they have cast dust upon their heads; they have girded themselves with sackcloth; they have brought down to the ground the leading maidens in Jerusalem.

11 My eyes have failed with tears; my heart is troubled; my glory is poured out upon the ground because of the destruction of the daughter of my people, as infant and suckling faint in the streets of the city.

12 They said to their mothers, Where is grain and wine? — as they fainted like wounded men in the streets of the city, as their souls were poured out into the bosom of their mothers.

13 What shall I testify to you, or to what shall I liken you, O daughter of Jerusalem? Who shall save you and comfort you, O virgin daughter of Zion? For the cup of your destruction has been made great; who shall heal you?

14 Your prophets have seen for you vain and foolish things, and have not laid bare your iniquity, to turn back your captivity; and they have seen for you vain burdens and expulsions.

15 All who pass along the way have clapped their hands at you; they have hissed and shaken their heads at the daughter of Jerusalem: Is this the city, of which they say, A crown of glory, the joy of all the earth?

16 All your enemies have opened their mouth against you; they have hissed and gnashed their teeth; they said, We have swallowed her down; surely this is the day we were waiting for; we have found it, we have seen it.

17 The Lord has done what he purposed; he has fulfilled his words which he commanded from days of old; he has torn down and has not spared; and he has made the enemy rejoice over you; he has exalted the horn of him who afflicts you.

18 Their heart cried out to the Lord: O walls of Zion, bring down tears like torrents day and night; give yourself no relief; let not your eye be silent, O daughter.

19 Arise, cry aloud in the night at the beginning of your watch; pour out your heart like water before the face of the Lord; lift up your hands to him for the life of your infants who faint from hunger at the head of all the streets.

20 See, O Lord, and behold on whom you have thus gleaned. Shall women eat the fruit of their womb? A cook has made a gleaning. Shall infants sucking the breast be slain? Will you kill priest and prophet in the sanctuary of the Lord?

21 Child and old man have lain down in the street; my virgins and my young men have gone into captivity; you have slain with the sword and with famine; in the day of your anger you have butchered; you have not spared.

22 He has called, as for a feast day, my terrors from round about, and in the day of the Lord's anger there was none who escaped or was left, whereas I had prevailed over and multiplied all my enemies.

Chapter 3

1 I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath upon me.

2 He took me and led me away into darkness and not light;

3 only against me has he turned his hand all the day.

4 He has worn away my flesh and my skin; he has broken my bones.

5 He has built against me and encircled my head and wearied it;

6 he has made me sit in dark places like the dead of old.

7 He has built up against me, and I shall not go out; he has made heavy my bronze fetters.

8 Even when I cry out and shout, he has shut out my prayer;

9 he has walled up my ways, blocked my paths, thrown them into confusion.

10 He is to me a bear lying in wait, a lion in hidden places;

11 he pursued me as I turned aside and brought me to a halt; he made me desolate.

12 He bent his bow and set me up as a target for the arrow.

13 He drove into my kidneys the shafts of his quiver;

14 I have become a laughingstock to all my people, their song all the day.

15 He filled me with bitterness; he made me drunk with gall.

16 And he broke out my teeth with gravel; he fed me with ashes;

17 and he thrust my soul away from peace; I forgot good things,

18 and I said, My victory has perished, and my hope from the Lord.

19 I remembered my affliction, and from my persecution my bitterness and my gall;

20 my soul will remember and brood over me;

21 this I will lay up in my heart; therefore I will endure.

25 The Lord is good to those who wait for him, good to the soul that will seek him,

26 and it will wait and be quiet for the salvation of the Lord.

27 It is good for a man when he bears a yoke in his youth.

28 He will sit alone and keep silence, because he has taken it upon himself;

30 he will offer his cheek to the one who strikes him; he will be filled with reproaches.

31 For the Lord will not cast off forever;

32 for he who has humbled will have compassion according to the abundance of his mercy;

33 for he has not answered from his heart, nor humbled the sons of man.

34 To crush under his feet all the prisoners of the earth,

35 to turn aside the judgment of a man before the face of the Most High,

36 to condemn a man in his lawsuit—the Lord has not spoken.

37 Who has spoken thus, and it came to pass? The Lord has not commanded it.

38 From the mouth of the Most High shall not both evils and good come forth?

39 Why should a living man complain, a man concerning his sin?

40 Our way has been searched out and examined; let us turn back to the Lord;

41 let us lift up our hearts upon our hands to the exalted one in heaven.

42 We have sinned, we have acted impiously, and you have not been appeased.

43 You covered yourself in wrath and drove us away; you killed, you did not spare.

44 You covered yourself with a cloud because of prayer,

45 so that I might close my eyes and be cast off; you set us in the midst of the peoples.

46 All our enemies have opened wide their mouths against us;

47 fear and wrath have come upon us, uplifting and destruction;

48 my eye will pour down streams of water at the destruction of the daughter of my people.

49 My eye has been swallowed up, and I will not be silent, so that there is no respite,

50 until the Lord stoops down and looks from heaven;

51 my eye will glean upon my soul beyond all the daughters of the city.

52 My enemies hunted me relentlessly like a bird, without cause;

53 they put my life to death in a pit and laid a stone upon me;

54 water flowed over my head; I said, I am cast off.

55 I called upon your name, O Lord, from the lowest pit;

56 you heard my voice: Do not hide your ears from my petition.

57 You drew near to my help on the day when I called on you; you said to me, Do not fear.

58 You pleaded, O Lord, the causes of my soul; you redeemed my life;

59 you saw, O Lord, my troubles; you judged my case;

60 you saw all their vengeance, all their designs against me.

61 You heard their reproach, all their designs against me,

62 the lips of those who rise up against me, and their plottings against me all the day,

63 their sitting down and their rising up—look upon their eyes.

64 You will render to them a recompense, O Lord, according to the works of their hands;

65 you will render to them a covering of heart, your toil upon them;

66 you will pursue them in anger and destroy them from under heaven, O Lord.

Chapter 4

1 How the gold has grown dim, how the good silver has changed! The holy stones are poured out at the head of every street.

2 The precious sons of Zion, exalted with gold, how they have been reckoned as earthen vessels, the works of a potter's hands!

3 Even the serpents bared their breasts; their young sucked. The daughters of my people are become incurable, like a sparrow in the wilderness.

4 The tongue of the suckling clung to its throat in thirst; infants asked for bread, and there is no one to break it for them.

5 Those who ate delicacies have perished in the streets; those who were nursed in scarlet have clothed themselves with dunghills.

6 And the lawlessness of the daughter of my people has been magnified beyond the lawlessness of Sodom, which was overthrown as in a moment, and no hands were wearied in her.

7 Her Nazirites were made purer than snow; they shone whiter than milk; their form was ruddier than sapphire stones.

8 Their appearance has become darker than soot; they were not recognized in the streets. Their skin has cleaved to their bones; they are withered, they have become like wood.

9 Better off were those slain by the sword than those slain by famine; they went off pierced through, for lack of the produce of the fields.

10 The hands of compassionate women have boiled their own children; they became food for them in the destruction of the daughter of my people.

11 The Lord has accomplished his wrath; he has poured out the fury of his anger and has kindled a fire in Zion, and it has devoured her foundations.

12 The kings of the earth did not believe, nor all who dwell in the world, that an enemy and oppressor would enter through the gates of Jerusalem.

13 Because of the sins of her prophets, the iniquities of her priests, who shed righteous blood in her midst.

14 Her watchmen staggered in the streets; they were defiled with blood; in their helplessness they touched their garments.

15 "Depart from the unclean"—call to them—"depart, depart, do not touch," for they were kindled and indeed staggered. Say among the nations: "They shall no longer continue to sojourn."

16 The face of the Lord is their portion; he will no longer look upon them. They did not respect the persons of the priests; they showed no mercy to the elders.

17 While we still existed, our eyes failed, looking in vain for our help; in our watching we watched for a nation that could not save.

18 We hunted our little ones, so that they could not walk in our streets. Our time has drawn near; our days are fulfilled; our time has come.

19 Those who pursued us were swifter than the eagles of the sky; they blazed upon the mountains; they lay in wait for us in the wilderness.

20 The breath of our face, the Lord's anointed, was taken in their corruptions—he of whom we said, "In his shadow we shall live among the nations."

21 Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Idumea, who dwells in the land; upon you also the cup of the Lord shall pass, and you shall become drunk and pour it out.

22 Your lawlessness has come to an end, O daughter of Zion; he will no longer carry you into exile. He has visited your lawlessness, O daughter of Edom; he has uncovered your impieties.

Chapter 5

1 Remember, O Lord, what has happened to us; look upon us and see our reproach.

2 Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers, our houses to foreigners.

3 We have become orphans; there is no father; our mothers are like widows.

4 From our days our wood has come at a price of exchange.

5 We were pursued upon our neck; we toiled, we were given no rest.

6 Egypt gave a hand, Assyria, for their fill.

7 Our fathers sinned; they are no more; we have borne their iniquities.

8 Slaves have ruled over us; there is no one to redeem us from their hand.

9 At the risk of our lives we shall bring in our bread, because of the sword of the wilderness.

10 Our skin has grown black as an oven; they were shriveled because of the storms of famine.

11 They humiliated women in Zion, virgins in the cities of Judah.

12 Rulers were hanged by their hands; elders were not honored.

13 Chosen men took up weeping, and young men grew weak under the wood.

14 And the elders ceased from the gate, the chosen from their songs.

15 The joy of our heart has ceased; our dance has been turned into mourning.

16 The crown has fallen from our head; woe indeed to us, for we have sinned.

17 Because of this our heart has become sorrowful; because of this our eyes have grown dark—

18 for Mount Zion, because it has been laid waste; foxes have passed through it.

19 But you, O Lord, will dwell forever; your throne endures from generation to generation.

20 Why will you forget us forever, forsake us for length of days?

21 Turn us back to yourself, O Lord, and we shall be turned; and renew our days as before.

22 For you have utterly rejected us; you have been exceedingly angry with us.