BACK
TOP
BOOK
TITLES
lamentations 1:
1How does the city sit solitary, that was full of people!
how is she become as a widow! she who was great among the
nations, and princess among the provinces, how is she become
tributary! 2She weeps sore in the night and her tears are
on her cheeks: among all her lovers she has no one to comfort her:
all her friends have dealt treacherously with her, they have become her enemies.
3Judah is gone into captivity because of affliction and because
of great servitude: she dwells among the heathen, she finds no rest: all
her persecutors overtook her between the straits. 4The ways of
Zion mourn, because no one comes to the solemn feasts: all her gates are
desolate: her priests sigh, her virgins are afflicted and she is
in bitterness. 5Her adversaries are the chief, her enemies prosper;
for the LORD has afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions: her
children are gone into captivity before the enemy. 6And all her
beauty is departed from the daughter of Zion: her princes are become like
harts that find no pasture and they are gone without strength before
the pursuer. 7Jerusalem remembered in the days of her affliction
and of her miseries all her pleasant things that she had in the days of old,
when her people fell into the hand of the enemy and no one helped her: the
adversaries saw her, and mocked at her sabbaths.
8Jerusalem has grievously sinned; therefore she is removed: all
that had honored her despise her, because they have seen her nakedness: yes,
she sighs and turns backward. 9Her filthiness is in her
skirts; she does not remember her last end; therefore she came down wonderfully:
she had no comforter. O LORD, behold my affliction: for the enemy has magnified
himself. 10The adversary has spread out his hand on all
her pleasant things: for she has seen that the heathen entered into
her sanctuary, whom you commanded that they should not enter into
your congregation. 11All her people sigh, they seek bread; they
have given their pleasant things for meat to relieve the soul: see, O LORD
and consider; for I have become vile.
12Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? behold and
see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow, which is done to me, with which
the LORD has afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger.
13 He has sent fire into my bones from above and it prevails against
them: he has spread a net for my feet, he has turned me back: he has made
me desolate and faint all day. 14The yoke of my
transgressions is bound by his hand: they are wreathed, and come
up on my neck: he has made my strength fall, the Lord has delivered me into
their hands, from whom I am not able to rise up.
15The Lord has trodden under foot all my mighty men in
the midst of me: he has called an assembly against me to crush my young men:
the Lord has trodden the virgin, the daughter of Judah, as in a
winepress. 16For these things I weep; my eye, my eye
runs down with water, because the comforter who should relieve my soul is
far from me: my children are desolate, because the enemy prevailed.
17Zion spreads out her hands, and there is no one to
comfort her: the LORD has commanded concerning Jacob, that his
adversaries should be round about him: Jerusalem is as a menstruous
woman among them. 18The LORD is righteous; for I have rebelled
against his commandment: hear, I pray you, all people and behold my sorrow:
my virgins and my young men are gone into captivity. 19I called
for my lovers, but they deceived me: my priests and my elders gave
up the ghost in the city, while they sought their meat to relieve their souls.
20Behold, O LORD; for I am in distress: my inward parts
are troubled; my heart is turned within me; for I have grievously rebelled:
the sword bereaves abroad , at home it is like death.
21They have heard that I sigh: there is no one to comfort
me: all my enemies have heard of my trouble; they are glad that you have
done it: you will bring the day that you have called and
they shall be like me. 22Let all their wickedness come before
you; and do to them, as you have done to me for all my transgressions: for
my sighs are many and my heart is faint.
BACK
TOP
BOOK
TITLES
Chapter 2
1How has the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in
his anger, and cast down the beauty of Israelfrom heaven to the
earth and has not remembered his footstool in the day of his anger!
2The Lord has swallowed up all the habitations of Jacob and has
not pitied: in his anger he has thrown down the strong holds of the daughter
of Judah; he has brought them down to the ground: he has polluted
the kingdom and its princes. 3In his fierce anger he
has cut off all the horn of Israel: he has drawn back his right hand from
before the enemy and he burned against Jacob like a flaming fire,
which devours round about. 4He has bent his bow like
an enemy: he stood with his right hand as an adversary and killed all who
were pleasant to the eye in the tabernacle of the daughter of Zion:
he poured out his fury like fire. 5The Lord was as an enemy: he
has swallowed up Israel, he has swallowed up all her palaces: he has destroyed
his strong holds and has increased mourning and lamentation in the daughter
of Judah. 6And he has violently taken away his tabernacle, as
a garden: he has destroyed his places of assembly: the LORD has caused the
solemn feasts and sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion and has despised the king
and the priest in the indignation of his anger. 7The Lord has
cast off his altar, he has abhorred his sanctuary, he has given up the walls
of her palaces into the hand of the enemy; they have made a noise in the
house of the LORD, as in the day of a solemn feast. 8The LORD
has purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion: he has stretched
out a line, he has not withdrawn his hand from destroying: therefore he made
the rampart and the wall to lament; they languished together. 9Her
gates are sunk into the ground; he has destroyed and broken her bars: her
king and her princes are among the Gentiles: the law is
no more; her prophets also find no vision from the LORD.
10The elders of the daughter of Zion sit on the ground,
and keep silence: they have cast up dust on their heads; they have
girded themselves with sackcloth: the virgins of Jerusalem hang down their
heads to the ground. 11My eyes fail with tears, my inward parts
are troubled, my liver is poured on the earth, for the destruction of the
daughter of my people; because the children and the sucklings swoon in the
streets of the city. 12They say to their mothers, Where
is corn and wine? when they swooned as the wounded in the streets
of the city, when their soul was poured out into their mothers' bosom.
13What thing shall I take to witness for you? what thing shall
I liken to you, O daughter of Jerusalem? what shall I equal to you, that
I may comfort you, O virgin daughter of Zion? for your breach is
great like the sea: who can heal you? 14Thy prophets have seen
vain and foolish things for you: and they have not uncovered your iniquity,
to turn away your captivity; but have seen false burdens and causes of banishment
for you. 15All that pass by clap their hands at you;
they hiss and wag their head at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying, Is
this the city that men call The perfection of beauty, The joy of
the whole earth? 16All your enemies have opened their mouth against
you: they hiss and gnash their teeth: they say, We have swallowed
her up: certainly this is the day that we looked for; we
have found it, we have seen it. 17The LORD has
done that which he had devised; he has fulfilled his word that he
had commanded in the days of old: he has thrown down and has not pitied:
and he has caused your enemy to rejoice over you, he has set up
the horn of your adversaries. 18Their heart cried to the Lord,
O wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears run down like a river day and night:
give yourself no rest; let not the apple of your eye cease.
19Arise, cry out in the night: in the beginning of the watches
pour out your heart like water before the face of the Lord: lift up your
hands toward him for the life of your young children, that faint for hunger
in the top of every street. 20Behold, O LORD and consider to whom
you have done this. Shall the women eat their fruit, and children
they have swaddled? shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary
of the Lord? 21The young and the old lie on the ground in the
streets: my virgins and my young men have fallen by the sword; you have slain
them in the day of your anger; you have killed, and not
pitied. 22You have called as in a solemn day my terrors round
about, so that in the day of the LORD'S anger no one escaped nor remained:
my enemy has consumed those that I have swaddled and brought up.
BACK
TOP
BOOK
TITLES
Chapter 3
1I am the man who has seen affliction by the
rod of his angeer. 2He has led me and brought me into
darkness, but not into light. 3Surely he is turned against
me; he turns his hand against me all the day. 4My flesh
and my skin he has made old; he has broken my bones. 5He has built
against me and compassed me with gall and travail. 6He
has set me in dark places, as those of old. who are dead.
7He has hedged me about, that I cannot get out: he has made my
chain heavy. 8Also when I cry and shout, he shuts out my prayer.
9He has inclosed my ways with hewn stone, he has made my paths
crooked. 10He was to me as a bear lying in wait,
and as a lion in secret places. 11He has turned aside
my ways and pulled me in pieces: he has made me desolate. 12He
has bent his bow and set me as a target for the arrow. 13He has
caused the arrows of his quiver to enter into my reins. 14I was
a derision to all my people; and their song all the day.
15He has filled me with bitterness, he has made me drunk with
wormwood. 16He has also broken my teeth with gravel stones, he
has covered me with ashes. 17And you have removed my soul far
off from peace: I forgot prosperity. 18And I said, My strength
and my hope is perished from the LORD: 19Remembering my affliction
and my misery, the wormwood and the gall. 20My soul has
them still in remembrance and is humbled in me.
21This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope.
22It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed,
because his compassions fail not. 23They are new every
morning: great is your faithfulness. 24The LORD
is my portion, says my soul; therefore I will hope in him.
25The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the
soul who seeks him. 26It is good that a
man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD.
27It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.
28He sits alone and keeps silence, because he has borne
it on him. 29He puts his mouth in the dust; if so be
there may be hope. 30He gives his cheek to him who is
striking him: he is filled full with reproach. 31For the Lord
will not cast off for ever: 32But though he causes grief, yet
he will have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies.
33For he does not willingly afflict nor grieve the children of
men. 34To crush under his feet all the prisoners of the earth,
35To turn aside the right of a man before the face of the most
High, 36 The Lord does not approve of subverting a man in his
cause.
37Who is he who speaks and it comes to pass,
when the Lord does not command it? 38Evil and
good does not proceed out of the mouth of the most High ? 39Why
does a living man complain, a man even for the punishment of his
sins? 40Let us search and try our ways and turn again to the LORD.
41Let us lift up our heart with our hands to God in the
heavens.
42We have transgressed and have rebelled: you have not pardoned.
43You have covered us and persecuted us with anger: you have slain,
you have not pitied. 44You have covered yourself with a cloud,
so that our prayer should not pass through. 45You have
made us as the offscouring and refuse in the midst of the people.
46All our enemies have opened their mouths against us.
47Fear and a snare is come on us, and desolation and
destruction. 48My eye runs down with rivers of water for the
destruction of the daughter of my people. 49My eye trickles down
without any intermission and does not cease, 50Till the LORD looks
down and beholds from heaven. 51My eye affects my heart because
of all the daughters of my city. 52My enemies chased me sore,
like a bird, without cause. 53They have cut off my life in the
dungeon and cast a stone on me. 54Waters flowed over my head;
then I said, I am cut off.
55I called on your name, O LORD, out of the low dungeon.
56You have heard my voice: Do not hide your ear at my breathing,
at my cry. 57You drew near in the day that I called on
you: you said, Fear not. 58O Lord, you have pleaded the causes
of my soul; you have redeemed my life. 59O LORD, you have seen
my wrong: judge my cause. 60You have seen all their vengeance
and all their imaginations against me. 61You have heard
their reproach, O LORD, and all their imaginations against me;
62The lips of those who rose up against me and their device against
me all the day. 63Behold their sitting down and their rising up;
I am their music. 64Render to them a recompense, O LORD,
according to the work of their hands. 65Give them sorrow of heart,
your curse to them. 66Persecute and destroy them in anger from
under the heavens of the LORD.
BACK
TOP
BOOK
TITLES
Chapter 4
1How is the gold become dim! how is the most fine gold
changed! the stones of the sanctuary are poured out in the top of every street.
2The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, how are they
esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of
the potter! 3Even the sea monsters draw out the breast, they give
suck to their young ones: the daughter of my people has become cruel,
like the ostriches in the wilderness. 4The tongue of the sucking
child cleaves to the roof of his mouth for thirst: the young children ask
bread, and no man breaks it to them. 5Those
who fed delicately are desolate in the streets: those who were brought up
in scarlet embrace dunghills. 6For the punishment of the iniquity
of the daughter of my people is greater than the punishment of the sin of
Sodom, which was overthrown as in a moment and no hands stayed on her.
7Her Nazarites were purer than snow, they were whiter than milk,
they were more ruddy in body than rubies, their polishing was of
sapphire: 8Now their appearance is blacker than coal; they are
not known in the streets: their skin cleaves to their bones; it is withered,
it is become like a stick. 9Those who are slain with
the sword are better than those who are slain with hunger: for these
pine away, struck through for lack of the fruits of the field.
10The hands of the pitiful women have boiled their own children:
they were their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people.
11The LORD has accomplished his fury; he has poured out his fierce
anger and has kindled a fire in Zion and it has devoured its foundations.
12The kings of the earth and all the inhabitants of the world,
would not have believed that the adversary and the enemy could have entered
into the gates of Jerusalem.
13For the sins of her prophets, and the iniquities of
her priests, that have shed the blood of the just in the midst of her,
14They have wandered as blind men in the streets,
they have polluted themselves with blood, so that men could not touch their
garments. 15They cried to them, Depart; it is unclean;
depart, depart, touch not they said among the heathen: when they fled away
and wandered, They shall no more sojourn there. 16The
anger of the LORD has divided them; he will not regard them anymore : they
did not respect the persons of the priests, they did not favor the elders.
17As for us, our eyes as yet failed for our vain help: in our
watching we have watched for a nation that could not save
us. 18They hunt our steps, so that we cannot go in our
streets: our end is near, our days are fulfilled; for our end is come.
19Our persecutors are swifter than the eagles of the heaven: they
pursued us on the mountains, they laid wait for us in the wilderness.
20The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the LORD, was taken
in their pits, of whom we said, Under his shadow we shall live among the
heathen.
21Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, who dwell in the land
of Uz; the cup also shall pass through to you: you shall be drunk and shall
make yourself naked. 22The punishment of your iniquity is
accomplished, O daughter of Zion; he will not carry you away into captivity
anymore: he will visit your iniquity, O daughter of Edom; he will discover
your sins.
BACK
TOP
BOOK
TITLES
Chapter 5
1Remember, O LORD, what is come on us: consider and behold our
reproach. 2Our inheritance is turned to strangers, our houses
to aliens. 3We are orphans and fatherless, our mothers
are as widows. 4We have drunk our water for money; our
wood is sold to us. 5Our necks are under persecution:
we labor, and have no rest. 6We have begged from the
Egyptians, and the Assyrians, to be satisfied with bread.
7Our fathers have sinned, and are not; and we have borne
their iniquities. 8Servants have ruled over us: there is
no one who delivers us out of their hand. 9We got our
bread with the peril of our lives because of the sword of the
wilderness. 10Our skin was black like an oven because of the terrible
famine. 11They ravished the women in Zion, and the maids
in the cities of Judah. 12Princes are hanged up by their hands:
the faces of elders were not honored. 13They took the young men
to grind and the children fell under the wood. 14The elders have
ceased from the gate, the young men from their music. 15The joy
of our heart has ceased; our dance is turned into mourning. 16The
crown is fallen from our head: woe to us, that we have sinned!
17For this our heart is faint; for these things our eyes
are dim. 18Because of the mountain of Zion, which is desolate,
the foxes walk on it. 19You, O LORD, remain for ever; your throne
from generation to generation. 20Why do you forget us for ever,
and forsake us so long a time? 21Turn us to you, O LORD
and we shall be turned; renew our days as of old. 22But you have
utterly rejected us; you are very angry against us.
BACK
TOP
BOOK
TITLES