September 4
Lamentations 1:1 — 2:22

 
Lamentations

א [ʼA′leph]

1 O how she has come to sit solitary, the city that was abundant with people!

     How she has become like a widow, she that was populous among the nations!

     How she that was a princess among the jurisdictional districts has come to be for forced labor!

ב [Behth]

 2 Profusely she weeps during the night, and her tears are upon her cheeks.

     She has no one to comfort her from among all her lovers.

     All her very own companions have dealt treacherously with her. They have become enemies to her.

ג [Gi′mel]

 3 Judah has gone into exile because of the affliction and because of the abundance of servitude.

     She herself has had to dwell among the nations. No resting-place has she found.

     All those who were persecuting her have overtaken her among distressing circumstances.

ד [Da′leth]

 4 The ways of Zion are mourning, because there are none coming to the festival.

     All her gates are laid desolate; her priests are sighing.

     Her virgins are grief-stricken, and she herself has bitterness.

ה [Heʼ]

 5 Her adversaries have become the head. Those who are her enemies are unconcerned.

     Because Jehovah himself has brought grief to her on account of the abundance of her transgressions,

     Her own children have walked captive before the adversary.

ו [Waw]

 6 And from the daughter of Zion there goes out all her splendor.

     Her princes have proved to be like stags that have found no pasturage;

     And they keep walking without power before the pursuer.

ז [Za′yin]

 7 Jerusalem has remembered [in] the days of her affliction and of her homeless people

     All her desirable things that happened to be from days of long ago.

     When her people fell into the hand of the adversary and she had no helper,

     The adversaries saw her. They laughed over her collapse.

ח [Chehth]

 8 Jerusalem has committed outright sin. That is why she has become a mere abhorrent thing.

     All who were honoring her have treated her as something cheap, for they have seen her nakedness.

     She herself is also sighing and turns her back.

ט [Tehth]

 9 Her uncleanness is in her skirts. She did not remember the future for her,

     And down she goes in a wondrous manner. No comforter does she have.

     O Jehovah, see my affliction, for the enemy has put on great airs.

י [Yohdh]

10 The adversary has spread out his own hand against all her desirable things.

     For she has seen nations that have come into her sanctuary,

     Whom you commanded that they should not come into the congregation belonging to you.

כ [Kaph]

11 All her people are sighing; they are looking for bread.

     They have given their desirable things for something to eat, in order to refresh the soul.

     See, O Jehovah, and do look, for I have become as a valueless woman.

ל [La′medh]

12 Is it nothing to all YOU who are passing along the way? Look and see.

     Does there exist any pain like my pain that has been severely dealt out to me,

     With which Jehovah has caused grief in the day of his burning anger?

מ [Mem]

13 From the height he has sent fire into my bones, and he subdues each one.

     He has spread out a net for my feet. He has turned me backward.

     He has made me a woman laid desolate. All the day I am ill.

נ [Nun]

14 He has kept himself alert against my transgressions. In his hand they intertwine one another.

     They have come up upon my neck. My power has stumbled.

     Jehovah has given me into the hand of those against whom I am unable to rise up.

ס [Sa′mekh]

15 All my powerful ones Jehovah has tossed aside from the midst of me.

     He has called against me a meeting, in order to break my young men to pieces.

     Jehovah has trodden the very winepress belonging to the virgin daughter of Judah.

ע [ʽA′yin]

16 Over these things I am weeping as a woman. My eye, my eye is running down with waters.

     For a comforter has become far away from me, someone to refresh my soul.

     My sons have become those laid desolate, for the enemy has put on great airs.

פ [Peʼ]

17 Zion has spread out her hands. No comforter does she have.

     Jehovah has given a command concerning Jacob to all who are around him as his adversaries.

     Jerusalem has become an abhorrent thing in among them.

צ [Tsa·dheh′]

18 Jehovah is righteous, for it is against his mouth that I have rebelled.

     Listen, now, all YOU peoples, and see my pain.

     My own virgins and my own young men have gone into captivity.

ק [Qohph]

19 I have called to those intensely loving me. They themselves have tricked me.

     In the city my own priests and my own old men have expired,

     While they had to look for something to eat for themselves that they might refresh their soul.

ר [Rehsh]

20 See, O Jehovah, for I am in sore straits. My very intestines are in a ferment.

     My heart has been overturned in the midst of me, for I have been absolutely rebellious.

     Outside the sword caused bereavement of children. Within the house it is the same as death.

ש [Shin]

21 People have heard how I myself am sighing as a woman. There is no comforter for me.

     All my enemies themselves have heard of my calamity. They have exulted, because you yourself have done [it].

     You will certainly bring the day that you have proclaimed, that they may become like me.

ת [Taw]

22 May all their badness come before you, and deal severely with them,

     Just as you have dealt severely with me on account of all my transgressions.

     For my sighs are many, and my heart is ill.

א  [ʼA′leph]

2 O how Jehovah in his anger beclouds the daughter of Zion!

     He has thrown down from heaven to earth the beauty of Israel.

     And he has not remembered his footstool in the day of his anger.

ב [Behth]

 2 Jehovah has swallowed up, he has shown no compassion upon any abiding places of Jacob.

     In his fury he has torn down the fortified places of the daughter of Judah.

     He has brought into contact with the earth, he has profaned the kingdom and her princes.

ג [Gi′mel]

 3 In the heat of anger he has cut down every horn of Israel.

     He has turned his right hand back from before the enemy;

     And in Jacob he keeps burning like a flaming fire that has devoured all around.

ד [Da′leth]

 4 He has trodden his bow like an enemy. His right hand has taken its position

     Like an adversary, and he kept killing all those desirable to the eyes.

     Into the tent of the daughter of Zion he has poured out his rage, just like fire.

ה [Heʼ]

 5 Jehovah has become like an enemy. He has swallowed down Israel.

     He has swallowed down all her dwelling towers; he has brought his fortified places to ruin.

     And in the daughter of Judah he makes mourning and lamentation abound.

ו [Waw]

 6 And he treats his booth violently like that in a garden. He has brought his festival to ruin.

     Jehovah has caused to be forgotten in Zion festival and sabbath,

     And in his angry denunciation he shows no respect for king and priest.

ז [Za′yin]

 7 Jehovah has cast off his altar. He has spurned his sanctuary.

     Into the hand of the enemy he has surrendered the walls of her dwelling towers.

     In the house of Jehovah they have let out [their] own voice, as in the day of a festival.

ח [Chehth]

 8 Jehovah has thought of bringing the wall of the daughter of Zion to ruin.

     He has stretched out the measuring line. He has not turned back his hand from swallowing up.

     And he causes rampart and wall to go mourning. Together they have faded away.

ט [Tehth]

 9 Her gates have sunk down into the very earth. He has destroyed and broken her bars in pieces.

     Her king and her princes are among the nations. There is no law.

     Her own prophets also have found no vision from Jehovah.

י [Yohdh]

10 The older men of the daughter of Zion sit down on the earth, [where] they keep silence.

     They have brought up dust upon their head. They have girded on sackcloth.

     The virgins of Jerusalem have brought their head down to the very earth.

כ [Kaph]

11 My eyes have come to their end in sheer tears. My intestines are in a ferment.

     My liver has been poured out to the very earth, on account of the crash of the daughter of my people,

     Because of the fainting away of child and suckling in the public squares of the town.

ל [La′medh]

12 To their mothers they kept saying: “Where are grain and wine?”

     Because of their fainting away like someone slain in the public squares of the city,

     Because of their soul being poured out into the bosom of their mothers.

מ [Mem]

13 Of what shall I use you as a witness? What shall I liken to you, O daughter of Jerusalem?

     What shall I make equal to you, that I may comfort you, O virgin daughter of Zion?

     For your breakdown is just as great as the sea. Who can bring healing to you?

נ [Nun]

14 Your own prophets have visioned for you worthless and unsatisfying things,

     And they have not uncovered your error in order to turn back your captivity,

     But they kept visioning for you worthless and misleading pronouncements.

ס [Sa′mekh]

15 At you all those passing along on the road have clapped their hands.

     They have whistled and kept wagging their head at the daughter of Jerusalem, [saying:]

     “Is this the city of which they used to say, ‘It is the perfection of prettiness, an exultation for all the earth’?”

פ [Peʼ]

16 At you all your enemies have opened their mouth.

     They have whistled and kept grinding the teeth. They have said: “We will swallow [her] down.

     This indeed is the day that we have hoped for. We have found! We have seen!”

ע [ʽA′yin]

17 Jehovah has done what he had in mind. He has accomplished his saying,

     What he had commanded from the days of long ago. He has torn down and shown no compassion.

     And over you he causes the enemy to rejoice. He has made the horn of your adversaries high.

צ [Tsa·dheh′]

18 Their heart has cried out to Jehovah, O wall of the daughter of Zion.

     Cause tears to descend just like a torrent day and night.

     Give no numbness to yourself. May the pupil of your eye not keep quiet.

ק [Qohph]

19 Rise up! Whine during the night at the start of the morning watches.

     Pour out your heart before the face of Jehovah just like water.

     Raise to him your palms on account of the soul of your children,

     Who are fainting away because of famine at the head of all the streets.

ר [Rehsh]

20 See, O Jehovah, and do look to the one to whom you have dealt severely in this manner.

     Should the women keep eating their own fruitage, the children born fully formed,

     Or in the sanctuary of Jehovah should priest and prophet be killed?

ש [Shin]

21 Boy and old man have lain down on the earth of the streets.

     My virgins and my young men themselves have fallen by the sword.

     You have killed in the day of your anger. You have slaughtered; you have had no compassion.

ת [Taw]

22 As in the day of a festival you proceeded to call out my places of alien residence all around.

     And in the day of the wrath of Jehovah there proved to be no escapee or survivor;

     Those whom I brought forth fully formed and reared, my enemy himself exterminated them.