New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures Reference Bible
Lamentations
[ʼAleph]*
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 [Gimel]
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 [Daleth]
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 [Zayin]
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 [Lamedh]
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 [Samekh]
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 [ʽAyin]
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 [Tsadheh]
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.+
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 [Gimel]
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 [Daleth]
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 [Zayin]
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 [Lamedh]
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 [Samekh]
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 [ʽAyin]*
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 [Tsadheh]
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.+
[ʼAleph]*
3 I am the able-bodied man that has seen affliction+
because of the staff of his fury.
2 It is I whom he has led and makes to walk in darkness and not in light.+
3 Indeed, it is against me that he repeatedly turns his hand all day long.+
4 He has caused my flesh and my skin to wear away.+ He has broken my bones.+
5 He has built against me, that he may encircle+ [me] with poisonous plant+ and hardship.
6 In dark places+ he has made me sit like men dead for a long time.+
7 He has blocked me up as with a stone wall, that I may not go forth.+ He has made my copper fetters+ heavy.
8 Also, when I call for aid and cry for help, he actually hampers my prayer.+
9 He has blocked up my ways with hewn stone.+ My roadways he has twisted.+
10 As a bear lying in wait he is to me,+ as a lion in places of concealment.+
11 My ways he has disarranged, and he makes me lie fallow.* He has made me one laid desolate.+
12 He has trodden his bow,+ and he sets me up as the target for the arrow.+
13 He has brought into my kidneys the sons of his quiver.+
14 I have become an object of laughter+ to all people against me,* the theme of their song all day long.+
15 He has given me a sufficiency of bitter things.+ He has saturated me with wormwood.+
16 And with gravel he makes my teeth get broken.+ He has made me cower in the ashes.+
17 You also do a casting off so that there is no peace for my soul. I have lost memory of what good is.+
18 And I keep saying: “My excellency has perished, and my expectation from Jehovah.”+
19 Remember my affliction and my homeless state,+ the wormwood and the poisonous plant.+
20 Without fail your* soul will remember and bow low over me.+
21 This is what I shall bring back to my heart.+ That is why I shall show a waiting attitude.+
22 It is the acts of loving-kindness*+ of Jehovah that we have not come to our finish,+ because his mercies will certainly not come to an end.+
23 They are new each morning.+ Your faithfulness is abundant.+
24 “Jehovah is my share,”+ my soul has said, “that is why I shall show a waiting attitude for him.”+
25 Good is Jehovah to the one hoping in him,+ to the soul that keeps seeking for him.+
26 Good it is that one should wait,+ even silently,+ for the salvation of Jehovah.+
27 Good it is for an able-bodied man that he should carry the yoke during his youth.+
28 Let him sit solitary and keep silent,+ because he has laid [something] upon him.+
29 Let him put his mouth in the very dust.+ Perhaps there exists a hope.+
30 Let him give [his] cheek to the very one striking him.+ Let him have his sufficiency of reproach.+
31 For not to time indefinite will Jehovah* keep on casting off.+
32 For although he has caused grief,+ he will also certainly show mercy according to the abundance of his loving-kindness.+
33 For not out of his own heart has he afflicted or does he grieve the sons of men.*+
34 For crushing beneath one’s feet+ all the prisoners of the earth,+
35 For turning aside the judgment of an able-bodied man before the face of the Most High,+
36 For making a man* crooked in his legal case, Jehovah* himself has had no countenance.+
37 Who, now, has said that something should occur [when] Jehovah* himself has not commanded?+
38 From the mouth of the Most High bad things and what is good do not go forth.+
39 How can a living man* indulge in complaints,+ an able-bodied man on account of his sin?+
40 Do let us search out our ways and explore them,+ and do let us return clear to Jehovah.+
41 Let us raise our heart along with [our] palms to God* in the heavens:+
42 “We ourselves have transgressed, and we have behaved rebelliously.+ You yourself have not forgiven.+
43 You have blocked approach with anger,+ and you keep pursuing us.+ You have killed; you have shown no compassion.+
44 You have blocked approach to yourself with a cloud mass,+ that prayer may not pass through.+
45 You make us mere offscouring and refuse in the midst of the peoples.”+
פ [Peʼ]*
46 Against us all our enemies have opened their mouth.+
47 Dread and the hollow themselves have become ours,+ desolateness and breakdown.+
48 With streams of water my eye keeps running down on account of the breakdown of the daughter of my people.+
49 My very eye has been poured forth and will not keep still, so that there are no pauses,+
50 Until Jehovah looks down and sees from heaven.+
51 My own eye has dealt severely with my soul,+ because of all the daughters* of my city.+
52 My enemies have positively hunted for me just as for a bird,+ for no cause.+
53 They have silenced my life in the pit itself,+ and they kept hurling stones at me.
54 Waters have flowed over my head.+ I have said: “I shall certainly be cut off!”+
55 I have called out your name, O Jehovah, from a pit of the lowest sort.+
56 My voice you must hear.+ Do not hide your ear to my relief, to my cry for help.+
57 You have drawn near in the day that I kept calling you.+ You said: “Do not be afraid.”+
58 You have taken up, O Jehovah,* the contests of my soul.+ You have repurchased my life.+
59 You have seen, O Jehovah, the wrong done to me.+ O do conduct the judgment for me.+
60 You have seen all their vengeance, all their thoughts against me.+
61 You have heard their reproach, O Jehovah, all their thoughts against me,+
62 The lips of those rising up against me+ and their whispering against me all day long.+
63 Do look at their very sitting down and their rising up.+ I am the subject of their song.+
64 You will give back to them a treatment, O Jehovah, according to the work of their hands.+
65 You will give to them the insolence of heart,+ your curse to them.+
66 You
will pursue in anger and annihilate them+
from under the heavens of Jehovah.+
4 O how the gold that shines becomes dim, the good gold!*+
O how the holy stones*+ are poured out at the head of all the streets!+
ב [Behth]
2 As for the precious sons of Zion,+ those who were weighed against refined gold,*
O how they have been reckoned as large jars of earthenware, the work of the hands of a potter!+
ג [Gimel]
3 Even jackals themselves have presented the udder. They have suckled their cubs.
The daughter of my people becomes cruel,+ like ostriches in the wilderness.+
ד [Daleth]
4 The tongue of the suckling has cleaved to its palate because of thirst.+
Children themselves have asked for bread.+ There is no one dealing [it] out to them.+
ה [Heʼ]
5 The very ones that were eating pleasant things have been struck with astonishment in the streets.+
The very ones that were being reared in scarlet+ have had to embrace ash heaps.+
ו [Waw]
6 The [punishment for the] error of the daughter of my people also becomes greater than the [punishment for the] sin of Sodom,+
Which was overthrown as in a moment, and to which no hands turned [helpfully].+
ז [Zayin]
7 Her Nazirites+ were purer than snow;+ they were whiter than milk.
They were in fact more ruddy+ than corals; their polish was as the sapphire.+
ח [Chehth]
8 Their aspect has become darker than blackness itself. They have not been recognized in the streets.+
Their skin has shriveled upon their bones.+ It has become just as dry as a tree.
ט [Tehth]
9 Better have those slain with the sword+ proved to be than those slain by famine,+
Because these pine away,* pierced through for lack of the produce of the open field.
י [Yohdh]
10 The very hands of compassionate women have boiled their own children.+
They have become as bread of consolation to one during the breakdown of the daughter of my people.+
כ [Kaph]
11 Jehovah has accomplished his rage.+ He has poured out his burning anger.+
And he sets a fire ablaze in Zion, which eats up her foundations.+
ל [Lamedh]
12 The kings of the earth and all the inhabitants of the productive land* had not believed+
That the adversary and the enemy would come into the gates of Jerusalem.+
מ [Mem]
13 Because of the sins of her prophets, the errors of her priests,+
There were in the midst of her those pouring out the blood of righteous ones.+
נ [Nun]
14 They have wandered about as blind+ in the streets.+ They have become polluted with blood,+
So that none are able to touch their garments.+
ס [Samekh]
15 “Get out of the way! Unclean!”+ they have called out to them. “Get out of the way! Get out of the way! Do not touch!”+
For they have gone homeless.+ They have also wandered about.+ People have said among the nations: “They will not reside again as aliens.+
פ [Peʼ]
16 The face of Jehovah has divided them up.+ He will not look upon them again.+
Men will certainly show no consideration even for the priests.+ They will certainly show no favor even to the old men.”+
ע [ʽAyin]
17 While we yet are, our eyes keep pining away in vain for assistance to us.+
During our looking about we have looked out to a nation that can bring no salvation.+
צ [Tsadheh]
18 They have hunted our steps+ so that there is no walking in our public squares.
Our end has drawn near. Our days have come to their full, for our end has come.+
ק [Qohph]
19 Swifter than the eagles of the heavens our pursuers have proved to be.+
Upon the mountains they have hotly pursued us.+ In the wilderness they have lain in wait for us.+
ר [Rehsh]
20 The very breath* of our nostrils,+ the anointed one* of Jehovah,*+ has been captured in their large pit,+
The one of whom we have said: “In his shade+ we shall live among the nations.”+
ש [Sin]
21 Exult and rejoice,+ O daughter of Edom,+ dwelling as you do in the land of Uz.+
To you also the cup* will pass along.+ You will become drunk and show yourself in nakedness.+
ת [Taw]
22 Your error, O daughter of Zion, has come to its finish.+ He will not* carry you off into exile again.+
He has turned his attention to your
error, O daughter of Edom. He has uncovered your sins.+
5*
Remember, O Jehovah, what has happened to us.+
Do look and see our reproach.+
2 Our own hereditary possession has been turned over to strangers, our houses to foreigners.+
3 We have become mere orphans without a father.+ Our mothers are like widows.+
4 For money* we have had to drink our own water.+ For a price our own wood comes in.
5 Close onto our neck we have been pursued.+ We have grown weary. No rest has been left for us.+
6 To Egypt+ we have given the hand;+ to Assyria,+ in order to get satisfaction with bread.
7 Our forefathers are the ones that have sinned.+ They are no more. As for us, it is their errors that we have had to bear.+
8 Mere servants have ruled over us.+ There is no one tearing us away from their hand.+
9 At the risk of our soul we bring in our bread,+ because of the sword of the wilderness.
10 Our very skin has grown hot just like a furnace, because of the pangs of hunger.+
11 The wives* in Zion they have humbled,+ the virgins in the cities of Judah.
12 Princes themselves have been hanged by just their hand.+ The faces of even old men have not been honored.+
13 Even young men have lifted up a hand mill itself,+ and under the wood mere boys have stumbled.+
14 Old men themselves have ceased even out of the gate,+ young men from their instrumental music.+
15 The exultation of our heart has ceased. Our dancing has been changed into mere mourning.+
16 The crown of our head has fallen.+ Woe, now, to us, because we have sinned!+
17 On this account our heart has become ill.+ On account of these things our eyes have grown dim,+
18 On account of Zion’s mountain that is desolated;+ foxes themselves have walked on it.+
19 As for you, O Jehovah, to time indefinite you will sit.+ Your throne is for generation after generation.+
20 Why is it that forever you forget us,+ that you leave us for the length of days?+
21 Bring us back,+ O Jehovah, to yourself, and we shall readily come back. Bring new days for us as in the long ago.+
22 However, you have positively rejected us.+ You have been indignant toward us very much.+