CHAPTER 1

                ¹How she sits alone, ℵ

                    the city once great with people.

                          She has become like a widow.

                Great among nations,

                    mistress among provinces,

                          reduced to forced labor.

                ²She weeps on through the night, ב

                    and her tears are on her cheek.

                She has no consoler

                    from all her lovers.

                All her friends have betrayed her,

                    have become enemies to her.

                ³Judah is exiled in affliction ג

                    and in hard labor.

                She dwells among the nations,

                    she finds no rest.

                All her pursuers overtake her

                    in straits.

                ⁴The roads of Zion mourn ד

                    without festival pilgrims.

                All her gates are desolate,

                    her priests are groaning,

                her virgins are sorrow-stricken

                    and she—it is bitter for her.

                ⁵Her foes are at the head, ה

                    her enemies are tranquil,

                for the LORD has stricken her with sorrow

                    because of all her trespasses.

                Her babes have fallen captive

                    before the foe.

                ⁶And from Zion’s Daughter is departed ו

                    all her glory.

                Her nobles have become like stags

                    that find no pasture,

                and they go without strength

                    before the pursuer.

                ⁷Jerusalem recalls ז

                    in the days of her affliction and her wandering

                all her treasures

                    that were in days of yore,

                as when her people fell to the foe’s hand

                    with none to help her.

                The foes saw her and they laughed

                    over her disasters.

                ⁸An offense did Jerusalem commit, ח

                    therefore she became despised.

                All who honored her degrade her,

                    for they have seen her nakedness.

                She on her part groans

                    and has fallen back.

                ⁹Her uncleanness is in her skirts, ט

                    she has no mind of her future,

                and she plunges wondrously,

                    there is none to console her.

                See, O LORD, my affliction,

                    for the enemy is boasting.

                ¹⁰The foe has laid his hand י

                    on all her treasures,

                for she has seen nations

                    come into her sanctuary

                of whom I charged they must not come

                    into assembly with you.

                ¹¹All her people groan כ

                    seeking bread.

                They gave their treasures for food

                    to revive their failing lives.

                See, O LORD, and look,

                    for she has become cheapened.

                ¹²Not upon you, all passersby! ל

                    Look and see,

                          is there pain like my pain

                that He inflicted upon me,

                    that the LORD struck me with sorrow

                          on the day His wrath flared?

                ¹³From on high He sent out fire, מ

                    into my bones He brought it down,

                Spread a net for my feet,

                    made me fall back.

                ¹⁴The yoke of my trespasses is tight, נ

                    twisted by His hand,

                climbing round my neck—

                    He made my strength stumble.

                The LORD has given me into the hand

                    of one I cannot stand against.

                ¹⁵The Master has spurned ס

                    all my champions in my midst,

                has proclaimed an appointed time against me

                    to break my young men.

                A winepress the Master has trampled

                    for the Virgin Zion’s Daughter.

                ¹⁶For these do I weep. ע

                    My eyes, my eyes are flooded,

                for the consoler is far from me,

                    the reviver of my failing life.

                My children have become desolate,

                    for the enemy has prevailed.

                ¹⁷Zion spread her hands.פ

                    There is none to console her.

                The LORD has summoned for Jacob

                    round about him his foes.

                Jerusalem has become

                    despised among them.

                ¹⁸Righteous is the LORD, צ

                    for I have rebelled against Him.

                Hear, pray, all you peoples,

                    and see my pain.

                My virgins and my young men

                    have gone off captive.

                ¹⁹I called out to my lovers— ק

                    they deceived me.

                My priests and my elders perished in the city

                    when they sought food

                          that would revive their failing lives.

                ²⁰See, O LORD, for I am distressed, ר

                    my innards are roiled,

                          my heart churns within me.

                For I have surely rebelled.

                    Outside, the sword slays sons,

                          inside, very death.

                ²¹They have heard that I groan, ש

                    I have none to console me.

                All my enemies heard of my harm, were gladdened.

                    But it was You who did it.

                You brought the day You summoned.

                    May they be like me!

                ²²Let all their evil come before You ת

                    and do to them as You did to me

                          for all my trespasses.

                For my groans are many

                    and my heart aches.