Lamentations
א [ʼAʹleph]*
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 [Giʹmel]
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 [Daʹleth]
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;+
ז [Zaʹyin]
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 [Laʹmedh]
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 [Saʹmekh]
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 [ʽAʹyin]
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·dhehʹ]
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]