THE LAMENTATIONS.

1 How is seated alone the city that abounded with people, Hath become as a widow,—She who abounded among the nations Was a princess among provinces, Hath come under tribute.

2 She weepeth sore in the night and her tear is on her cheek, She hath none to comfort her of all her lovers,—All her friends have betrayed her, Have become her foes.

3 Carried away captive is Judah—Because of oppression and Because of great servitude, She hath remained among the nations, Hath found no place of rest,—All her pursuers have overtaken her between straits.

4 The ways to Zion are mourning Because none come to her appointed feasts, All her gates are desolate, Her priests are sighing,—Her virgins are grieved And she it is bitter for her.

5 Her adversaries have become chief, Her foes are at ease, For Yahweh hath grieved her because of the multitude of her transgressions,—Her children have gone into captivity before the adversary.

6 Thus hath gone forth from the daughter of Zion, All that adorned her,—Her princes have become like harts that have found no pasture, And have gone strengthless before the pursuer.

7 Jerusalem hath remembered In the days of her humiliation and her fleeings—All her precious things which have existed from the days of old,—Now that her people have been falling into the hand of the adversary with none to help her The adversaries have seen her, have mocked over her sabbath-keepings.

8 Jerusalem hath grievously sinned, For this cause unto exile hath she been delivered,—All who used to honour her have despised her for they have descried her unseemliness, Yea she herself hath sighed and turned back.

9 Her impurity is in her skirts, She hath not remembered her hereafter, Therefore hath she come down wonderfully None to comfort her,—Behold, O Yahweh, my humiliation, That the foe hath made himself great.

10 His hand hath the adversary spread out, over all her precious things,—For she saw that the nations entered her sanctuary, As to whom thou didst command they should not enter—in the convocation—unto thee!

11 All her people are sighing, seeking bread, They have given their precious things for food to bring back life,—Behold, O Yahweh, and discern, that I have become worthless.

12 Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? Look around and see, whether there is pain like my pain which is severely dealt out to me,—In that Yahweh hath caused grief, in the day of the glow of his anger?

13 From on high sent he fire, among my bones and laid them prostrate,—He spread out a net for my feet, he made me turn back, He made me desolate, all the day faint.

14 The yoke of my transgressions hath been bound by his hand—They have intertwined themselves, have come up on my neck, it hath paralysed my strength,—My Lord hath delivered me into the hands of those against whom I cannot rise up.

15 My Lord hath flouted at all my magnates in my midst, He hath called against me a host to crush my young men,—A winepress hath My Lord trodden, to the virgin, the daughter of Judah.

16 For these things am I weeping, Mine eye, mine eye is running down with waters, For far from me is any who could comfort, could bring back my life,—My sons are amazed, for strong is the foe.

17 Zion hath spread forth her hands, there is none to comfort her, Yahweh hath given command respecting Jacob unto them who surround him—his adversaries,—Jerusalem hath become as a removed woman in their midst.

18 Righteous is Yahweh for against his bidding had I rebelled,—Hear, I pray you, all ye peoples, and see my pain, My virgins and my young men have gone into exile.

19 I called to my lovers, they deceived me, My priests and mine elders in the city have breathed their last,—For they sought them food, that they might bring back their life.

20 See, O Yahweh, that I am in distress, Mine inward parts are in ferment, My heart is turned within me, For I have obstinately rebelled,—Without bereaveth the sword, Within is like death!

21 They have heard—that sighing am I [and am saying]—There is none to comfort me, All my foes—having heard of my calamity—have rejoiced Because thou hast done it,—Thou hast brought in the day thou didst proclaim, So let them become like me.

22 Let all their wickedness come in before thee And deal thou severely with them, According as thou hast dealt severely with me for all my transgressions; For many are my sighs and my heart is sick.

2 How could My Lord in his anger enshroud in gloom The daughter of Zion? Have cast from the heavens to the earth The beauty of Israel? And not have remembered his footstool In the day of his anger?

2 My Lord hath swallowed up—without pity—All the pastures of Jacob, Hath laid waste—in his indignation—The strongholds of the daughter of Judah Hath brought them down to the ground,—Hath profaned the kingdom and the princes thereof.

3 He hath broken off—in the glow of his anger—The whole horn of Israel, Hath turned back his right hand from the face of the foe,—And hath kindled against Jacob a very fire of flame, Devouring round about.

4 He hath trodden his bow like a foe, His right hand erect as an adversary, And hath slain all them who delighted the eye,—In the home of the daughter of Zion hath he poured out as fire his indignation.

5 My Lord hath become like a foe, Hath swallowed up Israel, Hath swallowed up all her castles, ruined his strongholds,—and Hath caused to abound in the daughter of Judah lamentation and mourning.

6 Thus hath he destroyed like a garden his pavilion, Hath laid waste his place of assembly,—Yahweh hath caused to be forgotten in Zion The appointed assembly and the sabbath, And hath spurned in the indignation of his anger The king and the priest.

7 My Lord hath rejected his altar, Hath abhorred his sanctuary, Hath delivered into the hand of the foe the walls of her castles,—A voice have they uttered in the house of Yahweh As on the day of an appointed assembly.

8 Yahweh hath devised to lay in ruins The wall of the daughter of Zion, He hath stretched out a line, He hath not turned back his hand From swallowing up,—Thus hath he caused to mourn—rampart and wall, Together have they languished!

9 Her gates have sunk in the earth, He hath destroyed and broken in pieces her bars,—Her king and her princes are among the nations, There is no instruction, Even her prophets have found no vision from Yahweh.

10 Seated on the ground in silence Are the elders of the daughter of Zion, They have lifted up dust on their head, Have girded themselves with sackcloth,—Bowed down to the ground is the head Of the virgins of Jerusalem.

11 Blinded with tears are mine eyes, In ferment is my body, Poured out to the earth is my grief For the sore hurt of the daughter of my people,—When child and suckling are swooning In the broadways of the city.

12 To their mothers they keep saying, Where are corn and wine? Swooning off like one thrust through In the broadways of the city, Pouring out their life Into the bosom of their mothers.

13 How shall I solemnly admonish thee? What shall I liken to thee, Thou daughter of Jerusalem? What shall I compare with thee that I may comfort thee, Thou virgin daughter of Zion? For great as the sea is thy grievous injury, Who can heal thee?

14 Thy prophets have had visions for thee, False and foolish, And have not unveiled thine iniquity To turn back thy captivity,—Yea they have had visions for thee, Oracles of falsehood and enticements!

15 All passing by have clapped over thee their hands, Have hissed and wagged their head Over the daughter of Jerusalem,—[saying] Is this the city of which men used to say—The perfection of beauty! A joy to the whole earth!

16 All thy foes have opened wide over thee their mouth, They have hissed and gnashed their teeth, They have said—We have swallowed [her] up! Surely this is the day for which we have waited, We have found! We have seen!

17 Yahweh hath done what he thought Hath carried out his word wherewith he gave charge in the days of old, Hath thrown down and not spared,—Thus hath he let the enemy rejoice over thee, Hath raised high the horn of thine adversaries.

18 Their heart hath made outcry unto My Lord,—O wall of the daughter of Zion—Let tears run down as a torrent day and night, Do not give thyself relief, Let not the weeping of thine eye cease!

19 Arise, cry out in the night, At the beginning of the watches pour out like waters thy heart, Right before the face of My Lord,—Lift up above thee the palms of thy hands For the life of thy children, Who are swooning for hunger at the top of all the streets!

20 See, O Yahweh, and do consider, to whom thou hast acted thus severely,—Will women devour their own fruit—the children they have dandled? Shall priest and prophet be slain in the sanctuary of My Lord?

21 Youth and elder have lain down on the ground in the streets, My virgins and my young men have fallen by the sword,—Thou hast slain in the day of thine anger, Thou hast slaughtered, hast not spared!

22 Wilt thou proclaim like the day of an appointed meeting—My terrors round about? When there was not—in the day of the anger of Yahweh—fugitive or survivor,—Those whom I dandled and reared my foe hath destroyed.

3 I am the man that hath seen affliction, By the rod of his indignation;

2 Me hath he driven out and brought into darkness And not light;

3 Surely against me doth he again and again turn his hand All the day.

4 He hath worn out my flesh and my skin, Hath broken my bones;

5 He hath built up against me and carried round me Fortifications and a trench;

6 In dark places hath he made me sit Like the dead of age-past times.

7 He hath walled up around me that I cannot get out, Hath weighted my fetter;

8 Yea when I make outcry and implore He hath shut out my prayer;

9 He hath walled in my ways with hewn stone, My paths hath he caused to wind back.

10 A bear lying in wait he is to me, A lion in secret places;

11 My ways hath he turned aside and hath torn me in pieces, Hath made me desolate;

12 He hath trodden his bow and set me up, As a mark for the arrow.

13 He hath caused to enter my reins The sons of his quiver

14 I have become a derision to all my people, Their song all the day;

15 He hath sated me with bitter things, Hath drenched me with wormwood.

16 And he hath crushed with gravel-stones my teeth, Hath made me cower in ashes;

17 And thou hast thrust away from welfare my soul, I have forgotten prosperity;

18 And I said, Vanished is mine endurance, Even mine expectation from Yahweh.

19 Remember my humiliation and my fleeings, The wormwood and poison;

20 Thou wilt indeed remember That bowed down concerning myself is my soul;

21 This will I bring back to my heart, Therefore will I hope.

22 The lovingkindnesses of Yahweh verily they are not exhausted, Verily! not at an end are his compassions:

23 New things for the mornings! Abundant is thy faithfulness:

24 My portion is Yahweh, saith my soul, For this cause will I wait for him.

25 Good is Yahweh to them who wait for him, To the soul that will seek him;

26 Good it is—both to wait and to be silent For the deliverance of Yahweh;

27 Good it is for a man, That he should bear the yoke in his youth.

28 Let him sit alone and keep silence, Because he took it upon himself:

29 Let him put in the dust his mouth, Peradventure there is hope!

30 Let him give to him that smiteth him his cheek, Let him be sated with reproach.

31 Surely My Lord will not cast off Unto times age-abiding;

32 Surely though he cause grief yet will he have compassion, According to the multitude of his lovingkindnesses;

33 Surely he hath not afflicted from his heart, Nor caused sorrow to the sons of men.

34 To crush under his feet any of the prisoners of the earth;

35 To turn aside the right of a man before the face of the Most High;

36 To oppress a son of earth in his cause My Lord hath made no provision.

37 Who was it that spake and it was done, [When] My Lord had not commanded?

38 Out of the mouth of the Most High Proceed there not misfortunes and blessing?

39 Why should a living son of earth complain, [Let] a man [complain] because of his sins?

40 Let us search out our ways and examine them well, And let us return unto Yahweh;

41 Let us lift up our heart To the opened palms, To the Mighty One in the heavens;

42 We have trespassed and rebelled, Thou hast not pardoned.

43 Thou hast covered thyself with anger and pursued us, Hast slain—hast not spared;

44 Thou hast screened thyself with the clouds, That prayer should not pass through;

45 Offscouring and refuse dost thou make us In the midst of the peoples.

46 With their mouth opened wide over us [Stand] all our foes.

47 Terror and a pit have befallen us, Tumult and grievous injury;

48 With streams of water mine eye runneth down, Over the grievous injury of the daughter of my people.

49 Mine eye poureth itself out and ceaseth not Without relief;

50 Until Yahweh out of the heavens Shall look forth, and see

51 Mine eye dealeth severely with my soul, Because of all the daughters of my city.

52 They have laid snares for me as a bird, Who are mine enemies without cause:

53 They have cut off in the dungeon my life, And have cast a stone upon me;

54 Waters flowed over my head, I said, I am cut off!

55 I have called upon thy Name, O Yahweh, Out of the dungeon below;

56 My voice thou hast heard,—do not close thine ear to my respite, to mine outcry;

57 Thou drewest near, in the day I kept calling on thee, Thou saidst, Do not fear!

58 Thou hast pleaded, O My Lord, the pleas of my soul Hast redeemed my life;

59 Thou hast beheld, O Yahweh, my failure to get justice, Pronounce thou my sentence;

60 Thou hast seen all their vindictiveness, All their plots against me.

61 Thou hast heard their reproach, O Yahweh, All their plots against me;

62 The lips of mine assailants and their mutterings Are against me all the day;

63 On their downsitting and their uprising do thou look, I am their song.

64 Thou wilt render to them a recompense, O Yahweh, According to the work of their hands;

65 Thou wilt suffer them a veiling of heart, Thy curse to them;

66 Thou wilt pursue in anger and wilt destroy them, From under the heavens of Yahweh.

4 How is dimmed the gold! Changed the most fine gold! Poured out are the stones of the sanctuary At the top of all the streets.

2 The precious sons of Zion, They who were weighed against pure gold How are they accounted as earthen pitchers, The work of the hands of the potter!

3 Even wild dogs draw out the breast, Give suck to their whelps—The daughter of my people hath become cruel, Like the ostriches in the desert.

4 The tongue of the suckling cleaveth to the roof of his mouth for thirst,—Young children have asked bread, There was none to break it to them.

5 They who used to eat delicacies Are deserted in the streets,—They who used to be carried on crimson Have embraced heaps of refuse.

6 And the punishment of the daughter of my people Hath grown greater than the punishment of Sodom,—Which was overthrown as in a moment, When no hands had been laid violently upon her.

7 Purer were her Nazirites than snow, Whiter were they than milk,—More ruddy in body than coral, A sapphire was their beauty of form.

8 Darker than a coal is their visage, They are not known in the streets—Their skin shrivelleth on their bones, Is withered, become like a stick.

9 Better are the slain of the sword, Than the slain of the famine,—For these pine away, stricken through, Wanting the produce of the field.

10 The hands of compassionate women Have cooked their own children,—They have served as nourishment to them, In the grievous injury of the daughter of my people.

11 Yahweh hath completed his indignation, Hath poured out the glow of his anger; And hath kindled a fire in Zion, Which hath devoured her foundations.

12 Neither the kings of the earth nor any of the inhabitants of the world believed That an adversary or an enemy should enter the gates of Jerusalem!

13 [It is] for the sins of her prophets, The iniquities of her priests,—Who have been pouring out in her midst The blood of the righteous!

14 They have wandered—blind—in the streets, Have defiled themselves with blood; So that men may not touch their garments.

15 Turn aside! Unclean! Have they cried to them, Turn aside! Turn aside! Do not touch! Because they have fled, yea wandered Men said among the nations, They will not again tarry;

16 The face of Yahweh hath scattered them, He will look them out no more: The persons of the priests they have not respected, To the elders have they shown no favour.

17 Still shall our eyes fail, For our help that is vain: In our watchtower have we watched—For a nation that will not save.

18 They have laid snares for our steps, That we cannot walk in our own broadways: Drawn near hath our end, Fulfilled are our days, Yea arrived hath our end.

19 Swifter are our pursuers, than the eagles of the heavens,—Over the mountains have they come hotly after us, In the wilderness have they lain in wait for us.

20 The fragrance of our nostrils The Anointed of Yahweh Hath been captured in their pits,—Of whom we had said—In his shade shall we live among the nations.

21 Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, Thou inhabitress in the land of Uz,—Even unto thee shall the cup pass along, Thou shalt be drunken and expose thy shame.

22 Completed is thy punishment, O daughter of Zion, He will no more carry thee away captive—He hath punished thine iniquity, O daughter of Edom, He hath stripped the veil from off thy sins.

5 Remember, O Yahweh, what hath befallen us, Look around and see our reproach:

2 Our inheritance turned over to foreigners, Our houses to aliens.

3 Orphans have we become and fatherless, Our mothers are widows indeed.

4 Our water—for silver have we drunk, Our wood—for a price cometh in.

5 Upon our necks are our pursuers, We labour and there is allowed us no rest.

6 To Egypt have we stretched out our hand, To Assyria to be satisfied with bread.

7 Our fathers sinned and are not, And we their iniquities have borne.

8 Slaves have ruled over us, There is none to set free from their hand.

9 At the risk of our life do we bring in our bread, Because of the sword of the desert.

10 Our skin as with a furnace is scorched, Because of the hot winds of famine.

11 Women—in Zion were ravished, Virgins in the cities of Judah!

12 Princes by their hand have been hanged, The faces of elders not honoured.

13 Young men a millstone have lifted, And youths under wood have staggered.

14 Elders from the gates have ceased, Young men from their music.

15 Ceased hath the joy of our hearts, Changed to mourning our dance.

16 Fallen is the crown of our head. Surely woe to us for we have sinned.

17 For this cause faint is our heart, For these things dimmed are our eyes:

18 Because of Mount Zion which is desolate, Jackals have gone prowling therein.

19 Thou O Yahweh unto times age-abiding dost remain, Thy throne from generation to generation:

20 Wherefore shouldst thou perpetually forget us? Forsake us to length of days?

21 Bring us back, O Yahweh, unto thyself And we will come back! Renew our days as of old;

22 For though thou hast not utterly rejected us, Thou art wroth with us—exceedingly!