² She ^(C)weeps bitterly in the ^(D)night,
Her tears are on her cheeks;
Among all her lovers
She has none to comfort her.
All her friends have dealt treacherously with her;
They have become her enemies.

^3 (E)Judah has gone into captivity,
Under affliction and hard servitude;
^(F)She dwells among the ^[b]nations,
She finds no ^(G)rest;
All her persecutors overtake her in dire straits.

⁴ The roads to Zion mourn
Because no one comes to the ^[c]set feasts.
All her gates are ^(H)desolate;
Her priests sigh,
Her virgins are afflicted,
And she is in bitterness.

⁵ Her adversaries ^(I)have become ^[d]the master,
Her enemies prosper;
For the Lord has afflicted her
^(J)Because of the multitude of her transgressions.
Her ^(K)children have gone into captivity before the enemy.

⁶ And from the daughter of Zion
All her splendor has departed.
Her princes have become like deer
That find no pasture,
That ^[e]flee without strength
Before the pursuer.

⁷ In the days of her affliction and roaming,
Jerusalem ^(L)remembers all her pleasant things
That she had in the days of old.
When her people fell into the hand of the enemy,
With no one to help her,
The adversaries saw her
And mocked at her ^[f]downfall.

^8 (M)Jerusalem has sinned gravely,
Therefore she has become ^[g]vile.
All who honored her despise her
Because ^(N)they have seen her nakedness;
Yes, she sighs and turns away.

⁹ Her uncleanness is in her skirts;
She ^(O)did not consider her destiny;
Therefore her collapse was awesome;
She had no comforter.
“O Lord, behold my affliction,
For the enemy is exalted!”

¹⁰ The adversary has spread his hand
Over all her ^[h]pleasant things;
For she has seen ^(P)the nations enter her ^[i]sanctuary,
Those whom You commanded
^(Q)Not to enter Your assembly.

¹¹ All her people sigh,
^(R)They ^[j]seek bread;
They have given their ^[k]valuables for food to restore life.
“See, O Lord, and consider,
For I am scorned.”

¹² “Is it nothing to you, all you who ^[l]pass by?
Behold and see
^(S)If there is any sorrow like my sorrow,
Which has been brought on me,
Which the Lord has inflicted
In the day of His fierce anger.

¹³ “From above He has sent fire into my bones,
And it overpowered them;
He has ^(T)spread a net for my feet
And turned me back;
He has made me desolate
And faint all the day.

¹⁴ “The^(U) yoke of my transgressions was ^[m]bound;
They were woven together by His hands,
And thrust upon my neck.
He made my strength fail;
The Lord delivered me into the hands of those whom I am not able to withstand.

¹⁵ “The Lord has trampled underfoot all my mighty men in my midst;
He has called an assembly against me
To crush my young men;
^(V)The Lord trampled as in a winepress
The virgin daughter of Judah.

¹⁶ “For these things I weep;
My eye, ^(W)my eye overflows with water;
Because the comforter, who should restore my life,
Is far from me.
My children are desolate
Because the enemy prevailed.”

^17 (X)Zion ^[n]spreads out her hands,
But no one comforts her;
The Lord has commanded concerning Jacob
That those ^(Y)around him become his adversaries;
Jerusalem has become an unclean thing among them.

¹⁸ “The Lord is ^(Z)righteous,
For I ^(AA)rebelled against His ^[o]commandment.
Hear now, all peoples,
And behold my sorrow;
My virgins and my young men
Have gone into captivity.

¹⁹ “I called for my lovers,
But they deceived me;
My priests and my elders
Breathed their last in the city,
While they sought food
To restore their life.

²⁰ “See, O Lord, that I am in distress;
My ^(AB)soul^[p] is troubled;
My heart is overturned within me,
For I have been very rebellious.
^(AC)Outside the sword bereaves,
At home it is like death.

²¹ “They have heard that I sigh,
But no one comforts me.
All my enemies have heard of my trouble;
They are ^(AD)glad that You have done it.
Bring on ^(AE)the day You have ^[q]announced,
That they may become like me.

²² “Let^(AF) all their wickedness come before You,
And do to them as You have done to me
For all my transgressions;
For my sighs are many,
And my heart is faint.”

² The Lord has swallowed up and has ^(AK)not pitied
All the dwelling places of Jacob.
He has thrown down in His wrath
The strongholds of the daughter of Judah;
He has brought them down to the ground;
^(AL)He has profaned the kingdom and its princes.

³ He has cut off in fierce anger
Every ^[r]horn of Israel;
^(AM)He has drawn back His right hand
From before the enemy.
^(AN)He has blazed against Jacob like a flaming fire
Devouring all around.

^4 (AO)Standing like an enemy, He has bent His bow;
With His right hand, like an adversary,
He has slain ^(AP)all who were pleasing to His eye;
On the tent of the daughter of Zion,
He has poured out His fury like fire.

^5 (AQ)The Lord was like an enemy.
He has swallowed up Israel,
He has swallowed up all her palaces;
^(AR)He has destroyed her strongholds,
And has increased mourning and lamentation
In the daughter of Judah.

⁶ He has done violence ^(AS)to His ^[s]tabernacle,
^(AT)As if it were a garden;
He has destroyed His place of assembly;
The Lord has caused
The appointed feasts and Sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion.
In His burning indignation He has ^(AU)spurned the king and the priest.

⁷ The Lord has spurned His altar,
He has ^(AV)abandoned His sanctuary;
He has ^[t]given up the walls of her palaces
Into the hand of the enemy.
^(AW)They have made a noise in the house of the Lord
As on the day of a set feast.

⁸ The Lord has ^[u]purposed to destroy
The ^(AX)wall of the daughter of Zion.
^(AY)He has stretched out a line;
He has not withdrawn His hand from destroying;
Therefore He has caused the rampart and wall to lament;
They languished together.

⁹ Her gates have sunk into the ground;
He has destroyed and ^(AZ)broken her bars.
^(BA)Her king and her princes are among the ^[v]nations;
^(BB)The Law is no more,
And her ^(BC)prophets find no ^[w]vision from the Lord.

¹⁰ The elders of the daughter of Zion
^(BD)Sit on the ground and keep silence;
^[x]They ^(BE)throw dust on their heads
And ^(BF)gird themselves with sackcloth.
The virgins of Jerusalem
Bow their heads to the ground.

^11 (BG)My eyes fail with tears,
My ^[y]heart is troubled;
^(BH)My ^[z]bile is poured on the ground
Because of the destruction of the daughter of my people,
Because ^(BI)the children and the infants
Faint in the streets of the city.

¹² They say to their mothers,
“Where is grain and wine?”
As they swoon like the wounded
In the streets of the city,
As their life is poured out
In their mothers’ bosom.

¹³ How shall I ^(BJ)console^[aa] you?
To what shall I liken you,
O daughter of Jerusalem?
What shall I compare with you, that I may comfort you,
O virgin daughter of Zion?
For your ruin is spread wide as the sea;
Who can heal you?

¹⁴ Your ^(BK)prophets have seen for you
False and deceptive visions;
They have not ^(BL)uncovered your iniquity,
To bring back your captives,
But have envisioned for you false ^(BM)prophecies and delusions.

¹⁵ All who ^[ab]pass by ^(BN)clap their hands at you;
They hiss ^(BO)and shake their heads
At the daughter of Jerusalem:
“Is this the city that is called
^(BP)‘The perfection of beauty,
The joy of the whole earth’?”

^16 (BQ)All your enemies have opened their mouth against you;
They hiss and gnash their teeth.
They say, ^(BR)“We have swallowed her up!
Surely this is the ^(BS)day we have waited for;
We have found it, ^(BT)we have seen it!”

¹⁷ The Lord has done what He ^(BU)purposed;
He has fulfilled His word
Which He commanded in days of old.
He has thrown down and has not pitied,
And He has caused an enemy to ^(BV)rejoice over you;
He has exalted the ^[ac]horn of your adversaries.

¹⁸ Their heart cried out to the Lord,
“O wall of the daughter of Zion,
^(BW)Let tears run down like a river day and night;
Give yourself no relief;
Give ^[ad]your eyes no rest.

¹⁹ “Arise, ^(BX)cry out in the night,
At the beginning of the watches;
^(BY)Pour out your heart like water before the face of the Lord.
Lift your hands toward Him
For the life of your young children,
Who faint from hunger ^(BZ)at the head of every street.”

²⁰ “See, O Lord, and consider!
To whom have You done this?
^(CA)Should the women eat their offspring,
The children ^[ae]they have cuddled?
Should the priest and prophet be slain
In the sanctuary of the Lord?

²¹ “Young^(CB) and old lie
On the ground in the streets;
My virgins and my young men
Have fallen by the ^(CC)sword;
You have slain them in the day of Your anger,
You have slaughtered and not pitied.

²² “You have invited as to a feast day
^(CD)The terrors that surround me.
In the day of the Lord’s anger
There was no refugee or survivor.
^(CE)Those whom I have borne and brought up
My enemies have ^(CF)destroyed.”

² I will behave wisely in a ^[a]perfect way.
Oh, when will You come to me?
I will ^(A)walk within my house with a perfect heart.

³ I will set nothing ^[b]wicked before my eyes;
^(B)I hate the work of those ^(C)who fall away;
It shall not cling to me.
⁴ A perverse heart shall depart from me;
I will not ^(D)know wickedness.

⁵ Whoever secretly slanders his neighbor,
Him I will destroy;
^(E)The one who has a haughty look and a proud heart,
Him I will not endure.

⁶ My eyes shall be on the faithful of the land,
That they may dwell with me;
He who walks in a ^[c]perfect way,
He shall serve me.
⁷ He who works deceit shall not dwell within my house;
He who tells lies shall not ^[d]continue in my presence.
^8 (F)Early I will destroy all the wicked of the land,
That I may cut off all the evildoers ^(G)from the city of the Lord.

²⁰ Where there is no wood, the fire goes out;
And where there is no ^[a]talebearer, strife ceases.