Lamentations 1

English Standard Version

How Lonely Sits the City

1 How lonely sits the city

    that was full of people!

How like a widow has she become,

    she who was great among the nations!

She who was a princess among the provinces

    has become a slave.

2 She weeps bitterly in the night,

    with tears 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 Judah has gone into exile because of affliction[a]

    and hard servitude;

she dwells now among the nations,

    but finds no resting place;

her pursuers have all overtaken her

    in the midst of her distress.[b]

4 The roads to Zion mourn,

    for none come to the festival;

all her gates are desolate;

    her priests groan;

her virgins have been afflicted,[c]

    and she herself suffers bitterly.

5 Her foes have become the head;

    her enemies prosper,

because the Lord has afflicted her

    for the multitude of her transgressions;

her children have gone away,

    captives before the foe.

6 From the daughter of Zion

    all her majesty has departed.

Her princes have become like deer

    that find no pasture;

they fled without strength

    before the pursuer.

7 Jerusalem remembers

    in the days of her affliction and wandering

all the precious things

    that were hers from days of old.

When her people fell into the hand of the foe,

    and there was none to help her,

her foes gloated over her;

    they mocked at her downfall.

8 Jerusalem sinned grievously;

    therefore she became filthy;

all who honoured her despise her,

    for they have seen her nakedness;

she herself groans

    and turns her face away.

9 Her uncleanness was in her skirts;

    she took no thought of her future;[d]

therefore her fall is terrible;

    she has no comforter.

“O Lord, behold my affliction,

    for the enemy has triumphed!”

10 The enemy has stretched out his hands

    over all her precious things;

for she has seen the nations

    enter her sanctuary,

those whom you forbade

    to enter your congregation.

11 All her people groan

    as they search for bread;

they trade their treasures for food

    to revive their strength.

“Look, O Lord, and see,

    for I am despised.”

12 “Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by?

    Look and see

if there is any sorrow like my sorrow,

    which was brought upon me,

which the Lord inflicted

    on the day of his fierce anger.

13 “From on high he sent fire;

    into my bones[e] he made it descend;

he spread a net for my feet;

    he turned me back;

he has left me stunned,

    faint all the day long.

14 “My transgressions were bound[f] into a yoke;

    by his hand they were fastened together;

they were set upon my neck;

    he caused my strength to fail;

the Lord gave me into the hands

    of those whom I cannot withstand.

15 “The Lord rejected

    all my mighty men in my midst;

he summoned an assembly against me

    to crush my young men;

the Lord has trodden as in a winepress

    the virgin daughter of Judah.

16 “For these things I weep;

    my eyes flow with tears;

for a comforter is far from me,

    one to revive my spirit;

my children are desolate,

    for the enemy has prevailed.”

17 Zion stretches out her hands,

    but there is none to comfort her;

the Lord has commanded against Jacob

    that his neighbours should be his foes;

Jerusalem has become

    a filthy thing among them.

18 “The Lord is in the right,

    for I have rebelled against his word;

but hear, all you peoples,

    and see my suffering;

my young women and my young men

    have gone into captivity.

19 “I called to my lovers,

    but they deceived me;

my priests and elders

    perished in the city,

while they sought food

    to revive their strength.

20 “Look, O Lord, for I am in distress;

    my stomach churns;

my heart is wrung within me,

    because I have been very rebellious.

In the street the sword bereaves;

    in the house it is like death.

21 “They heard[g] my groaning,

    yet there is no one to comfort me.

All my enemies have heard of my trouble;

    they are glad that you have done it.

You have brought[h] the day you announced;

    now let them be as I am.

22 “Let all their evildoing come before you,

    and deal with them

as you have dealt with me

    because of all my transgressions;

for my groans are many,

    and my heart is faint.”

Footnotes

1. Lamentations 1:3 Or under affliction


2. Lamentations 1:3 Or in the narrow passes


3. Lamentations 1:4 Septuagint, Old Latin dragged away


4. Lamentations 1:9 Or end


5. Lamentations 1:13  Septuagint; Hebrew bones and


6. Lamentations 1:14  The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain


7. Lamentations 1:21  Septuagint, Syriac Hear


8. Lamentations 1:21  Syriac Bring