1 How doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people! how
is she become as a widow! she that was great among the nations, and
princess among the provinces, how is she become tributary!
2 She weepeth sore in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks: among
all her lovers she hath none to comfort her: all her friends have dealt
treacherously with her, they are become her enemies.
3 Judah is gone into captivity because of affliction, and because of great
servitude: she dwelleth among the heathen, she findeth no rest: all her
persecutors overtook her between the straits.
4 The ways of Zion do mourn, because none come to the solemn feasts: all her
gates are desolate: her priests sigh, her virgins are afflicted, and she is
in bitterness.
5 Her adversaries are the chief, her enemies prosper; for hath afflicted
her for the multitude of her transgressions: her children are gone into
captivity before the enemy.
6 And from the daughter of Zion all her beauty is departed: her princes are
become like harts that find no pasture, and they are gone without
strength before the pursuer.
7 Jerusalem remembered in the days of her affliction and of her miseries all her
pleasant things that she had in the days of old, when her people fell into the
hand of the enemy, and none did help her: the adversaries saw her, and
did mock at her sabbaths.
8 Jerusalem hath grievously sinned; therefore she is removed: all that honoured
her despise her, because they have seen her nakedness: yea, she sigheth, and
turneth backward.
9 Her filthiness is in her skirts; she remembereth not her last end;
therefore she came down wonderfully: she had no comforter. O LORD, behold my
affliction: for the enemy hath magnified himself.
10 The adversary hath spread out his hand upon all her pleasant things: for she
hath seen that the heathen entered into her sanctuary, whom didst
command that they should not enter into congregation.
11 All her people sigh, they seek bread; they have given their pleasant things
for meat to relieve the soul: see, O LORD, and consider; for I am become vile.
12 Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? behold, and see if there
be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith hath
afflicted me in the day of fierce anger.
13 From above hath sent fire into my bones, and it prevaileth against them:
hath spread a net for my feet, hath turned me back: hath made me
desolate and faint all the day.
14 The yoke of my transgressions is bound by hand: they are wreathed, and
come up upon my neck: hath made my strength to fall, hath delivered
me into their hands, from whom I am not able to rise up.
15 hath trodden under foot all my mighty men in the midst of
me: hath called an assembly against me to crush my young men: hath
trodden the virgin, the daughter of Judah, as in a winepress.
16 For these things I weep; mine eye, mine eye runneth down with water,
because the comforter that should relieve my soul is far from me: my children
are desolate, because the enemy prevailed.
17 Zion spreadeth forth her hands, and there is none to comfort her:
hath commanded concerning Jacob, that adversaries should
be round about him: Jerusalem is as a menstruous woman among them.
18 is righteous; for I have rebelled against commandment: hear, I
pray you, all people, and behold my sorrow: my virgins and my young men are gone
into captivity.
19 I called for my lovers, but they deceived me: my priests and mine
elders gave up the ghost in the city, while they sought their meat to relieve
their souls.
20 Behold, O LORD; for I am in distress: my bowels are troubled; mine
heart is turned within me; for I have grievously rebelled: abroad the sword
bereaveth, at home there is as death.
21 They have heard that I sigh: there is none to comfort me: all mine
enemies have heard of my trouble; they are glad that hast done it:
wilt bring the day that hast called, and they shall be like
unto me.
22 Let all their wickedness come before ; and do unto them, as hast
done unto me for all my transgressions: for my sighs are many, and my
heart is faint.
~ Lamentations 2 ~
1 How hath covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in anger, and
cast down from heaven unto the earth the beauty of Israel, and remembered not
footstool in the day of anger!
2 hath swallowed up all the habitations of Jacob, and hath not pitied:
he hath thrown down in wrath the strong holds of the daughter of Judah;
hath brought them down to the ground: hath polluted the kingdom and
the princes thereof.
3 hath cut off in fierce anger all the horn of Israel: hath
drawn back right hand from before the enemy, and burned against Jacob
like a flaming fire, which devoureth round about.
4 hath bent bow like an enemy: stood with right hand as an
adversary, and slew all that were pleasant to the eye in the tabernacle
of the daughter of Zion: poured out fury like fire.
5 was as an enemy: he hath swallowed up Israel, he hath swallowed up all
her palaces: he hath destroyed strong holds, and hath increased in the
daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation.
6 And he hath violently taken away tabernacle, as if it were of a
garden: he hath destroyed places of the assembly: hath caused the
solemn feasts and sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion, and hath despised in the
indignation of anger the king and the priest.
7 hath cast off altar, hath abhorred sanctuary, hath given
up into the hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces; they have made a noise
in the house of , as in the day of a solemn feast.
8 hath purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion: hath
stretched out a line, hath not withdrawn hand from destroying: therefore
he made the rampart and the wall to lament; they languished together.
9 Her gates are sunk into the ground; hath destroyed and broken her bars: her
king and her princes are among the Gentiles: the law is no more;
her prophets also find no vision from .
10 The elders of the daughter of Zion sit upon the ground, and keep
silence: they have cast up dust upon their heads; they have girded themselves
with sackcloth: the virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground.
11 Mine eyes do fail with tears, my bowels are troubled, my liver is poured upon
the earth, for the destruction of the daughter of my people; because the
children and the sucklings swoon in the streets of the city.
12 They say to their mothers, Where is corn and wine? when they swooned
as the wounded in the streets of the city, when their soul was poured out into
their mothers' bosom.
13 What thing shall I take to witness for thee? what thing shall I liken to
thee, O daughter of Jerusalem? what shall I equal to thee, that I may comfort
thee, O virgin daughter of Zion? for thy breach is great like the sea:
who can heal thee?
14 Thy prophets have seen vain and foolish things for thee: and they have not
discovered thine iniquity, to turn away thy captivity; but have seen for thee
false burdens and causes of banishment.
15 All that pass by clap their hands at thee; they hiss and wag their
head at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying, Is this the city that men
call The perfection of beauty, The joy of the whole earth?
16 All thine enemies have opened their mouth against thee: they hiss and gnash
the teeth: they say, We have swallowed her up: certainly this is
the day that we looked for; we have found, we have seen it.
17 hath done that which had devised; he hath fulfilled
word that had commanded in the days of old: hath thrown down, and hath not
pitied: and hath caused thine enemy to rejoice over thee, hath
set up the horn of thine adversaries.
18 Their heart cried unto , O wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears run
down like a river day and night: give thyself no rest; let not the apple of
thine eye cease.
19 Arise, cry out in the night: in the beginning of the watches pour out thine
heart like water before the face of : lift up thy hands toward for
the life of thy young children, that faint for hunger in the top of every
street.
20 Behold, O LORD, and consider to whom hast done this. Shall the women eat
their fruit, and children of a span long? shall the priest and the
prophet be slain in the sanctuary of ?
21 The young and the old lie on the ground in the streets: my virgins and my
young men are fallen by the sword; hast slain them in the day of
thine anger; hast killed, and not pitied.
22 hast called as in a solemn day my terrors round about, so that in the
day of 's anger none escaped nor remained: those that I have swaddled and
brought up hath mine enemy consumed.
~ Lamentations 3 ~
1 I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of
wrath.
2 hath led me, and brought me into darkness, but not into
light.
3 Surely against me is he turned; turneth hand against me all
the day.
4 My flesh and my skin hath made old; hath broken my bones.
5 hath builded against me, and compassed me with gall and travail.
6 hath set me in dark places, as they that be dead of old.
7 hath hedged me about, that I cannot get out: hath made my chain heavy.
8 Also when I cry and shout, shutteth out my prayer.
9 hath inclosed my ways with hewn stone, hath made my paths crooked.
10 was unto me as a bear lying in wait, and as a
lion in secret places.
11 hath turned aside my ways, and pulled me in pieces: hath made me
desolate.
12 hath bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow.
13 hath caused the arrows of his quiver to enter into my reins.
14 I was a derision to all my people; and their song all the day.
15 hath filled me with bitterness, hath made me drunken with wormwood.
16 hath also broken my teeth with gravel stones, hath covered me with
ashes.
17 And hast removed my soul far off from peace: I forgat prosperity.
18 And I said, My strength and my hope is perished from :
19 Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall.
20 My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me.
21 This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope.
22 It is of 's mercies that we are not consumed, because
compassions fail not.
23 They are new every morning: great is faithfulness.
24 is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in .
25 is good unto them that wait for , to the soul that
seeketh .
26 It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for
the salvation of .
27 It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.
28 He sitteth alone and keepeth silence, because hath borne it upon
him.
29 He putteth his mouth in the dust; if so be there may be hope.
30 He giveth his cheek to that smiteth him: he is filled full with
reproach.
31 For will not cast off for ever:
32 But though cause grief, yet will have compassion according to the
multitude of his mercies.
33 For doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men.
34 To crush under feet all the prisoners of the earth,
35 To turn aside the right of a man before the face of the most HIGH,
36 To subvert a man in his cause, approveth not.
37 Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when
commandeth it not?
38 Out of the mouth of the most HIGH proceedeth not evil and good?
39 Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?
40 Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to .
41 Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto in the heavens.
42 We have transgressed and have rebelled: hast not pardoned.
43 hast covered with anger, and persecuted us: hast slain, hast
not pitied.
44 hast covered THYSELF with a cloud, that our prayer should not
pass through.
45 hast made us as the offscouring and refuse in the midst of the
people.
46 All our enemies have opened their mouths against us.
47 Fear and a snare is come upon us, desolation and destruction.
48 Mine eye runneth down with rivers of water for the destruction of the
daughter of my people.
49 Mine eye trickleth down, and ceaseth not, without any intermission,
50 Till look down, and behold from heaven.
51 Mine eye affecteth mine heart because of all the daughters of my city.
52 Mine enemies chased me sore, like a bird, without cause.
53 They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and cast a stone upon me.
54 Waters flowed over mine head; then I said, I am cut off.
55 I called upon name, O LORD, out of the low dungeon.
56 hast heard my voice: hide not ear at my breathing, at my cry.
57 drewest near in the day that I called upon : thou saidst,
Fear not.
58 O LORD, hast pleaded the causes of my soul; hast redeemed my life.
59 O LORD, hast seen my wrong: judge my cause.
60 hast seen all their vengeance and all their imaginations
against me.
61 hast heard their reproach, O LORD, and all their imaginations
against me;
62 The lips of those that rose up against me, and their device against me all
the day.
63 Behold their sitting down, and their rising up; I am their musick.
64 Render unto them a recompence, O LORD, according to the work of their hands.
65 Give them sorrow of heart, curse unto them.
66 Persecute and destroy them in anger from under the heavens of .
~ Lamentations 4 ~
1 How is the gold become dim! how is the most fine gold changed! the
stones of the sanctuary are poured out in the top of every street.
2 The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, how are they esteemed as
earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter!
3 Even the sea monsters draw out the breast, they give suck to their young ones:
the daughter of my people is become cruel, like the ostriches in the
wilderness.
4 The tongue of the sucking child cleaveth to the roof of his mouth for thirst:
the young children ask bread, and no man breaketh it unto
them.
5 They that did feed delicately are desolate in the streets: they that were
brought up in scarlet embrace dunghills.
6 For the punishment of the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater
than the punishment of the sin of Sodom, that was overthrown as in a moment, and
no hands stayed on her.
7 Her Nazarites were purer than snow, they were whiter than milk, they were more
ruddy in body than rubies, their polishing was of sapphire:
8 Their visage is blacker than a coal; they are not known in the streets: their
skin cleaveth to their bones; it is withered, it is become like a stick.
9 They that be slain with the sword are better than they that be
slain with hunger: for these pine away, stricken through for want of
the fruits of the field.
10 The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children: they were
their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people.
11 hath accomplished fury; hath poured out fierce anger, and
hath kindled a fire in Zion, and it hath devoured the foundations thereof.
12 The kings of the earth, and all the inhabitants of the world, would not have
believed that the adversary and the enemy should have entered into the gates of
Jerusalem.
13 For the sins of her prophets, and the iniquities of her priests,
that have shed the blood of the just in the midst of her,
14 They have wandered as blind men in the streets, they have
polluted themselves with blood, so that men could not touch their garments.
15 They cried unto them, Depart ye; it is unclean; depart, depart,
touch not: when they fled away and wandered, they said among the heathen, They
shall no more sojourn there.
16 The anger of hath divided them; will no more regard them: they
respected not the persons of the priests, they favoured not the elders.
17 As for us, our eyes as yet failed for our vain help: in our watching we have
watched for a nation that could not save us.
18 They hunt our steps, that we cannot go in our streets: our end is near, our
days are fulfilled; for our end is come.
19 Our persecutors are swifter than the eagles of the heaven: they pursued us
upon the mountains, they laid wait for us in the wilderness.
20 The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of , was taken in their pits,
of whom we said, Under shadow we shall live among the heathen.
21 Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, that dwellest in the land of Uz; the
cup also shall pass through unto thee: thou shalt be drunken, and shalt make
thyself naked.
22 The punishment of thine iniquity is accomplished, O daughter of Zion; he will
no more carry thee away into captivity: he will visit thine iniquity, O daughter
of Edom; he will discover thy sins.
~ Lamentations 5 ~
1 Remember, O LORD, what is come upon us: consider, and behold our reproach.
2 Our inheritance is turned to strangers, our houses to aliens.
3 We are orphans and fatherless, our mothers are as widows.
4 We have drunken our water for money; our wood is sold unto us.
5 Our necks are under persecution: we labour, and have no
rest.
6 We have given the hand to the Egyptians, and to the
Assyrians, to be satisfied with bread.
7 Our fathers have sinned, and are not; and we have borne their
iniquities.
8 Servants have ruled over us: there is none that doth deliver us
out of their hand.
9 We gat our bread with the peril of our lives because of the sword of
the wilderness.
10 Our skin was black like an oven because of the terrible famine.
11 They ravished the women in Zion, and the maids in the cities of
Judah.
12 Princes are hanged up by their hand: the faces of elders were not honoured.
13 They took the young men to grind, and the children fell under the wood.
14 The elders have ceased from the gate, the young men from their musick.
15 The joy of our heart is ceased; our dance is turned into mourning.
16 The crown is fallen from our head: woe unto us, that we have sinned!
17 For this our heart is faint; for these things our eyes are dim.
18 Because of the mountain of Zion, which is desolate, the foxes walk upon it.
19 , O LORD, remainest for ever; throne from generation to generation.
20 Wherefore dost forget us for ever, and forsake us so long time?
21 Turn us unto , O LORD, and we shall be turned; renew our days as of
old.
22 But hast utterly rejected us; art very wroth against us.