Lamentations 1:1-9 ▼

1 How lonely sits the city That was great with people! She has become like a widow Who was once great among the nations! She who was a princess among the provinces Has become a forced laborer!

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

3 Judah has gone into exile because of affliction And because of great slavery; She sits among the nations, But she has found no rest; All her pursuers have overtaken her In the midst of distress.

4 The roads of Zion are in mourning Because no one comes to the appointed times. All her gates are desolate; Her priests are sighing, Her virgins are grieving, And she herself is bitter.

5 Her adversaries have become her masters; Her enemies are complacent; For Yahweh has caused her grief Because of the greatness of her transgressions; Her infants have gone away As captives before the adversary.

6 So all her majesty Has gone out from the daughter of Zion; Her princes have become like deer That have found no pasture; So they have fled without strength Before the pursuer.

7 In the days of her affliction and homelessness Jerusalem remembers all her precious things That were from the days of old, When her people fell into the hand of the adversary And no one helped her. The adversaries saw her; They laughed at her ruin.

8 Jerusalem sinned greatly; Therefore she has become an impure thing. All who honored her despise her Because they have seen her nakedness; Even she herself sighs and turns away.

9 Her uncleanness was in her skirts; She did not remember her future. Therefore she has gone down astonishingly; She has no comforter. “See, O Yahweh, my affliction, For the enemy has magnified himself!”