Lamentations 1:1-9 ▼

1 How the city sits solitary, that was full of people. She has become as a widow, who was 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; 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 and harsh servitude; she dwells among the nations, she finds no rest: all her persecutors overtook her in the midst of her distress.

4 The roads to Zion mourn, because no one comes to the solemn assembly; all her gates are desolate, her priests groan: her virgins are afflicted, and she herself is in bitterness.

5 Her adversaries have become the head, her enemies prosper; for the LORD has afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions: her young children have gone into captivity before the adversary.

6 All majesty has departed from the daughter of Zion: her leaders have become like deer that find no pasture, they fled exhausted before the pursuer.

7 Jerusalem remembers in the days of her affliction and wandering 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 mocked at her desolations.

8 Jerusalem has grievously sinned; therefore she has become as an unclean thing; all who honored her despise her, because they have seen her nakedness: yes, she groans, and turns away.

9 Her filthiness was in her skirts; she did not remember her latter end; therefore her fall was astonishing; she has no comforter. |Look, LORD, on my affliction, for the enemy has magnified himself.|