Lamentations; Byington.

1 How lonely she sits, the city great in people!
she has become like a widow, the great among the nations.
Princess among the provinces, she has come to serfdom.
2 She is weeping in the night, has tears on her cheeks;
there is not a comforter for her out of all her lovers,
all her friends have played her false, become enemies to her.
3* Judah has gone to an expatriate life because of destitution and overwork;
she has settled among the nations but not found a resting-place;
everybody who was hunting her down has come upon her in a tight place.
4* The roads to Sion are mourning not to have people coming in to the holy dates;
all her gates are desolate, her priests are moaning,
her maidens are sorrowing, and she is in bitter grief.
5 Her foes are in control, her enemies are untroubled,
because Jehovah has reduced her to misery for her multitude of crimes.
The children in her have gone into foreign slavery before the foe.
6 And all the stateliness of the daughter of Sion has gone out of her,
her generals have become like deer that find no pasture
and have gone along strengthless before a pursuer.
7* Jerusalem remembers her days of misery and homelessness
when her people were falling by a foeman’s hand and she had no helper;
foemen saw her, laughed over her extinction.
8 Jerusalem did sin, so she has become a piece of garbage;
all who had been honoring her hold her cheap because they have seen her nakedness;
she too moans and retreats backward.
9 She has her defilement on her skirts; she did not bethink herself of her future.
She has come down extraordinarily; there is nobody to comfort her.
“Jehovah, see my miserable state, because the enemy is swaggering.”
10 A foe has spread his hand over all she held dear;
for she has seen heathens come into her sanctuary,
of whom you commanded “you shall not have them come into the assembly.”
11 All her people are moaning, hunting for bread,
have given what they held dearest for food to bring back life.
See, Jehovah, and look, because I stand cheap.
12 Not toward you, all passersby! look and see
if there is a hurt like mine that has been inflicted on me,
the sorrow Jehovah gave me in his day of anger.
13* From aloft he sent fire down into my bones,
he spread his net for my feet, drove me backward,
struck me desolate, sick all day.
14 He paid attention to my offenses; they interwove in his hands, they came up over my neck, he brought my strength to a fall.
The Lord gave me into the hands of those against whom I cannot stand up.
15* The Lord has spurned all my braves within me,
has called a convention against me to mangle my young men, trodden winepress for Judah’s maiden daughter.
16 Over these things I weep, my eye streams down water,
because far away is any who would comfort me, would bring me back to life,
my sons are desolate because an enemy is in power.
17 Sion spreads out her hands, has no comforter.
Jehovah has commissioned Jacob’s foes all round him,
Jerusalem has become a piece of garbage among them.
18 Jehovah is in the right, because I had disobeyed him.
Listen, all peoples, and see my hurt!
My maidens and young men have gone into foreign slavery.
19 I called to my lovers; they failed me.
My priests and elders breathed their last in the city
when they had hunted for food to bring their lives back with.
20* See, Jehovah, how I am distressed; my vitals are boiling,
my heart turns over in me, because I was disobedient.
Outdoors the sword bereaves, indoors there is death.
21 Listen when I moan! I have no comforter.
All my enemies hear of my calamity, they rejoice because you acted.
Bring the day you have announced and let them be like me!
22 Let all their viciousness come before you
and treat them as you treated me for all my crimes.
For my moans are many and my heart is sick.
2* How the Lord in his anger clouds Sion’s daughter in,
has thrown the magnificence of Israel from sky to earth,
and not remembered his footstool on his day of anger!
2* The Lord has unsparingly swept off all Jacob’s meadows,
has in his wrath demolished the fortifications of the daughter of Judah,
has laid in the dust, desecrated, a kingdom and its generals.
3 In his anger he has chopped off every horn of Israel’s, turned his right hand backward before an enemy,
and blazed in Jacob like a flaming fire devouring on all sides.
4* He has bent his bow like an enemy, brought up his right hand like a foe,
and killed all that were a delight to the eye;
on the tent of the daughter of Sion he has poured his choler like fire.
5 The Lord has been like an enemy, has swept Israel off,
swept off all his palaces, ruined his fortresses,
and brought into the daughter of Judah much of grievance and grieving,
6 And he has ruthlessly dismantled her lodge like a shack in a garden,
has ruined her meeting-place,
Jehovah has caused meeting-day and sabbath to be forgotten in Sion,
and in his angry hostility has contemned king and priest.
7 The Lord has repudiated his altar, ignored his sanctuary,
given up to an enemy the walls of her palaces;
they made a noise in Jehovah’s house that sounded like an annual feast.
8 Jehovah planned to wreck the walls of the daughter of Sion;
he stretched a line, did not turn his hand back from sweeping it down,
and let bulwark and wall mourn, forlorn together.
9* Her gates have sunk into the earth; he has destroyed and shattered her bars;
her king and generals are among the nations; there are no rulings on religion;
her prophets too have not found any vision from Jehovah.
10 The elders of the daughter of Sion sit silent on the ground,
have put earth over their heads, have belted on sackcloths;
the maidens of Jerusalem have put their heads down on the ground.
11* My eyes are used up in tears, my vitals are boiling,
my heart runs out of me for the broken bones of the daughter of my people,
when little boy and baby collapse in town squares;
12* They say to their mothers “Where is some grain and wine?”
while they faint away in city squares like a man mortally wounded,
while their life runs out in their mothers’ laps.
13 What shall I quote to you, what shall I compare you to, daughter Jerusalem?
what shall I parallel to you to comfort you, maiden daughter of Sion?
for your mauling is great as the sea; who shall heal you?
14*** Your prophets have furnished you futile and unctuous visions, have not spoken out about your guilt to bring you back
but have given you visions that are delusion, futility, and exile.
15 All passersby struck their hands together over you,
whistled and shook their heads at the daughter of Jerusalem:
“Is this the city that was spoken of as perfect in beauty, a joy to all the earth?”
16* All your enemies opened their mouths wide at you,
whistled and ground their teeth, said “We have made a clean sweep;
this is just the day we were hoping for; it has turned up, we see the sight.”
17 Jehovah has done what he designed, finished up his dictate
that he ordained from olden days, demolished unsparingly, gladdened your enemies over you, given your foes a high horn.
18*** Their hearts cried out to the Lord hotly; daughter of Sion,
pour down your tears like a flooded brook day and night,
take no anodyne, let your eyeball never be still.
19* Stand up and clamor in the night, at each new watch,
pour out your hearts in Jehovah’s face like water,
raise your hands to him for the lives of your boys and girls
who have fainted away with hunger at the tops of all the streets.
20 See, Jehovah! look whom you have handled so!
or should women eat their own fruit, their petted children?
or should priest and prophet be killed in the Lord’s sanctuary?
21 Boy and old man are lying on the ground in the streets;
my maidens and young men have fallen by the sword;
on your day of anger you killed, slaughtered, had no mercy.
22 You are calling my terrors on every side as if for the day of an annual feast,
and there were none on the day of Jehovah’s anger that escaped or survived.

Those that I had petted and brought up my enemy has swept away.
3 I am the man that saw hardship
by the cudgel of his wrath.
2 Me he drove along to go
darkling, unlighted.
3 Only at me all day
he kept turning back his hand.
4 He wore away my flesh and skin,
shattered my bones,
5* Built siege-works against me and surrounded
my head with hard experiences,
6 Seated me in places of darkness
like men long since dead.
7 He walled me off so that I could not get out,
made my fetters heavy.
8 Withal when I cried and clamored
he shut off my prayer.
9* He walled up my road with masonry,
kept me making detours.
10 An ambushed bear he was to me,
a lion under cover.
11 My roads he filled with briers and tore my flesh,
laid me desolate.
12 He strung his bow and set me up
like a target for the arrow,
13* Sent in the contents of his quiver
into my waist.
14* I became a butt for the laughter of all my people,
for their jingles all day long.
15 He filled me up with bitter greens,
gave me wormwood-juice for refreshment,
16 And rasped my teeth with gravel,
thrust me down in the ashes.
17* And you banned my soul from welfare;
I forgot such a thing as good,
18 And said “my continuance is lost,
and my expectation from Jehovah.”
19* The recollection of my miserable and homeless state is wormwood and opium.
20* Recollect my soul does,
and is downhearted within me.
21 This I will bring back to mind,
will therefore wait,
22 Jehovah’s friendlinesses, that they are not exhausted,
that his sympathy has not come to an end,
23 New every morning;
great is your loyalty.
24 Jehovah is my portion, my soul has said;
therefore I will wait for him.
25 Jehovah is good to those who hope in him,
to a soul that betakes itself to him.
26 Good it is that one wait, and in silence,
for Jehovah’s salvation.
27 Good it is for a man that he carry
a yoke in his youth,
28 Sit alone and be still
because it was laid on him,
29 Put his mouth in the dust,—
perhaps there may be hope,—
30 Give his cheek to the one who strikes him,
take his fill of humiliation.
31* For the Lord will not repudiate
man forever,
32 For if he causes misery he will have sympathy
in accordance with his great friendliness,
33 For he does not arbitrarily grind down
sons of man and bring them to misery.
34 To beating down underfoot
all earth’s prisoners,
35 To warping the law against a man
in the face of the Most High,
36 To circumventing a man in his suit over his rights,
the Lord does not assent.
37* Who is there that says a thing and has it come
when the Lord has not ordered it?
38 Do not evils and good come
out of the mouth of the Most High?
39* What should a living man bemoan,
a man over his sin?
40 Let us search our course and examine it,
and come back to Jehovah.
41 Let us hold up our hearts in our hands
to Deity in heaven.
42 We were criminal and disobedient;
you did not forgive.
43 You overspread us with anger and pursued us,
you killed without mercy.
44 You overspread yourself with a cloud
to keep our prayers from coming through.
45 You are making us an offscouring and a bit of refuse
among the peoples.
46 All our enemies have opened
their mouths wide at us.
47* We face dread and chasm,
breaking and crash.
48 My eyes run streams of water
for the breaking of the daughter of my people.
49 My eyes are running out and never halting
for lack of a soothing balm.
50 Till Jehovah from the sky
looks out and sees,
51 My eyes handle my soul cruelly
because of all the daughters of my city.
52 My unprovoked enemies hunted me
down like a sparrow.
53 They extinguished my life in the pit
and flung stones on me.
54 Water rolled over my head;
I thought “It is all over with me.”
55 I called your name, Jehovah,
out of the abysmal pit;
56* You heard my voice, “Do not let your ears
disregard my freedom, my clamor.”
57 You drew near on the day I called you,
you said “Do not be afraid.”
58 You upheld my right to exist, Lord,
you stood up for my life.
59 You, Jehovah, saw the chicanery against me,
did justice for me.
60 You saw all their revengefulness,
all that they thought of for me.
61 You heard their taunts, Jehovah,
all that they thought of against me,
62 My assailants’ lips
and their whispering against me all day.
63 Look at their sitting down and standing up;
I am the butt of their jingles.
64 You will give them back, Jehovah,
treatment that matches the work of their hands:
65* You will give them infatuated minds,
your curse for them,
66 Will pursue them in anger and root them out

from under Jehovah’s sky.
4 How gold is tarnishing, the best nuggets deteriorating,
Sacred stones being spilled at every street-corner!
2 Sion’s most precious sons, prized at their weight in red gold, how they were classed with earthen jars, work of a potter’s hands!
3 Even jackals offer a teat, suckle their cubs;
the daughter of my people became cruel like the ostriches in the wilderness.
4 A sucking baby’s tongue stuck to its palate for thirst.
Children asked for bread, had nobody that handed it to them.
5* Those who had been eating with dainties were starving about the streets.
Those who had been laid on scarlet hugged rubbish on the dumps.
6 And the guilt of the daughter of my people showed greater than the sin of Sodom
that was overthrown all at once and hands were not busy on her.
7*** Her devotees were more stainless than snow, more white than milk,
redder-limbed than coral, their tattooing lapis lazuli.
8 Their figures turned darker than charcoal, they were not to be recognized on the street;
their skins shrank over their bones, dried out, became like wood.
9** Those who were struck down by swords were better off than those who were struck down by starvation,
inasmuch as those, stabbed through, would flow out in field crops.
10 The hands of tenderhearted women cooked their own children,
they served as mourning-dinner for them at the catastrophe
of the daughter of my people.
11 Jehovah wreaked his ire, poured out his anger,
and kindled a fire in Sion which consumed her foundations.
12 The kings of earth, and all the inhabitants of the world, had not believed
that foe and enemy would come in at Jerusalem’s gates.
13 For the sins of her prophets, the guilts of her priests,
who shed honest men’s blood within her,
14 They wandered blind in the streets, polluted with blood,
with what they could not touch with their clothes;
15 “Away! unclean!” they called out, “away! away! do not touch!” because they had taken wing, were on the move; they said among
the nations “They shall not be harbored any longer”;
16 Jehovah personally divided them, will no longer look at them. They had no respect for priests, no grace for old men.
17 Our eyes are still exhausting themselves looking toward our imaginary help;
on our lookout we watched for a nation that does not save.
18 They spied our steps too closely for walking in our squares;
our end had come near; our time was up; yes, our end had come.
19 Our pursuers were swifter than vultures in the sky;
on the mountains they ran us down, in the wilderness they lay in ambush for us.
20 The breath of our nostrils, Jehovah’s anointed, was caught in their pitfalls,
he of whom we thought “In his shadow we shall remain alive among the nations.”
21* Be joyous and glad, daughter of Edom, you that live in the country of ʽUs:
to you too will pass such a cup that you will get drunk and show your nakedness.
22 Your guilt is all done with, daughter of Sion; no more will he have you deported.

He has paid attention to your guilt, daughter of Edom; he has exposed your sins.
5 Remember, Jehovah, what happened to us;
look and see our ignominy.
2 Our estate has swung to strangers,
our houses to foreigners.
3 We have become fatherless orphans,
our mothers the same as widows.
4 We have been drinking our water for cash—
our wood comes in at a price.
5* We have had the pursuers close at our heels,
have been tired out, have been given no rest.
6* We have given ourselves up in Egypt,
in Assyria, to get a full meal.
7 Our fathers sinned; they are gone,
and we have been carrying their guilt.
8 Slaves have become rulers over us;
there is nobody to tear us out of their hand
9 We get our bread in at the cost of our lives
because of the wilderness sword.
10 Our skin is hot as a baking-crock
by the fever of starvation.
11 They deflowered women in Sion,
maidens in the cities of Judah.
12* Generals were impaled by their hands,
to elders’ faces no deference was paid.
13 Young men carried mills
and boys stumbled with timber.
14* Old men have desisted from sitting in gates,
young men from their lute-playing.
15 The joyousness of our hearts has ceased,
our dancing is turned to mourning,
16 The crown on our heads has fallen;
woe is ours, because we have sinned.
17 It is for this our hearts have grown sick,
it is for these things our eyes are darkened,
18 For Mount Sion, that it is desolated;
foxes walk over it.
19 You, Jehovah, are seated forever;
your throne is for generations upon generations;
20* Why are you forgetting us permanently,
leaving us while time goes on?
21 Bring us back to you, Jehovah, and back we will come;
give us new days like the old time,
22 —But you have repudiated us outright,
are incensed against us to the utmost.