ACV - Lamentations

Chapter 1

1:1  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 tributary!

1:2  She weeps bitterly in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks. Among all her loved ones she has none to comfort her. All her friends have dealt treacherously with her, they have become her enemies.

1:3  Judah has gone into captivity because of affliction. And because of great servitude she dwells among the nations. She finds no rest. All her persecutors overtook her in the distress.

1:4  The ways of Zion mourn, because none come to the solemn assembly. All her gates are desolate. Her priests sigh. Her virgins are afflicted, and she herself is in bitterness.

1:5  Her adversaries have become the head. Her enemies prosper. For Jehovah has afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions. Her young sons have gone into captivity before the adversary.

1:6  And from the daughter of Zion all her majesty is departed. Her rulers have become like harts that find no pasture. And they have gone without strength before the pursuer.

1:7  Jerusalem remembers in the days of her affliction and of her miseries all her pleasant things that were from the days of old. When her people fell into the hand of the adversary, and none helped her, the adversaries saw her; they mocked at her desolations.

1:8  Jerusalem has grievously sinned, therefore she has become as an unclean thing. All who honored her despise her, because they have seen her nakedness. Yea, she sighs, and turns backward.

1:9  Her filthiness was in her skirts. She did not think of her latter end. Therefore she has come down astonishingly. She has no comforter. Behold, O Jehovah, my affliction, for the enemy has magnified himself.

1:10  The adversary has spread out his hand upon all her pleasant things. For she has seen that the nations have entered into her sanctuary, concerning whom thou commanded that they should not enter into thine assembly.

1:11  All her people sigh. They seek bread. They have given their pleasant things for food to refresh the soul. See, O Jehovah, and, behold, for I have become abject.

1:12  Is it nothing to you, all ye who pass by? Behold, and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow, which is brought upon me. Therewith Jehovah has afflicted in the day of his fierce anger.

1:13  From on high he has sent fire into my bones, and it prevails against them. He has spread a net for my feet. He has turned me back. He has made me desolate and faint all the day.

1:14  The yoke of my transgressions is bound by his hand. They are knit together. They have come up upon my neck. He has made my strength to fail. The Lord has delivered me into their hands, against whom I am not able to stand.

1:15  The Lord has trodden under foot all my mighty men in the midst of me. He has called a solemn assembly against me to crush my young men. The Lord has trodden the virgin daughter of Judah as in a winepress.

1:16  For these things I weep. My eye, my eye runs down with water, because the comforter who should refresh my soul is far from me. My sons are desolate, because the enemy has prevailed.

1:17  Zion spreads forth her hands. There is none to comfort her. Jehovah has commanded concerning Jacob, that those who are round about him should be his adversaries. Jerusalem is among them as an unclean thing.

1:18  Jehovah is righteous, for I have rebelled against his commandment. Hear, I pray you, all ye peoples, and behold my sorrow. My virgins and my young men have gone into captivity.

1:19  I called for my loved ones, but they deceived me. My priests and my elders gave up the spirit in the city, while they sought food for themselves to refresh their souls.

1:20  Behold, O Jehovah, for I am in distress. My heart is troubled. My heart is turned within me. For I have grievously rebelled. Abroad the sword bereaves; at home there is as death.

1:21  They have heard that I sigh. There is none to comfort me. All my enemies have heard of my trouble. They are glad that thou have done it. Thou will bring the day that thou have proclaimed, and they shall be like me.

1:22  Let all their wickedness come before thee, and do to them, as thou have done to me for all my transgressions. For my sighs are many, and my heart is faint.

Chapter 2

2:1  How the Lord has covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger! He has cast down the beauty of Israel from heaven to the earth, and has not remembered his footstool in the day of his anger.

2:2  The Lord has swallowed up all the habitations of Jacob, and has not pitied. In his wrath he has thrown down the strongholds of the daughter of Judah. He has brought them down to the ground. He has profaned the kingdom and the rulers thereof.

2:3  In fierce anger he has cut off all the horn of Israel. He has drawn back his right hand from before the enemy. And he has burned up Jacob like a flaming fire which devours round about.

2:4  He has bent his bow like an enemy. He has stood with his right hand as an adversary, and has slain all who were pleasant to the eye. He has poured out his wrath like fire in the tent of the daughter of Zion.

2:5  The Lord has become as an enemy. He has swallowed up Israel. He has swallowed up all her palaces. He has destroyed his strongholds. And he has multiplied mourning and lamentation in the daughter of Judah.

2:6  And he has taken away his tabernacle violently, as a garden. He has destroyed his place of assembly. Jehovah has caused solemn assembly and sabbath to be forgotten in Zion. And in the indignation of his anger has despised the king and the priest.

2:7  The Lord has cast off his altar. He has abhorred his sanctuary. He has given up the walls of her palaces into the hand of the enemy. They have made a noise in the house of Jehovah, as in the day of a solemn assembly.

2:8  Jehovah has purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion. He has stretched out the line. He has not withdrawn his hand from destroying. And he has made the rampart and wall to lament, they languish together.

2:9  Her gates are sunk into the ground. He has destroyed and broken her bars. Her king and her rulers are among the nations where the law is not. Yea, her prophets find no vision from Jehovah.

2:10  The elders of the daughter of Zion sit upon the ground. They 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.

2:11  My eyes fail with tears, my heart is troubled, my liver is poured upon the earth, because of the destruction of the daughter of my people, because the young sons and the sucklings faint in the streets of the city.

2:12  They say to their mothers, Where is grain and wine? when they faint as the wounded in the streets of the city, when their soul is poured out into their mothers' bosom.

2:13  What shall I testify to thee? What shall I liken to thee, O daughter of Jerusalem? What shall I compare to thee, that I may comfort thee, O virgin daughter of Zion? For thy breach is great like the sea; who can heal thee?

2:14  Thy prophets have seen false and foolish visions for thee. And they have not uncovered thine iniquity, to bring back thy captivity, but have seen for thee false oracles and causes of banishment.

2:15  All who 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 called The perfection of beauty, The joy of the whole earth?

2:16  All thine enemies have opened their mouth wide 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.

2:17  Jehovah has done that which he purposed. He has fulfilled his word that he commanded in the days of old. He has thrown down, and has not pitied. And he has caused the enemy to rejoice over thee. He has exalted the horn of thine adversaries.

2:18  Their heart cried to the Lord. O wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears run down like a river day and night. Give thyself no respite. Let not the apple of thine eye cease.

2:19  Arise, cry out in the night, at the beginning of the watches. Pour out thy heart like water before the face of the Lord. Lift up thy hands toward him for the life of thy young sons, who faint for hunger at the head of every street.

2:20  See, O Jehovah, and behold to whom thou have done thus! Shall the women eat their fruit, the sons who are dandled in the hands? Shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord?

2:21  The youth and the old man lie on the ground in the streets. My virgins and my young men have fallen by the sword. Thou have slain them in the day of thine anger. Thou have slaughtered, and not pitied.

2:22  Thou have called, as in the day of a solemn assembly, my terrors on every side. And there was none who escaped or remained in the day of Jehovah's anger. My enemy has consumed those whom I have dandled and brought up.

Chapter 3

3:1  I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.

3:2  He has led me and caused me to walk in darkness, and not in light.

3:3  Surely he turns his hand against me, again and again all the day.

3:4  He has made my flesh and my skin old. He has broken my bones.

3:5  He has built against me, and encompassed me with gall and travail.

3:6  He has made me to dwell in dark places, as those who have long been dead.

3:7  He has walled me around, that I cannot go forth. He has made my chain heavy.

3:8  Yea, when I cry, and call for help, he shuts out my prayer.

3:9  He has walled up my ways with hewn stone. He has made my paths crooked.

3:10  He is to me as a bear lying in wait, as a lion in concealed places.

3:11  He has turned aside my ways, and pulled me in pieces. He has made me desolate.

3:12  He has bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow.

3:13  He has caused the shafts of his quiver to enter into my reins.

3:14  I have become a derision to all my people, and their song all the day.

3:15  He has filled me with bitterness. He has sated me with wormwood.

3:16  He has also broken my teeth with gravel stones. He has covered me with ashes.

3:17  And thou have removed my soul far off from peace. I forgot prosperity.

3:18  And I said, My strength is perished, and my expectation from Jehovah.

3:19  Remember my affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall.

3:20  My soul still has them in remembrance, and is bowed down within me.

3:21  This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope:

3:22  It is of Jehovah's loving kindnesses that we are not consumed, because his compassions do not fail.

3:23  They are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness.

3:24  Jehovah is my portion, says my soul, therefore I will hope in him.

3:25  Jehovah is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.

3:26  It is good that a man should hope and quietly wait for the salvation of Jehovah.

3:27  It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.

3:28  Let him sit alone and keep silence, because he has laid it upon him.

3:29  Let him put his mouth in the dust, if so be there may be hope.

3:30  Let him give his cheek to him who smites him. Let him be filled full with reproach.

3:31  For the Lord will not cast off forever.

3:32  For though he causes grief, yet he will have compassion according to the multitude of his loving kindnesses.

3:33  For he does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the sons of men.

3:34  To crush under foot all the prisoners of the earth,

3:35  to turn aside the right of a man before the face of the Most High,

3:36  to subvert a man in his cause, the Lord does not approve.

3:37  Who is he that says, and it comes to pass, when the Lord does not command it?

3:38  Out of the mouth of the Most High does there not come evil and good?

3:39  Why does a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?

3:40  Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to Jehovah.

3:41  Let us lift up our heart with our hands to God in the heavens.

3:42  We have transgressed and have rebelled. Thou have not pardoned.

3:43  Thou have covered with anger and pursued us. Thou have slain; thou have not pitied.

3:44  Thou have covered thyself with a cloud, so that no prayer can pass through.

3:45  Thou have made us an off-scouring and refuse in the midst of the peoples.

3:46  All our enemies have opened their mouth wide against us.

3:47  Fear and the pit have come upon us, devastation and destruction.

3:48  My eye runs down with streams of water, for the destruction of the daughter of my people.

3:49  My eye pours down, and does not cease, without any intermission,

3:50  till Jehovah looks down, and beholds from heaven.

3:51  My eye stirs my soul, because of all the daughters of my city.

3:52  They have chased me grievously like a bird, those who are my enemies without cause.

3:53  They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and have cast a stone upon me.

3:54  Waters flowed over my head. I said, I am cut off.

3:55  I called upon thy name, O Jehovah, out of the lowest dungeon.

3:56  Thou heard my voice. Hide not thine ear at my breathing, at my cry.

3:57  Thou drew near in the day that I called upon thee. Thou said, Fear not.

3:58  O Lord, thou have pleaded the causes of my soul. Thou have redeemed my life.

3:59  O Jehovah, thou have seen my wrong. Judge thou my cause.

3:60  Thou have seen all their vengeance and all their devices against me.

3:61  Thou have heard their reproach, O Jehovah, and all their devices against me,

3:62  the lips of those who rose up against me, and their device against me all the day.

3:63  Behold thou their sitting down, and their rising up. I am their song.

3:64  Thou will render to them a recompense, O Jehovah, according to the work of their hands.

3:65  Thou will give them hardness of heart, thy curse to them.

3:66  Thou will pursue them in anger, and destroy them from under the heavens of Jehovah.

Chapter 4

4:1  How the gold has become dim, the most pure gold changed! The stones of the sanctuary are poured out at the head of every street.

4:2  The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, how they are esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter!

4:3  Even the jackals draw out the breast; they give suck to their young ones. The daughter of my people has become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness.

4:4  The tongue of the sucking child clings to the roof of his mouth for thirst. The young sons ask bread, and no man breaks it to them.

4:5  Those who fed luxuriously are desolate in the streets. Those who were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghills.

4:6  For the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the sin of Sodom, that was overthrown as in a moment, and no hands were laid upon her.

4:7  Her ranking men were purer than snow. They were whiter than milk. They were more ruddy in body than rubies. Their polishing was as of sapphire.

4:8  Their visage is blacker than a coal. They are not known in the streets. Their skin clings to their bones. It is withered. It has become like a stick.

4:9  Those who are slain with the sword are better than those who are slain with hunger, for these pine away, stricken through, for want of the fruits of the field.

4:10  The hands of the pitiful women have boiled their own children. They were their food in the destruction of the daughter of my people.

4:11  Jehovah has accomplished his wrath. He has poured out his fierce anger, and he has kindled a fire in Zion, which has devoured the foundations thereof.

4:12  The kings of the earth did not believe, nor all the inhabitants of the world, that the adversary and the enemy would enter into the gates of Jerusalem.

4:13  It is because of the sins of her prophets, and the iniquities of her priests, who have shed the blood of the just in the midst of her.

4:14  They wander as blind men in the streets. They are polluted with blood, so that men cannot touch their garments.

4:15  Depart ye, they cried to them. Unclean! Depart, depart, do not touch! When they fled away and wandered, men said among the nations, They shall no more sojourn here.

4:16  The anger of Jehovah has scattered them. He will no more regard them. They did not respect the persons of the priests. They did not favor the elders.

4:17  Our eyes do yet fail in looking for our vain help. In our watching we have watched for a nation that could not save.

4:18  They hunt our steps, so that we cannot go in our streets. Our end is near, our days are fulfilled, for our end has come.

4:19  Our pursuers were swifter than the eagles of the heavens. They chased us upon the mountains. They laid wait for us in the wilderness.

4:20  The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of Jehovah, was taken in their pits, of whom we said, Under his shadow we shall live among the nations.

4:21  Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, who dwells in the land of Uz. Yet the cup shall pass through to thee also. Thou shall be drunken, and shall make thyself naked.

4:22  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 uncover thy sins.

Chapter 5

5:1  Remember, O Jehovah, what has come upon us. Behold, and see our reproach.

5:2  Our inheritance is turned to strangers, our houses to aliens.

5:3  We are orphans and fatherless. Our mothers are as widows.

5:4  We have drunken our water for money. Our wood is sold to us.

5:5  Our pursuers are upon our necks. We are weary, and have no rest.

5:6  We have given the hand to the Egyptians, and to the Assyrians, to be satisfied with bread.

5:7  Our fathers sinned, and are not, and we have borne their iniquities.

5:8  Servants rule over us. There is none to deliver us out of their hand.

5:9  We get our bread at the peril of our lives, because of the sword of the wilderness.

5:10  Our skin is black like an oven, because of the burning heat of famine.

5:11  They ravished the women in Zion, the virgins in the cities of Judah.

5:12  Rulers were hanged up by their hand. The faces of elders were not honored.

5:13  The young men bore the mill, and the sons stumbled under the wood.

5:14  The elders have ceased from the gate, the young men from their music.

5:15  The joy of our heart is ceased, our dance is turned into mourning.

5:16  The crown has fallen from our head. Woe to us! For we have sinned.

5:17  For this our heart is faint. For these things our eyes are dim,

5:18  for the mountain of Zion, which is desolate. The foxes walk upon it.

5:19  Thou, O Jehovah, abide forever. Thy throne is from generation to generation.

5:20  Why do thou forget us forever, and forsake us so long time?

5:21  Turn thou us back to thee, O Jehovah, and we shall be turned back. Renew our days as of old.

5:22  But thou have utterly rejected us. Thou are very angry against us.