Zion Lays Desolate
א Aleph
How alonely sits the city
That was bgreat with people!
She has become like a cwidow
Who was once dgreat among the nations!
She who was a princess among the provinces
Has become a eforced laborer!
ב Beth
2 She aweeps bitterly in the night,
And her tears are on her cheeks;
She has none to comfort her
Among all her blovers.
All her friends have cdealt treacherously with her;
They have become her enemies.
ג Gimel
3 aJudah has gone into exile because of affliction
And because of great slavery;
She sits bamong the nations,
But she has found no rest;
All cher pursuers have overtaken her
In the midst of distress.
ד Daleth
4 The roads of Zion are in mourning
Because ano one comes to the appointed times.
All her gates are bdesolate;
Her priests are sighing,
Her cvirgins are grieving,
And she herself is dbitter.
ה He
5 Her adversaries have become her masters;
Her enemies are complacent;
For Yahweh has acaused her grief
Because of the greatness of her transgressions;
Her infants have gone away
As captives before the adversary.
ו Vav
6 So all her amajesty
Has gone out from the daughter of Zion;
Her princes have become like deer
That have found no pasture;
So they have bfled without strength
Before the pursuer.
ז Zayin
7 In the days of her affliction and homelessness
aJerusalem remembers all her precious things
That were from the days of old,
When her people fell into the hand of the adversary
And bno one helped her.
The adversaries saw her;
They claughed at her ruin.
ח Heth
8 Jerusalem sinned agreatly;
Therefore bshe has become an impure thing.
All who honored her despise her
Because they have seen her nakedness;
Even cshe herself sighs and turns away.
ט Teth
9 Her auncleanness was in her skirts;
She did not remember her bfuture.
Therefore she has cgone down astonishingly;
dShe has no comforter.
“eSee, O Yahweh, my affliction,
For the enemy has fmagnified himself!”
י Yodh
10 The adversary has stretched out his hand
Over all her desirable things,
For she has seen the anations enter her sanctuary,
The ones whom You commanded
That they should bnot enter into Your assembly.
כ Kaph
11 All her people are sighing, aseeking bread;
They have given their desirable things for food
To brestore their souls.
“See, O Yahweh, and look,
For I am cdespised.”