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.”
ל Lamedh
12 “Is ait nothing to all you who pass this way?
Look and see if there is any pain like my pain
Which was dealt severely to me,
Which bYahweh grieved me with on the day of His cburning anger.
מ Mem
13 From on high He sent fire into my abones,
And it dominated them.
He has spread a bnet for my feet;
He has turned me back;
He has made me cdesolate,
Faint all day long.
נ Nun
14 The ayoke of my transgressions is bound;
By His hand they are knit together.
They have bcome upon my neck;
He has made my strength stumble.
The Lord chas given me into the hands
Of those against whom I am not able to stand.
ס Samekh
15 The aLord has rejected all my mighty men
In my midst;
He has called an appointed time against me
To break my byoung men;
The Lord has ctrodden as in a wine press
The virgin daughter of Judah.
ע Ayin
16 For these things I aam weeping;
My eyes run down with water;
Because far from me is a bcomforter,
One who restores my soul.
My children are desolate
Because the enemy has prevailed.”
פ Pe
17 Zion astretches out her hands;
There is no one to comfort her;
Yahweh has bcommanded concerning Jacob
That the ones round about him should be his adversaries;
cJerusalem has become an impure thing among them.
צ Tsadhe
18 “Yahweh is arighteous;
For I have brebelled against His command;
Hear now, all peoples,
And cbehold my pain;
dMy virgins and my young men
Have gone into captivity.
ק Qoph
19 I acalled to my lovers, but they deceived me;
My bpriests and my elders breathed their last in the city
While they sought food for themselves in order to crestore their souls.
ר Resh
20 See, O Yahweh, for I am in distress;
My ainmost being is greatly disturbed;
My heart is overturned within me,
For I have been very brebellious.
In the street the sword bereaves;
In the house it is like death.
שׁ Shin
21 They have heard that I aam sighing;
There is no one to comfort me;
All my enemies have heard of the evil done to me;
They brejoice that You have done it.
You have brought the day which You have proclaimed,
So that they will become clike me.
ת Tav
22 Let all their evil come before You;
And adeal severely with them as You have dealt severely with me
For all my transgressions;
For my groans are great and my heart is faint.”