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.”
The Anger of Yahweh
א Aleph
How the Lord has acovered the daughter of Zion
With a cloud in His anger!
He has bcast from heaven to earth
The cbeauty of Israel,
And has not remembered the dfootstool of His feet
In the day of His anger.
ב Beth
2 The Lord has aswallowed up; He has not spared
All the habitations of Jacob.
In His wrath He has bpulled down
The strongholds of the daughter of Judah;
He has cbrought them down to the ground;
He has dprofaned the kingdom and its princes.
ג Gimel
3 In hot anger He has cut in pieces
All the astrength of Israel;
He has bturned back His right hand
From before the enemy.
And He has cburned in Jacob like a flaming fire
Devouring round about.
ד Daleth
4 He has bent His abow like an enemy;
He has set His right hand like an adversary
And killed all that were bdesirable to the eye;
In the tent of the daughter of Zion
He has cpoured out His wrath like fire.
ה He
5 The Lord has become like an aenemy.
He has bswallowed up Israel;
He has swallowed up all its cpalaces;
He has brought its strongholds to ruin
And dmultiplied in the daughter of Judah
Mourning and moaning.
ו Vav
6 And He has violently treated His tabernacle like a garden booth;
He has abrought His appointed meeting place to ruin.
Yahweh has bcaused to be forgotten
The appointed time and sabbath in Zion,
And He has cspurned king and priest
In the indignation of His anger.
ז Zayin
7 The Lord has arejected His altar;
He has abandoned His sanctuary;
He bhas delivered into the hand of the enemy
The walls of her palaces.
They have made a cnoise in the house of Yahweh
As in the day of an appointed time.
ח Heth
8 Yahweh determined to bring to ruin
The wall of the daughter of Zion.
He has astretched out a line;
He has not turned His hand back from swallowing up,
And He has bcaused rampart and wall to mourn;
They have languished together.
ט Teth
9 Her agates have sunk into the ground;
He has destroyed and broken her bars.
Her king and her princes are among the nations;
The blaw is no more.
Also, her prophets find
cNo vision from Yahweh.
י Yodh
10 The elders of the daughter of Zion
aSit on the ground; they bare silent.
They have thrown cdust up on their heads;
They have girded themselves with dsackcloth.
The evirgins of Jerusalem
Have bowed their heads down to the ground.
כ Kaph
11 My aeyes fail because of tears;
My binmost being is greatly disturbed;
My cheart is poured out on the earth
dBecause of the destruction of the daughter of my people,
When einfants and nursing babies faint
In the open squares of the city.
ל Lamedh
12 They say to their mothers,
“aWhere is grain and wine?”
As they faint like a wounded man
In the open squares of the city,
As their blife is poured out
On their mothers’ bosom.
מ Mem
13 What shall I testify about you?
To what ashall I equate you,
O daughter of Jerusalem?
To what shall I liken you as I comfort you,
O bvirgin daughter of Zion?
For your destruction is as vast as the sea;
Who can cheal you?
נ Nun
14 Your aprophets have beheld for you
Worthless and ineffective visions;
And they have not buncovered your iniquity
So as to return you from captivity,
But they have cbeheld for you worthless and misleading oracles.
ס Samekh
15 All who pass along the way
aClap their hands in derision at you;
They bhiss and shake their heads
At the daughter of Jerusalem,
“Is this the city of which they said,
‘cThe perfection of beauty,
dThe joy of the whole earth’?”
פ Pe
16 All ayour enemies
Have opened their mouths wide against you;
They hiss and bgnash their teeth.
They say, “We have cswallowed her up!
Surely this is the dday for which we have hoped;
We have found it, we have seen it.”
ע Ayin
17 Yahweh has adone what He purposed;
He has completed His word
Which He commanded from days of old.
He has pulled down bwithout sparing,
And He has caused the enemy to cbe glad over you;
He has dexalted the might of your adversaries.
צ Tsadhe
18 Their aheart cried out to the Lord,
“O bwall of the daughter of Zion,
Let your ctears run down like a river day and night;
Give yourself no relief;
Let your eyes not be still.
ק Qoph
19 Arise, cry aloud in the anight
At the head of the night watches;
bPour out your heart like water
Before the presence of the Lord;
Lift up your hands to Him
For the clife of your infants
Who are dfaint because of hunger
At the head of every street.”
ר Resh
20 See, O Yahweh, and look!
With awhom have You dealt thus?
Should women beat their offspring,
The infants who were born healthy?
Should cpriest and prophet be killed
In the sanctuary of the Lord?
שׁ Shin
21 On the ground in the streets
Lie ayoung and old;
My bvirgins and my young men
Have fallen by the sword.
You have killed them in the day of Your anger;
You have slaughtered, cnot sparing.
ת Tav
22 You called as in the day of an appointed time
My aterrors on every side;
And there was bno one who escaped or survived
In the day of Yahweh’s anger.
Those cwhom I gave birth to and reared,
My enemy consumed them.
Jeremiah’s Heavy Chain
א Aleph
I am the man who has aseen affliction
Because of the rod of His wrath.
2 He has driven me and made me walk
In adarkness and not in light.
3 Surely against me He has aturned His hand
Repeatedly all the day.
ב Beth
4 He has caused my aflesh and my skin to waste away;
He has bbroken my bones.
5 He has abesieged and encompassed me with bgall and hardship.
6 aDark places He has made me inhabit,
Like those who have long been dead.
ג Gimel
7 He has awalled me in so that I cannot go out;
He has made my bchain heavy.
8 Even when I cry out and call for help,
He ashuts out my prayer.
9 He has ablocked my ways with cut stone;
He has made my paths crooked.
ד Daleth
10 He is to me like a bear lying in wait,
Like a lion in secret places.
11 He has turned aside my ways and atorn me to pieces;
He has made me desolate.
12 He abent His bow
And bset me as a target for the arrow.
ה He
13 He made the arrows of His aquiver
To enter into my inward parts.
14 I have become a alaughingstock to all my people,
Their bmusic of mockery all the day.
15 He has asaturated me with bitterness;
He has sated me with wormwood.
ו Vav
16 He has abroken my teeth with bgravel;
He has made me cower in the cdust.
17 My soul has been rejected afrom peace;
I have forgotten goodness.
18 So I say, “My strength has perished,
As well as my ahopeful waiting which comes from Yahweh.”
The Lord Will Not Reject Forever
ז Zayin
19 Remember my affliction and my homelessness, the awormwood and gall.
20 Surely amy soul remembers
And is bbowed down within me.
21 This I will return to my heart;
Therefore I will await in hope.
ח Heth
22 The alovingkindnesses of Yahweh indeed never cease,
bFor His compassions never fail.
23 They are new aevery morning;
Great is bYour faithfulness.
24 “Yahweh is my aportion,” says my soul,
“Therefore I bwait for Him.”
ט Teth
25 Yahweh is good to those who ahope in Him,
To the soul who bseeks Him.
26 It is good that he awaits silently
For the salvation of Yahweh.
27 It is good for a man that he should bear
The yoke in his youth.
י Yodh
28 Let him asit alone and be silent
Since He has laid it on him.
29 Let him put his mouth in the adust;
Perhaps there is bhope.
30 Let him give his acheek to the one who strikes him;
Let him be saturated with reproach.
כ Kaph
31 For the Lord will anot reject forever,
32 For if He causes grief,
Then He will have acompassion
According to His abundant lovingkindness.
33 For He adoes not afflict from His heart
Or grieve the sons of men.
ל Lamedh
34 To crush under His feet
All the prisoners of the land,
35 To deprive a man of ajustice
In the presence of the Most High,
36 To adefraud a man in his legal case—
These things the Lord does not see with approval.
מ Mem
37 Who is there who speaks and it ahappens,
Unless the Lord has commanded it?
38 Is it not from the mouth of the Most High
That aboth calamities and good go forth?
39 Why should any living person or any man
aComplain because of his sins?
נ Nun
40 Let us asearch out and examine our ways,
And let us return to Yahweh.
41 We alift up our heart to our hands
Toward God in heaven;
42 We have atransgressed and rebelled;
You have bnot pardoned.
ס Samekh
43 You have covered Yourself with aanger
And bpursued us;
You have killed and chave not spared.
44 You have acovered Yourself with a cloud
So that bno prayer can pass through.
45 You have made us mere ascum and refuse
In the midst of the peoples.
פ Pe
46 All our enemies have aopened their mouths against us.
47 aPanic and pitfall have befallen us,
Devastation and destruction;
48 My aeyes run down with streams of water
Because of the destruction of the daughter of my people.
ע Ayin
49 My eyes pour down aunceasingly,
Without stopping,
50 Until Yahweh alooks down
And sees from heaven.
51 My eyes deal severely with my soul
Because of all the daughters of my city.
צ Tsadhe
52 My enemies awithout cause
Hunted me down blike a bird;
53 They have silenced my life ain the pit
And have bplaced a stone on me.
54 Waters flowed aover my head;
I said, “I am cut off!”
ק Qoph
55 I acalled on Your name, O Yahweh,
Out of the lowest pit.
56 You have aheard my voice,
“bDo not hide Your ear from my prayer for relief,
From my cry for help.”
57 You adrew near when I called on You;
You said, “bDo not fear!”
ר Resh
58 O Lord, You ahave pleaded my soul’s cause;
You have bredeemed my life.
59 O Yahweh, You have aseen my oppression;
bJudge my case.
60 You have seen all their vengeance,
All their apurposes against me.
שׂ Sin - שׁ Shin
61 You have heard their areproach, O Yahweh,
All their purposes against me.
62 The alips of those who rise against me and their whispering
Are against me all day long.
63 Look on their asitting and their rising;
bI am their mocking song.
ת Tav
64 You will arecompense them, O Yahweh,
According to the work of their hands.
65 You will give them adullness of heart;
Your curse will be on them.
66 You will apursue them in anger and destroy them
From under the bheavens of Yahweh!
Yahweh’s Wrath Spent
א Aleph
How adark the gold has become,
How the pure gold has changed!
The sacred stones are poured out
At the head of every street.
ב Beth
2 The precious sons of Zion,
Weighed against fine gold,
How they are regarded as aearthen jars,
The work of a potter’s hands!
ג Gimel
3 Even ajackals offer the breast;
They nurse their young;
But the daughter of my people has become bcruel
Like costriches in the wilderness.
ד Daleth
4 The atongue of the nursing baby cleaves
To the roof of its mouth because of bthirst;
The infants cask for bread,
But no one breaks it for them.
ה He
5 Those who ate adelicacies
Are desolate in the streets;
Those reared in crimson
Embrace ash pits.
ו Vav
6 So the iniquity of the daughter of my people
Is greater than the asin of Sodom,
Which was boverthrown as in a moment,
And no hands whirled toward her.
ז Zayin
7 Her Nazirites were apurer than snow;
They were whiter than milk;
They were more ruddy in body than corals,
Their polishing was like blapis lazuli.
ח Heth
8 Their form is ablacker than soot;
They are not recognized in the streets;
Their bskin is shriveled on their bones;
It is withered, it has become like wood.
ט Teth
9 Better are those apierced through with the sword
Than those pierced through with hunger;
For their life bflows away, being stricken
For lack of the produce of the field.
י Yodh
10 The hands of compassionate women
aBoiled their own children;
They became bfood for them
Because of the destruction of the daughter of my people.
כ Kaph
11 Yahweh has aspent His wrath;
He has poured out His burning anger;
And He has bkindled a fire in Zion
Which has devoured its foundations.
ל Lamedh
12 The kings of the earth did not believe,
Nor did any of athe inhabitants of the world,
That the adversary and the enemy
Could benter the gates of Jerusalem.
מ Mem
13 Because of the sins of her aprophets
And the iniquities of her priests,
Who have shed in her midst
The bblood of the righteous;
נ Nun
14 They wandered, ablind, in the streets;
They were defiled with bblood
So that no one could touch their cgarments.
ס Samekh
15 “Depart! aUnclean!” they cried of themselves.
“Depart, depart, do not touch!”
So they bfled and wandered;
Men among the nations said,
“They shall not continue to sojourn with us.”
פ Pe
16 The presence of Yahweh has eradicated them;
He will not continue to look at them;
They did not ahonor the priests;
They did not favor the elders.
ע Ayin
17 Yet our eyes were spent,
Looking for help was avanity;
In our watching we have watched
For a bnation that could not save.
צ Tsadhe
18 They ahunted our steps
So that we could not walk in our open squares;
Our bend drew near,
Our days were finished,
For our end had come.
ק Qoph
19 Our pursuers were aswifter
Than the eagles of the sky;
They hotly pursued us on the mountains;
They waited in ambush for us in the wilderness.
ר Resh
20 The abreath of our nostrils, the banointed of Yahweh,
Was ccaptured in their pits,
Of whom we had said, “Under his dshadow
We shall live among the nations.”
שׂ Sin
21 Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of aEdom,
Who inhabits the land of Uz;
But the bcup will pass on to you as well;
You will become drunk and make yourself naked.
ת Tav
22 The punishment of your iniquity has come ato an end, O daughter of Zion;
He will exile you no longer.
But He bwill punish your iniquity, O daughter of Edom;
He will expose your sins!