Lamentations Chapter 1 How doth the city sit solitary,
that was full of people? How is she become as a widow?
She that was great among the nations, and princess among the
provinces, how is she become tributary? She weepeth sore in
the night, and her tears are on her cheeks. Among all her
lovers she hath none to comfort her. All her friends have dealt
treacherously with her. They are become her enemies.
Judah is gone into captivity because of affliction, and because
of great servitude. She dwelleth among the heathen,
she findeth no rest. All her persecutors overtook
her between the straits. The ways of Zion do mourn, because
none come to the solemn feasts. All her gates are desolate, her
priests sigh, her virgins are afflicted, and she is in bitterness. Her adversaries are the chief,
her enemies prosper, for the Lord hath afflicted her for the
multitude of her transgressions. Her children are gone into captivity
before the enemy. And from the daughter of Zion
all her beauty is departed. Her princes are become like hearts
that find no pasture, and they are gone without strength before
the pursuer. Jerusalem remembered in the days
of her affliction and of her miseries. All her pleasant things
that she had in the days of old when her people fell into the
hand of the enemy, and none did help her. The adversaries saw
her and did mock at her Sabbaths. Jerusalem hath grievously sinned,
therefore is she removed. All that honoured her despise
her, because they have seen her nakedness. Yea, she sigheth and
turneth backward. Her filthiness is in her skirts.
She remembereth not her last end. Therefore she came down
wonderfully. She had no comforter. O LORD,
behold my affliction, for the enemy hath magnified himself,
the adversary hath spread out his hand upon all her pleasant
things. For she hath seen that the heathen
entered into her sanctuary, whom thou didst command that they
should not enter into thy congregation. All her people sigh. They seek
bread. They have given their pleasant
things for meat to relieve the soul. See, O Lord, and consider,
for I am become vile. Is it nothing to you, all ye
that pass by? Behold, and see, if there be
any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith
the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger.
From above hath he sent fire into my bones, and it prevaileth
against them. He hath spread a net for my feet,
he hath turned me back, he hath made me desolate and faint all
the day. The yoke of my transgressions
is bound by his hand. They are wreathed and come up
upon my neck. He hath made my strength to fall.
The Lord hath delivered me into their hands, from whom I am not
able to rise up. The Lord hath trodden underfoot
all my mighty men in the midst of me. He hath called an assembly
against me to crush my young men. The Lord hath trodden the
virgin, the daughter of Judah, as in a winepress. For these
things I weep, mine eye Mine eye runneth down with water,
because the comforter that should relieve my soul is far from me.
My children are desolate, because the enemy prevailed. Zion spreadeth
forth her hands, and there is none to comfort her. The Lord
hath commanded concerning Jacob that his adversaries should be
round about him. Jerusalem is as a menstruous
woman among them. The Lord is righteous, for I
have rebelled against his commandment. Here I pray you, all people,
and behold my sorrow. My virgins and my young men are
gone into captivity. I called for my lovers, but they
deceived me. My priests and mine elders gave
up the ghost in the city while they sought their meat to relieve
their souls. Behold, O Lord! For I am in distress,
my bowels are troubled, My heart is turned within me, for I have
grievously rebelled. Abroad the sword bereveth, at
home there is as death. They have heard that I sigh,
there is none to comfort me, All mine enemies have heard of
my trouble, They are glad that thou hast done it. Thou will
bring the day that thou has called and they shall be like unto me
Let all their wickedness come before thee and do unto them
as thou has done unto me for all my transgressions For my
sighs are many and my heart is faint Lamentations chapter 2 How hath the Lord covered the
daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger, and cast down from
heaven unto the earth the beauty of Israel, and remembered not
his footstool in the day of his anger? The Lord hath swallowed
up all the habitations of Jacob, and hath not pitied. He hath
thrown down in his wrath the strongholds of the daughter of
Judah. He hath brought them down to the ground. He hath polluted
the kingdom and the princes thereof. He hath cut off in his fierce
anger all the horn of Israel. He hath drawn back his right
hand from before the enemy, and he burned against Jacob like
a flaming fire, which devoureth round about. He hath bent his
bow like an enemy. He stood with his right hand
as an adversary and slew all that were pleasant to the eye
in the tabernacle of the daughter of Zion. He poured out his fury
like fire. The Lord was as an enemy. He
hath swallowed up Israel. He hath swallowed up all her
palaces. He hath destroyed his strongholds
and hath increased in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation. And he hath violently taken away
his tabernacle as if it were of a garden. He hath destroyed
his places of the assembly. The Lord hath caused the solemn
feasts and Sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion and hath despised in
the indignation of his anger the king and the priest. The
Lord hath cast off his altar. He hath abhorred his sanctuary.
He hath given up into the hand of the enemy the walls of her
palaces. They have made a noise in the
house of the Lord as in the day of a solemn feast. The Lord hath
purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion. He hath
stretched out a line. He hath not withdrawn his hand
from destroying. Therefore he made the rampart
and the wall to lament. They languished together. Her
gates are sunk into the ground. He hath destroyed and broken
her bars. Her king and her princes are among the Gentiles. The law
is no more. Her prophets also find no vision
from the Lord. The elders of the daughter of
Zion sit upon the ground and 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. Mine eyes do fail with tears,
my bowels are troubled, my liver is poured upon the earth for
the destruction of the daughter of my people. Because the children
and the sucklings swoon in the streets of the city. They say
to their mothers, where is corn and wine? When they swooned as
the wounded in the streets of the city, when their soul was
poured out into their mother's bosom. What thing shall I take
to witness for thee? What thing shall I liken to thee,
O daughter of Jerusalem? What shall I equal to thee, that
I may comfort thee, O virgin daughter of Zion? For thy breach
is great like the sea. Who can heal thee? Thy prophets
have seen vain and foolish things for thee, and they have not discovered
thine iniquity to turn away thy captivity, but have seen for
thee false burdens and causes of banishment. All that 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 call the perfection of beauty, the joy of the whole earth? All
thine enemies have opened their mouth 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. The Lord hath done that which
he had devised, he hath fulfilled his word that he had commanded
in the days of old, he hath thrown down and hath not pitied, and
he hath caused thine enemy to rejoice over thee. He hath set
up the horn of thine adversaries. Their heart cried unto the Lord,
O wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears run down like a river
day and night. Give thyself no rest, let not
the apple of thine eye cease. Arise, cry out in the night. In the beginning of the watchers
pour out thine heart like water before the face of the Lord.
Lift up thy hands toward him for the life of thy young children
that faint for hunger in the top of every street. Behold,
O Lord, and consider to whom thou hast done this. Shall the
women eat their fruit and children of a span long? Shall the priest
and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord? The young
and the old lie on the ground in the streets. My virgins and
my young men are fallen by the sword. Thou hast slain them in
the day of thine anger. Thou hast killed and not pitied. Thou hast called, as in a solemn
day, my terrors round about, so that in the day of the Lord's
anger none escaped nor remained. Those that I have swaddled and
brought up hath mine enemy consumed. Lamentations chapter 3 I am the
man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath. He hath
led me and brought me into darkness, but not into light. Surely against
me is he turned. He turneth his hand against me
all the day. My flesh and my skin hath he
made old. He hath broken my bones. He hath
builded against me and compassed me with gall and travail. He
hath set me in dark places, as they that be dead of old. He
hath hedged me about, that I cannot get out. He hath made my chain
heavy. Also, when I cry and shout, he
shutteth out my prayer. He hath enclosed my ways with
hewn stone. He hath made my paths crooked.
He was unto me as a bear lying in wait, and as a lion in secret
places. He hath turned aside my ways,
and pulled me in pieces. He hath made me desolate. He
hath bent his bow and set me as a mark for the arrow. He hath
caused the arrows of his quiver to enter into my reins. I was
a derision to all my people and their song all the day. He hath
filled me with bitterness. He hath made me drunken with
wormwood. He hath also broken my teeth
with gravel stones. He hath covered me with ashes.
And thou hast removed my soul far off from peace. I forgot
prosperity. And I said, my strength and my
hope is perished from the Lord. Remembering my affliction and
my misery, the wormwood and the gall, my soul hath them still
in remembrance and is humbled in me. This I recall to my mind. Therefore have I hope. It is
of the Lord's mercies that we're not consumed, because His compassions
fail not. They are new every morning. Great
is thy faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, saith
my soul, therefore will I hope in Him. The Lord is good unto
them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. It is
good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation
of the Lord. It is good for a man that he
bear the yoke of his youth. He sitteth alone and keepeth
silence, because he hath borne it upon him. He putteth his mouth
in the dust, if so be there may be hope. He giveth his cheek
to him that smiteth him. He is filled full with reproach.
For the Lord will not cast off forever. But though he cause
grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of
his mercies. For he doth not afflict willingly,
nor grieve the children of men. To crush under his feet all the
prisoners of the earth, to turn aside the right of a man before
the face of the Most High, to subvert a man in his cause, the
Lord approveth not. Who is he that saith, and it
cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth it not? Out of the
mouth of the Most High proceedeth not evil and good. Wherefore
doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?
Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the Lord. Let
us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens. We have transgressed and have
rebelled. Thou hast not pardoned. Thou
hast covered with anger and persecuted us. Thou hast slain. Thou hast
not pitied. Thou hast covered Thyself with
a cloud that our prayer should not pass through. Thou hast made
us as the offscouring and refuse in the midst of the people. All
our enemies have opened their mouths against us. Fear and a
snare has come upon us, desolation and destruction. Mine eye runneth
down with rivers of water for the destruction of the daughter
of my people. Mine eye trickleth down and ceaseth
not, without any intermission, till the Lord look down and behold
from heaven. Mine eye affecteth mine heart
because of all the daughters of my city. Mine enemies chased
me sore like a bird without cause. They have cut off my life in
the dungeon and cast a stone upon me. Waters flowed over mine
head. Then I said, I am cut off. I
called upon thy name, O Lord, out of the low dungeon. Thou
hast heard my voice. Hide not thine ear at my breathing,
at my cry. Thou drewest near in the day
that I called upon thee. Thou saidst, fear not. O Lord,
Thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul. Thou hast redeemed
my life. O Lord, Thou hast seen my wrong. Judge Thou my cause. Thou hast
seen all their vengeance and all their imaginations against
me. Thou hast heard their reproach, O Lord, and all their imaginations
against me. The lips of those that rose up
against me and their device against me all the day. Behold, they're
sitting down and they're rising up. I am their music. Render unto them a recompense,
O Lord, according to the work of their hands. Give them sorrow
of heart, thy curse unto them. Persecute and destroy them in
anger from under the heavens of the Lord. Lamentations Chapter 4 How is the gold become dim? How
is the most fine gold changed? The stones of the sanctuary are
poured out in the top of every street. The precious sons of
Zion, comparable to fine gold, how are they esteemed as earthen
pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter? Even the sea-monsters
draw out the breast they give suck to their young ones. The
daughter of my people is become cruel like the ostriches in the
wilderness. The tongue of the sucking child
cleaveth to the roof of his mouth for thirst. The young children
ask bread, and no man breaketh it unto them. They that it feed
delicately are desolate in the streets. They that were brought
up in scarlet embrace dunghills. For the punishment of the iniquity
of the daughter of my people is greater than the punishment
of the sin of Sodom that was overthrown as in a moment, and
no hand stayed on her. Her Nazarites were purer than
snow, they were whiter than milk, they were more ruddy in body
than rubies, their polishing was of sapphire, their visage
is blacker than a coal. They are not known in the streets. Their skin cleaveth to their
bones. It is withered. It has become
like a stick. They that be slain with the sword
are better than they that be slain with hunger. For these
pine away, stricken through for want of the fruits of the field.
The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children. They were their meat in the destruction
of the daughter of my people. The Lord hath accomplished his
fury, he hath poured out his fierce anger, and hath kindled
a fire in Zion, and it hath devoured the foundations thereof. The
kings of the earth and all the inhabitants of the world would
not have believed that the adversary and the enemy should have entered
into the gates of Jerusalem. For the sins of her prophets,
and the iniquities of her priests, that have shed the blood of the
just in the midst of her. They have wandered as blind men
in the streets. They have polluted themselves
with blood, so that men could not touch their garments. They
cried unto them, Depart ye, it is unclean, depart, depart, touch
not. When they fled away and wandered,
they said among the heathen, They shall no more sojourn there.
The anger of the Lord hath divided them. He will no more regard
them. They respected not the persons
of the priests. They favoured not the elders.
As for us, our eyes as yet failed for our vain help. In our watching,
we have watched for a nation that could not save us. They
hunt our steps that we cannot go in our streets. Our end is
near. Our days are fulfilled, for our
end is come. Our persecutors are swifter than
the eagles of the heaven. They pursued us upon the mountains,
they laid wait for us in the wilderness. The breath of our
nostrils, the anointed of the Lord, was taken in their pits,
of whom we said, under his shadow we shall live among the heathen.
Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, that dwellest in the
land of us. The cup also shall pass through
unto thee. Thou shalt be drunken and shall
make thyself naked. 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 discover thy sins. Lamentations chapter 5 Remember, O Lord, what has come
upon us. Consider and behold our reproach. Our inheritance is turned to
strangers, our houses to aliens. We are orphans and fatherless,
our mothers are as widows. We have drunken our water for
money. Our wood is sold unto us. Our necks are under persecution. We labor and have no rest. We
have given the hand to the Egyptians and to the Assyrians to be satisfied
with bread. Our fathers have sinned and are
not, and we have borne their iniquities. Servants have ruled
over us. There is none that doth deliver
us out of their hand. We gat our bread with the peril
of our lives because of the sword of the wilderness. Our skin was
black like an oven because of the terrible famine. They ravished
the women in Zion and the maids in the cities of Judah. Princes
are hanged up by their hand. The faces of elders were not
honored. They took the young men to grind,
and the children fell under the wood. The elders have ceased
from the gate, the young men from their music. The joy of
our heart is ceased. Our dance is turned into mourning. The crown is fallen from our
head. Woe unto us that we have sinned. For this our heart is
faint, for these things our eyes are dim. Because of the mountain
of Zion which is desolate, the foxes walk upon it. Thou, O Lord,
remainest forever, Thy throne from generation to generation. Wherefore dost Thou forget us
forever and forsake us so long time? Turn thou us unto thee,
O Lord, and we shall be turned. Renew our days as of old. But thou hast utterly rejected
us. Thou art very wrath against us.