The Sorrows of Zion

1 How lonely sits the city
          That was full of people!
          She has become like a widow
          Who was once great among the nations!
          She who was a princess among the provinces
          Has become a forced laborer!

2 She weeps bitterly in the night
          And her tears are on her cheeks;
          She has none to comfort her
          Among all her lovers.
          All her friends have dealt treacherously with her;
          They have become her enemies.

3 Judah has gone into exile under affliction
          And under harsh servitude;
          She dwells among the nations,
          But she has found no rest;
          All her pursuers have overtaken her
          In the midst of distress.

4 The roads of Zion are in mourning
          Because no one comes to the appointed feasts.
          All her gates are desolate;
          Her priests are groaning,
          Her virgins are afflicted,
          And she herself is bitter.

5 Her adversaries have become her masters,
          Her enemies prosper;
          For the LORD has caused her grief
          Because of the multitude of her transgressions;
          Her little ones have gone away
          As captives before the adversary.

6 All her majesty
          Has departed from the daughter of Zion;
          Her princes have become like deer
          That have found no pasture;
          And they have fled without strength
          Before the pursuer.

7 In the days of her affliction and homelessness
          Jerusalem remembers all her precious things
          That were from the days of old,
          When her people fell into the hand of the adversary
          And no one helped her.
          The adversaries saw her,
          They mocked at her ruin.

8 Jerusalem sinned greatly,
          Therefore she has become an unclean thing.
          All who honored her despise her
          Because they have seen her nakedness;
          Even she herself groans and turns away.

9 Her uncleanness was in her skirts;
          She did not consider her future.
          Therefore she has fallen astonishingly;
          She has no comforter.
          “See, O LORD, my affliction,
          For the enemy has magnified himself!”

10 The adversary has stretched out his hand
          Over all her precious things,
          For she has seen the nations enter her sanctuary,
          The ones whom You commanded
          That they should not enter into Your congregation.

11 All her people groan seeking bread;
          They have given their precious things for food
          To restore their lives themselves.
          “See, O LORD, and look,
          For I am despised.”

12 “Is it nothing to all you who pass this way?
          Look and see if there is any pain like my pain
          Which was severely dealt out to me,
          Which the LORD inflicted on the day of His fierce anger.

13 “From on high He sent fire into my bones,
          And it prevailed over them.
          He has spread a net for my feet;
          He has turned me back;
          He has made me desolate,
          Faint all day long.

14 “The yoke of my transgressions is bound;
          By His hand they are knit together.
          They have come upon my neck;
          He has made my strength fail.
          The Lord has given me into the hands
          Of those against whom I am not able to stand.

15 “The Lord has rejected all my strong men
          In my midst;
          He has called an appointed time against me
          To crush my young men;
          The Lord has trodden as in a wine press
          The virgin daughter of Judah.

16 “For these things I weep;
          My eyes run down with water;
          Because far from me is a comforter,
          One who restores my soul.
          My children are desolate
          Because the enemy has prevailed.”

17 Zion stretches out her hands;
          There is no one to comfort her;
          The LORD has commanded concerning Jacob
          That the ones round about him should be his adversaries;
          Jerusalem has become an unclean thing among them.

18 “The LORD is righteous;
          For I have rebelled against His command;
          Hear now, all peoples,
          And behold my pain;
          My virgins and my young men
          Have gone into captivity.

19 “I called to my lovers, but they deceived me;
          My priests and my elders perished in the city
          While they sought food to restore their strength themselves.

20 “See, O LORD, for I am in distress;
          My spirit is greatly troubled;
          My heart is overturned within me,
          For I have been very rebellious.
          In the street the sword slays;
          In the house it is like death.

21 “They have heard that I groan;
          There is no one to comfort me;
          All my enemies have heard of my calamity;
          They are glad that You have done it.
          Oh, that You would bring the day which You have proclaimed,
          That they may become like me.

22 “Let all their wickedness come before You;
          And deal with them as You have dealt with me
          For all my transgressions;
          For my groans are many and my heart is faint.”