How lonely sits the city That was great with 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!

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

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

For these things I am weeping; 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.”

How the Lord has covered the daughter of Zion With a cloud in His anger! He has cast from heaven to earth The beauty of Israel, And has not remembered the footstool of His feet In the day of His anger.

In hot anger He has cut in pieces All the strength of Israel; He has turned back His right hand From before the enemy. And He has burned in Jacob like a flaming fire Devouring round about.

And He has violently treated His tabernacle like a garden booth; He has brought His appointed meeting place to ruin. Yahweh has caused to be forgotten The appointed time and sabbath in Zion, And He has spurned king and priest In the indignation of His anger.

The Lord has rejected His altar; He has abandoned His sanctuary; He has delivered into the hand of the enemy The walls of her palaces. They have made a noise in the house of Yahweh As in the day of an appointed time.

Yahweh determined to bring to ruin The wall of the daughter of Zion. He has stretched out a line; He has not turned His hand back from swallowing up, And He has caused rampart and wall to mourn; They have languished together.

They say to their mothers, “Where is grain and wine?” As they faint like a wounded man In the open squares of the city, As their life is poured out On their mothers’ bosom.

Their heart cried out to the Lord, “O wall of the daughter of Zion, Let your tears run down like a river day and night; Give yourself no relief; Let your eyes not be still.

He is to me like a bear lying in wait, Like a lion in secret places.

He bent His bow And set me as a target for the arrow.

I have become a laughingstock to all my people, Their music of mockery all the day.

It is good for a man that he should bear The yoke in his youth.

To deprive a man of justice In the presence of the Most High,

To defraud a man in his legal case— These things the Lord does not see with approval.

You have covered Yourself with a cloud So that no prayer can pass through.

My enemies without cause Hunted me down like a bird;

They have silenced my life in the pit And have placed a stone on me.

The precious sons of Zion, Weighed against fine gold, How they are regarded as earthen jars, The work of a potter’s hands!

So the iniquity of the daughter of my people Is greater than the sin of Sodom, Which was overthrown as in a moment, And no hands whirled toward her.

Yahweh has spent His wrath; He has poured out His burning anger; And He has kindled a fire in Zion Which has devoured its foundations.

Yet our eyes were spent, Looking for help was vanity; In our watching we have watched For a nation that could not save.

We have become orphans without a father; Our mothers are like widows.

We drink our water by means of silver; Our wood comes to us at a price.