Lamentations
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[1]
How doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people how is she
become as a widow she that was was great among the nations, and
princess among the provinces, how is she become tributary
[2]
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.
[3]
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.
[4]
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.
[5] 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.
[6] And from the daughter of
Zion all her beauty is departed: her princes are become like harts
that find no pasture, and they are gone without strength before the
pursuer.
[7] 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.
[8] Jerusalem hath grievously sinned; therefore
she is removed: all that honoured her despise her, because they have
seen her nakedness: yea, she sigheth, and turneth backward.
[9]
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.
[10]
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.
[11] 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.
[12] 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.
[13] 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.
[14] 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.
[15] The Lord hath trodden under foot 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.
[16] 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.
[17] 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.
[18] The LORD is
righteous; for I have rebelled against his commandment: hear, I pray
you, all people, and behold my sorrow: my virgins and my young men
are gone into captivity.
[19] 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.
[20]
Behold, O LORD; for I am in distress: my bowels are troubled; mine
heart is turned within me; for I have grievously rebelled: abroad the
sword bereaveth, at home there is as death.
[21] 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 wilt
bring the day that thou hast called, and they shall be like unto
me.
[22] Let all their wickedness come before thee; and do
unto them, as thou hast done unto me for all my transgressions: for
my sighs are many, and my heart is faint.
[1]
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!
[2]
The Lord hath swallowed up all the habitations of Jacob, and hath not
pitied: he hath thrown down in his wrath the strong holds of the
daughter of Judah; he hath brought them down to the ground: he hath
polluted the kingdom and the princes thereof.
[3] 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.
[4]
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.
[5] The Lord was as an enemy: he hath swallowed up
Israel, he hath swallowed up all her palaces: he hath destroyed his
strong holds, and hath increased in the daughter of Judah mourning
and lamentation.
[6] 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.
[7] 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.
[8]
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.
[9] 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.
[10] 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.
[11] 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.
[12] 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
mothers' bosom.
[13] 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?
[14]
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.
[15]
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?
[16]
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.
[17]
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.
[18]
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.
[19] Arise, cry out in
the night: in the beginning of the watches 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.
[20] 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?
[21] 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.
[22] 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.
[1]
I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.
[2]
He hath led me, and brought me into darkness, but not into light.
[3]
Surely against me is he turned; he turneth his hand against me all
the day.
[4] My flesh and my skin hath he made old; he hath
broken my bones.
[5] He hath builded against me, and
compassed me with gall and travail.
[6] He hath set me in
dark places, as they that be dead of old.
[7] He hath
hedged me about, that I cannot get out: he hath made my chain
heavy.
[8] Also when I cry and shout, he shutteth out my
prayer.
[9] He hath inclosed my ways with hewn stone, he
hath made my paths crooked.
[10] He was unto me as a bear
lying in wait, and as a lion in secret places.
[11] He hath
turned aside my ways, and pulled me in pieces: he hath made me
desolate.
[12] He hath bent his bow, and set me as a mark
for the arrow.
[13] He hath caused the arrows of his quiver
to enter into my reins.
[14] I was a derision to all my
people; and their song all the day.
[15] He hath filled me
with bitterness, he hath made me drunken with wormwood.
[16]
He hath also broken my teeth with gravel stones, he hath covered me
with ashes.
[17] And thou hast removed my soul far off from
peace: I forgat prosperity.
[18] And I said, My strength
and my hope is perished from the LORD:
[19] Remembering
mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall.
[20]
My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me.
[21]
This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope.
[22] It is
of the LORD's mercies that we are not consumed, because his
compassions fail not.
[23] They are new every morning:
great is thy faithfulness.
[24] The LORD is my portion,
saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him.
[25] The LORD
is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh
him.
[26] It is good that a man should both hope and
quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD.
[27] It is good
for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.
[28] He
sitteth alone and keepeth silence, because he hath borne it upon
him.
[29] He putteth his mouth in the dust; if so be there
may be hope.
[30] He giveth his cheek to him that smiteth
him: he is filled full with reproach.
[31] For the Lord
will not cast off for ever:
[32] But though he cause grief,
yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his
mercies.
[33] For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve
the children of men.
[34] To crush under his feet all the
prisoners of the earth,
[35] To turn aside the right of a
man before the face of the most High,
[36] To subvert a man
in his cause, the Lord approveth not.
[37] Who is he that
saith, and it cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth it not?
[38]
Out of the mouth of the most High proceedeth not evil and good?
[39]
Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his
sins?
[40] Let us search and try our ways, and turn again
to the LORD.
[41] Let us lift up our heart with our hands
unto God in the heavens.
[42] We have transgressed and have
rebelled: thou hast not pardoned.
[43] Thou hast covered
with anger, and persecuted us: thou hast slain, thou hast not
pitied.
[44] Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud, that
our prayer should not pass through.
[45] Thou hast made us
as the offscouring and refuse in the midst of the people.
[46]
All our enemies have opened their mouths against us.
[47]
Fear and a snare is come upon us, desolation and destruction.
[48]
Mine eye runneth down with rivers of water for the destruction of the
daughter of my people.
[49] Mine eye trickleth down, and
ceaseth not, without any intermission,
[50] Till the LORD
look down, and behold from heaven.
[51] Mine eye affecteth
mine heart because of all the daughters of my city.
[52]
Mine enemies chased me sore, like a bird, without cause.
[53]
They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and cast a stone upon
me.
[54] Waters flowed over mine head; then I said, I am
cut off.
[55] I called upon thy name, O LORD, out of the
low dungeon.
[56] Thou hast heard my voice: hide not thine
ear at my breathing, at my cry.
[57] Thou drewest near in
the day that I called upon thee: thou saidst, Fear not.
[58]
O Lord, thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul; thou hast redeemed
my life.
[59] O LORD, thou hast seen my wrong: judge thou
my cause.
[60] Thou hast seen all their vengeance and all
their imaginations against me.
[61] Thou hast heard their
reproach, O LORD, and all their imaginations against me;
[62]
The lips of those that rose up against me, and their device against
me all the day.
[63] Behold their sitting down, and their
rising up; I am their musick.
[64] Render unto them a
recompence, O LORD, according to the work of their hands.
[65]
Give them sorrow of heart, thy curse unto them.
[66]
Persecute and destroy them in anger from under the heavens of the
LORD.
[1]
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.
[2] The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine
gold, how are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the
hands of the potter!
[3] 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.
[4]
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.
[5] They that did feed delicately are desolate in the
streets: they that were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghills.
[6]
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 hands stayed on her.
[7] Her
Nazarites were purer than snow, they were whiter than milk, they were
more ruddy in body than rubies, their polishing was of sapphire:
[8]
Their visage is blacker than a coal; they are not known in the
streets: their skin cleaveth to their bones; it is withered, it is
become like a stick.
[9] 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.
[10]
The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children: they
were their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people.
[11]
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.
[12] 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.
[13] 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,
[14] They have wandered as blind men in
the streets, they have polluted themselves with blood, so that men
could not touch their garments.
[15] 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.
[16] 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.
[17] 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.
[18] They hunt
our steps, that we cannot go in our streets: our end is near, our
days are fulfilled; for our end is come.
[19] Our
persecutors are swifter than the eagles of the heaven: they pursued
us upon the mountains, they laid wait for us in the wilderness.
[20]
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.
[21] Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, that
dwellest in the land of Uz; the cup also shall pass through unto
thee: thou shalt be drunken, and shalt make thyself naked.
[22]
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.
[1]
Remember, O LORD, what is come upon us: consider, and behold our
reproach.
[2] Our inheritance is turned to strangers, our
houses to aliens.
[3] We are orphans and fatherless, our
mothers are as widows.
[4] We have drunken our water for
money; our wood is sold unto us.
[5] Our necks are under
persecution: we labour, and have no rest.
[6] We have given
the hand to the Egyptians, and to the Assyrians, to be satisfied with
bread.
[7] Our fathers have sinned, and are not; and we
have borne their iniquities.
[8] Servants have ruled over
us: there is none that doth deliver us out of their hand.
[9]
We gat our bread with the peril of our lives because of the sword of
the wilderness.
[10] Our skin was black like an oven
because of the terrible famine.
[11] They ravished the
women in Zion, and the maids in the cities of Judah.
[12]
Princes are hanged up by their hand: the faces of elders were not
honoured.
[13] They took the young men to grind, and the
children fell under the wood.
[14] The elders have ceased
from the gate, the young men from their musick.
[15] The
joy of our heart is ceased; our dance is turned into mourning.
[16]
The crown is fallen from our head: woe unto us, that we have
sinned!
[17] For this our heart is faint; for these things
our eyes are dim.
[18] Because of the mountain of Zion,
which is desolate, the foxes walk upon it.
[19] Thou, O
LORD, remainest for ever; thy throne from generation to
generation.
[20] Wherefore dost thou forget us for ever,
and forsake us so long time?
[21] Turn thou us unto thee, O
LORD, and we shall be turned; renew our days as of old.
[22]
But thou hast utterly rejected us; thou art very wroth against us.