1:1 How lonely sits the city
That once had many people!
She has become like a widow
Who was once great among the nations!
She who was a princess among the ①provinces
Has become a forced laborer!
▷ ①Or districts
1:2 She weeps bitterly in the night,
And her tears are on her cheeks;
She has no one to comfort her
Among all her lovers.
All her friends have dealt treacherously with her;
They have become her enemies.
1:3 Judah has gone into exile out of affliction
And ①harsh servitude;
She lives among the nations,
But she has not found a resting place;
All those who pursued her have overtaken her
In the midst of ②distress.
▷ ①Lit great ②Or narrow places
1:4 The roads ①of Zion are in mourning
Because no one comes to an appointed feast.
All her gates are deserted;
Her priests groan,
Her virgins are worried,
And as for Zion herself, it is bitter for her.
▷ ①Or to
1:5 Her adversaries have become ①her masters,
Her enemies are ②secure;
For the LORD has ③caused her grief
Because of the multitude of her wrongdoings;
Her little ones have gone away
As captives ④led by the enemy.
▷ ①Lit head ②Or at ease ③Or tormented her ④Lit before
1:6 All of her splendor
Is gone from the daughter of Zion;
Her leaders have become like deer
That have found no pasture,
And they have ①fled without strength
②From the pursuer.
▷ ①Lit Before ②Lit gone
1:7 In the days of her affliction and homelessness
Jerusalem remembers all her treasures
That were hers since the days of old,
When her people fell into the hand of the adversary
And no one helped her.
The adversaries saw her,
They laughed at her ①ruin.
▷ ①Lit cessation
1:8 Jerusalem sinned greatly,
Therefore she has become an ①object of ridicule.
All who honored her despise her
Because they have seen her nakedness;
Even she herself groans and turns away.
▷ ①Or abomination
1:9 Her uncleanness was in her garment’s seams;
She ①did not think of her future.
So she has ②fallen in an astonishing way;
She has no comforter.
“See, LORD, my affliction,
For the enemy has ③honored himself!”
▷ ①Orremember her final end ②Lit gone down ③Or boasted
1:10 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 were not to enter Your congregation.
1:11 All her people groan, seeking bread;
They have given their treasures for food
To restore their ①lives.
“See, LORD, and look,
For I am despised.”
▷ ①Lit soul
1:12 “Is it nothing to all you who pass this way?
Look and see if there is any pain like my pain
Which was inflicted on me,
With which the LORD tormented me on the day of His fierce anger.
1:13 From ①the height 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,
②Faint all day long.
▷ ①I.e., heaven ②Or Sick
1:14 The yoke of my wrongdoings is bound;
By His hand they are woven together.
They have come upon my neck;
He has made my strength ①fail.
The Lord has handed me over
To those against whom I am not able to stand.
▷ ①Lit falter
1:15 The Lord has thrown away all my strong men
In my midst;
He has called an appointed ①time against me
To crush my young men;
The Lord has trodden as in a wine press
The virgin daughter of Judah.
▷ ①Another reading is feast
1:16 For these things I weep;
①My eyes run down with water;
Because far from me is a comforter,
One to restore my soul.
My children are desolate
Because the enemy has prevailed.”
▷ ①Lit My eye, my eye
1:17 Zion stretches out with her hands;
There is no one to comfort her;
The LORD has commanded regarding Jacob
That those around him become his adversaries;
Jerusalem has become a filthy thing among them.
1:18 “The LORD is righteous,
For I have rebelled against His ①command;
Hear now, all peoples,
And see my pain;
My virgins and my young men
Have gone into captivity.
▷ ①Lit mouth
1:19 I called to my lovers, but they deserted me;
My priests and my elders perished in the city
While they sought food to restore their ①strength themselves.
▷ ①Lit soul
1:20 See, LORD, for I am in distress;
My ①spirit is greatly troubled;
My heart is overturned within me,
For I have been very rebellious.
In the street the sword has made women childless;
In the house it is like death.
▷ ①Lit inward parts are in ferment
1:21 They have heard that I groan;
There is no one to comfort me,
All my enemies have heard of my disaster;
They are joyful that You have done it.
Oh, that You would bring the day which You have proclaimed,
So that they will become like me.
1:22 May all their wickedness come before You;
And deal with them just as You have dealt with me
For all my wrongdoings.
For my groans are many and my heart is faint.”