¹How alone the city sits, she who was great with people! She has become like a widow, she who was great among the nations; the princess among the provinces has become forced labor.

²She weeps bitterly in the night, her tears on her cheek; there is no comforter for her from all her lovers. All her friends have dealt treacherously with her; they have become her enemies.

³Judah has gone into exile from affliction and from an abundance of labor; she dwells among the nations and finds no resting place. All her pursuers have overtaken her amid the straits.

⁴The roads of Zion are mourning, because none come to the appointed meeting; all her gates are desolate, her priests are groaning, her virgins are grieved, and she is bitter to her.

⁵Her enemies have become the head, her enemies are at ease, for Yahweh has caused her grief over the multitude of her transgressions; her infants have gone into captivity before the enemy.

⁶From the daughter of Zion all her splendor has gone out; her officials have become like deer that find no pasture, and they have gone without strength before the pursuer.

⁷Jerusalem remembered, in the days of her affliction and her wandering, all her precious things which were from the days of old. When her people fell into the hand of the enemy and there was no helper for her, the enemies saw her; they laughed at her annihilation.

⁸Jerusalem has committed a sin; therefore she has become an impurity. All who honored her hold her in light esteem, for they have seen her nakedness; she herself also groans and turns backward.

⁹Her uncleanness is in her skirts; she did not remember her end. She came down extraordinarily; there is no comforter for her. See, Yahweh, my affliction, for the enemy has magnified himself!

¹⁰The enemy has spread out his hand over all her precious things; for she saw nations come into her sanctuary, those you commanded not to enter your assembly.

¹¹All her people are groaning, seeking bread; they have given their precious things for food to restore the being. See, Yahweh, and look, for I have become worthless.

¹²Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by on the road? Look and see whether there is pain like my pain, which was dealt out to me, with which Yahweh caused me sorrow on the day of his anger.

¹³From the height he sent fire into my bones, and it dominated them; he spread out a net for my feet, he turned me backward; he has made me desolate, faint all the day.

¹⁴The yoke of my transgressions is bound on; by his hand they are woven together. They have come up on my neck; he has made my strength stumble. The Lord has put me into the hands of those against whom I am not able to rise.

¹⁵The Lord has tossed aside all my mighty ones in my midst; he has proclaimed an appointed time against me, to break my young men. The Lord has trodden a winepress for the virgin daughter of Judah.

¹⁶For these things I am weeping; my eye, my eye, goes down with water, for a comforter is far from me, one who would restore my being. My children are desolate, for the enemy has prevailed.

¹⁷Zion has spread out her hands; there is no comforter for her. Yahweh has commanded concerning Jacob that those around him be his enemies; Jerusalem has become an impure thing among them.

¹⁸He is righteous, Yahweh, for I have been rebellious against his mouth. Listen, please, all you peoples, and see my pain: my virgins and my young men have gone into captivity.

¹⁹I called to my loved ones; they themselves deceived me. My priests and my elders perished in the city, for they sought food for themselves that they might restore their being.

²⁰See, Yahweh, for I am in a tight place; my inward parts are in a ferment, my heart is overturned within me, for I have been utterly rebellious. Outside the sword bereaves; in the house it is like death.

²¹They heard that I am groaning, with no comforter for me. All my enemies heard of my misery and rejoiced, for you yourself have acted; you have brought the day you proclaimed, and may they be like me.

²²May all their wickedness come before you, and deal severely with them just as you have dealt severely with me over all my transgressions; for my groanings are many, and my heart is faint.