First lamentation

¹ How forlorn the city lies, once teeming with people! How like a widow is she, once mistress of the nations! A princess among the cities, she has now become a slave.

² She spends her nights weeping, drenching her cheeks with tears. Who is there to comfort her among all her lovers? All her friends have betrayed her and have become her enemies.

³ Humiliated, exhausted, Judah has gone into exile but she finds no rest among the na tions where she sojourns; her pursuers have overtaken her where there is no way of escape.

⁴ All roads to Zion are in mourning; no one comes to her feasts. Her gates are deserted, her priests groan, her virgins grieve. What bitter anguish she suffers!

⁵ She is at the mercy of her foes who enjoy prosperity and power. Yahweh himself has made her suffer for all her iniquity. Her children, driven into captivity, take the lonely road to exile.

⁶ Gone from the daughter of Zion is all her majestic splendor. Her rulers, like harts that find no pasture, have fled helplessly before the oppressors.

⁷ Jerusalem recalls her days of wandering and affliction, her people fell into the hands of her foes and there was no help. Haters gloated over her downfall and laughed at her destruction.

⁸ Greatly has Jerusalem sinned; she has become as a thing unclean. Ho nored before, but now despised by those who have seen her naked, she herself groans in dismay and turns her face away.