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Lamentations
1 |
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How
deserted lies the city, once so full of people! How like a widow is she,
who once was great among the nations! She who was queen among the
provinces has now become a slave. {2} Bitterly she weeps at
night, tears are upon her cheeks. Among all her lovers there is none to
comfort her. All her friends have betrayed her; they have become her
enemies. {3} After affliction and harsh labour, Judah has gone
into exile. She dwells among the nations; she finds no resting place.
All who pursue her have overtaken her in the midst of her distress.
{4} The roads to Zion mourn, for no one comes to her appointed
feasts. All her gateways are desolate, her priests groan, her maidens
grieve, and she is in bitter anguish. {5} Her foes have become
her masters; her enemies are at ease. The LORD has brought her grief
because of her many sins. Her children have gone into exile, captive
before the foe. {6} All the splendor has departed from the
Daughter of Zion. Her princes are like deer that find no pasture; in
weakness they have fled before the pursuer. {7} In the days of
her affliction and wandering Jerusalem remembers all the treasures that
were hers in days of old. When her people fell into enemy hands, there
was no one to help her. Her enemies looked at her and laughed at her
destruction. {8} Jerusalem has sinned greatly and so has become
unclean. All who honored her despise her, for they have seen her
nakedness; she herself groans and turns away. {9} Her filthiness
clung to her skirts; she did not consider her future. Her fall was
astounding; there was none to comfort her. "Look, O LORD, on my
affliction, for the enemy has triumphed." {10} The enemy laid
hands on all her treasures; she saw pagan nations enter her sanctuary--
those you had forbidden to enter your assembly. {11} All her
people groan as they search for bread; they barter their treasures for
food to keep themselves alive. "Look, O LORD, and consider, for I am
despised." {12} "Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look
around and see. Is any suffering like my suffering that was inflicted on
me, that the LORD brought on me in the day of his fierce anger? {13}
"From on high he sent fire, sent it down into my bones. He spread a
net for my feet and turned me back. He made me desolate, faint all the
day long. {14} "My sins have been bound into a yoke ; by his
hands they were woven together. They have come upon my neck and the Lord
has sapped my strength. He has handed me over to those I cannot
withstand. {15} "The Lord has rejected all the warriors in my
midst; he has summoned an army against me to crush my young men. In his
winepress the Lord has trampled the Virgin Daughter of Judah. {16}
"This is why I weep and my eyes overflow with tears. No one is near
to comfort me, no one to restore my spirit. My children are destitute
because the enemy has prevailed." {17} Zion stretches out her
hands, but there is no one to comfort her. The LORD has decreed for
Jacob that his neighbors become his foes; Jerusalem has become an
unclean thing among them. {18} "The LORD is righteous, yet I
rebelled against his command. Listen, all you peoples; look upon my
suffering. My young men and maidens have gone into exile. {19} "I
called to my allies but they betrayed me. My priests and my elders
perished in the city while they searched for food to keep themselves
alive. {20} "See, O LORD, how distressed I am! I am in torment
within, and in my heart I am disturbed, for I have been most rebellious.
Outside, the sword bereaves; inside, there is only death. {21}
"People have heard my groaning, but there is no one to comfort me. All
my enemies have heard of my distress; they rejoice at what you have
done. May you bring the day you have announced so they may become like
me. {22} "Let all their wickedness come before you; deal with
them as you have dealt with me because of all my sins. My groans are
many and my heart is faint." |
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Lamentations 2 |
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How
the Lord has covered the Daughter of Zion with the cloud of his anger !
He has hurled down the splendor of Israel from heaven to earth; he has
not remembered his footstool in the day of his anger. {2} Without
pity the Lord has swallowed up all the dwellings of Jacob; in his wrath
he has torn down the strongholds of the Daughter of Judah. He has
brought her kingdom and its princes down to the ground in dishonor.
{3} In fierce anger he has cut off every horn of Israel. He has
withdrawn his right hand at the approach of the enemy. He has burned in
Jacob like a flaming fire that consumes everything around it. {4}
Like an enemy he has strung his bow; his right hand is ready. Like a foe
he has slain all who were pleasing to the eye; he has poured out his
wrath like fire on the tent of the Daughter of Zion. {5} The Lord
is like an enemy; he has swallowed up Israel. He has swallowed up all
her palaces and destroyed her strongholds. He has multiplied mourning
and lamentation for the Daughter of Judah. {6} He has laid waste
his dwelling like a garden; he has destroyed his place of meeting. The
LORD has made Zion forget her appointed feasts and her Sabbaths; in his
fierce anger he has spurned both king and priest. {7} The Lord
has rejected his altar and abandoned his sanctuary. He has handed over
to the enemy the walls of her palaces; they have raised a shout in the
house of the LORD as on the day of an appointed feast. {8} The
LORD determined to tear down the wall around the Daughter of Zion. He
stretched out a measuring line and did not withhold his hand from
destroying. He made ramparts and walls lament; together they wasted
away. {9} Her gates have sunk into the ground; their bars he has
broken and destroyed. Her king and her princes are exiled among the
nations, the law is no more, and her prophets no longer find visions
from the LORD. {10} The elders of the Daughter of Zion sit on the
ground in silence; they have sprinkled dust on their heads and put on
sackcloth. The young women of Jerusalem have bowed their heads to the
ground. {11} My eyes fail from weeping, I am in torment within,
my heart is poured out on the ground because my people are destroyed,
because children and infants faint in the streets of the city. {12}
They say to their mothers, "Where is bread and wine?" as they faint
like wounded men in the streets of the city, as their lives ebb away in
their mothers' arms. {13} What can I say for you? With what can I
compare you, O Daughter of Jerusalem? To what can I liken you, that I
may comfort you, O Virgin Daughter of Zion? Your wound is as deep as the
sea. Who can heal you? {14} The visions of your prophets were
false and worthless; they did not expose your sin to ward off your
captivity. The oracles they gave you were false and misleading. {15}
All who pass your way clap their hands at you; they scoff and shake
their heads at the Daughter of Jerusalem: "Is this the city that was
called the perfection of beauty, the joy of the whole earth?" {16}
All your enemies open their mouths wide against you; they scoff and
gnash their teeth and say, "We have swallowed her up. This is the day we
have waited for; we have lived to see it." {17} The LORD has done
what he planned; he has fulfilled his word, which he decreed long ago.
He has overthrown you without pity, he has let the enemy gloat over you,
he has exalted the horn of your foes. {18} The hearts of the
people cry out to the Lord. O wall of the Daughter of Zion, let your
tears flow like a river day and night; give yourself no relief, your
eyes no rest. {19} Arise, cry out in the night, as the watches of
the night begin; pour out your heart like water in the presence of the
Lord. Lift up your hands to him for the lives of your children, who
faint from hunger at the head of every street. {20} "Look, O
LORD, and consider: Whom have you ever treated like this? Should women
eat their offspring, the children they have cared for? Should priest and
prophet be killed in the sanctuary of the Lord? {21} "Young and
old lie together in the dust of the streets; my young men and maidens
have fallen by the sword. You have slain them in the day of your anger;
you have slaughtered them without pity. {22} "As you summon to a
feast day, so you summoned against me terrors on every side. In the day
of the Lord's anger no one escaped or survived; those I cared for and
reared, my enemy has destroyed." |
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Lamentations
3 |
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I am
the man who has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath. {2} He
has driven me away and made me walk in darkness rather than light;
{3} indeed, he has turned his hand against me again and again, all
day long. {4} He has made my skin and my flesh grow old and has
broken my bones. {5} He has besieged me and surrounded me with
bitterness and hardship. {6} He has made me dwell in darkness
like those long dead. {7} He has walled me in so I cannot escape;
he has weighed me down with chains. {8} Even when I call out or
cry for help, he shuts out my prayer. {9} He has barred my way
with blocks of stone; he has made my paths crooked. {10} Like a
bear lying in wait, like a lion in hiding, {11} he dragged me
from the path and mangled me and left me without help. {12} He
drew his bow and made me the target for his arrows. {13} He
pierced my heart with arrows from his quiver. {14} I became the
laughingstock of all my people; they mock me in song all day long.
{15} He has filled me with bitter herbs and sated me with gall.
{16} He has broken my teeth with gravel; he has trampled me in the
dust. {17} I have been deprived of peace; I have forgotten what
prosperity is. {18} So I say, "My splendor is gone and all that I
had hoped from the LORD." {19} I remember my affliction and my
wandering, the bitterness and the gall. {20} I well remember
them, and my soul is downcast within me. {21} Yet this I call to
mind and therefore I have hope: {22} Because of the Lord's great
love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. {23}
They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. {24} I
say to myself, "The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him."
{25} The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who
seeks him; {26} it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of
the LORD. {27} It is good for a man to bear the yoke while he is
young. {28} Let him sit alone in silence, for the LORD has laid
it on him. {29} Let him bury his face in the dust-- there may yet
be hope. {30} Let him offer his cheek to one who would strike
him, and let him be filled with disgrace. {31} For men are not
cast off by the Lord forever. {32} Though he brings grief, he
will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love. {33} For he
does not willingly bring affliction or grief to the children of men.
{34} To crush underfoot all prisoners in the land, {35} to
deny a man his rights before the Most High, {36} to deprive a man
of justice-- would not the Lord see such things? {37} Who can
speak and have it happen if the Lord has not decreed it? {38} Is
it not from the mouth of the Most High that both calamities and good
things come? {39} Why should any living man complain when
punished for his sins? {40} Let us examine our ways and test
them, and let us return to the LORD. {41} Let us lift up our
hearts and our hands to God in heaven, and say: {42} "We have
sinned and rebelled and you have not forgiven. {43} "You have
covered yourself with anger and pursued us; you have slain without pity.
{44} You have covered yourself with a cloud so that no prayer can
get through. {45} You have made us scum and refuse among the
nations. {46} "All our enemies have opened their mouths wide
against us. {47} We have suffered terror and pitfalls, ruin and
destruction." {48} Streams of tears flow from my eyes because my
people are destroyed. {49} My eyes will flow unceasingly, without
relief, {50} until the LORD looks down from heaven and sees.
{51} What I see brings grief to my soul because of all the women of
my city. {52} Those who were my enemies without cause hunted me
like a bird. {53} They tried to end my life in a pit and threw
stones at me; {54} the waters closed over my head, and I thought
I was about to be cut off. {55} I called on your name, O LORD,
from the depths of the pit. {56} You heard my plea: "Do not close
your ears to my cry for relief." {57} You came near when I called
you, and you said, "Do not fear." {58} O Lord, you took up my
case; you redeemed my life. {59} You have seen, O LORD, the wrong
done to me. Uphold my cause! {60} You have seen the depth of
their vengeance, all their plots against me. {61} O LORD, you
have heard their insults, all their plots against me-- {62} what
my enemies whisper and mutter against me all day long. {63} Look
at them! Sitting or standing, they mock me in their songs. {64}
Pay them back what they deserve, O LORD, for what their hands have done.
{65} Put a veil over their hearts, and may your curse be on them!
{66} Pursue them in anger and destroy them from under the heavens of
the LORD. |
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Lamentations
4 |
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How
the gold has lost its luster, the fine gold become dull! The sacred gems
are scattered at the head of every street. {2} How the precious
sons of Zion, once worth their weight in gold, are now considered as
pots of clay, the work of a potter's hands! {3} Even jackals
offer their breasts to nurse their young, but my people have become
heartless like ostriches in the desert. {4} Because of thirst the
infant's tongue sticks to the roof of its mouth; the children beg for
bread, but no one gives it to them. {5} Those who once ate
delicacies are destitute in the streets. Those nurtured in purple now
lie on ash heaps. {6} The punishment of my people is greater than
that of Sodom, which was overthrown in a moment without a hand turned to
help her. {7} Their princes were brighter than snow and whiter
than milk, their bodies more ruddy than rubies, their appearance like
sapphires. {8} But now they are blacker than soot; they are not
recognised in the streets. Their skin has shriveled on their bones; it
has become as dry as a stick. {9} Those killed by the sword are
better off than those who die of famine; racked with hunger, they waste
away for lack of food from the field. {10} With their own hands
compassionate women have cooked their own children, who became their
food when my people were destroyed. {11} The LORD has given full
vent to his wrath; he has poured out his fierce anger. He kindled a fire
in Zion that consumed her foundations. {12} The kings of the
earth did not believe, nor did any of the world's people, that enemies
and foes could enter the gates of Jerusalem. {13} But it happened
because of the sins of her prophets and the iniquities of her priests,
who shed within her the blood of the righteous. {14} Now they
grope through the streets like men who are blind. They are so defiled
with blood that no one dares to touch their garments. {15} "Go
away! You are unclean!" men cry to them. "Away! Away! Don't touch us!"
When they flee and wander about, people among the nations say, "They can
stay here no longer." {16} The LORD himself has scattered them;
he no longer watches over them. The priests are shown no honor, the
elders no favor. {17} Moreover, our eyes failed, looking in vain
for help; from our towers we watched for a nation that could not save
us. {18} Men stalked us at every step, so we could not walk in
our streets. Our end was near, our days were numbered, for our end had
come. {19} Our pursuers were swifter than eagles in the sky; they
chased us over the mountains and lay in wait for us in the desert.
{20} The Lord's anointed, our very life breath, was caught in their
traps. We thought that under his shadow we would live among the nations.
{21} Rejoice and be glad, O Daughter of Edom, you who live in the
land of Uz. But to you also the cup will be passed; you will be drunk
and stripped naked. {22} O Daughter of Zion, your punishment will
end; he will not prolong your exile. But, O Daughter of Edom, he will
punish your sin and expose your wickedness. |
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Lamentations 5 |
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Remember, O LORD, what has happened to us; look, and see our disgrace.
{2} Our inheritance has been turned over to aliens, our homes to
foreigners. {3} We have become orphans and fatherless, our
mothers like widows. {4} We must buy the water we drink; our wood
can be had only at a price. {5} Those who pursue us are at our
heels; we are weary and find no rest. {6} We submitted to Egypt
and Assyria to get enough bread. {7} Our fathers sinned and are
no more, and we bear their punishment. {8} Slaves rule over us,
and there is none to free us from their hands. {9} We get our
bread at the risk of our lives because of the sword in the desert.
{10} Our skin is hot as an oven, feverish from hunger. {11}
Women have been ravished in Zion, and virgins in the towns of Judah.
{12} Princes have been hung up by their hands; elders are shown no
respect. {13} Young men toil at the millstones; boys stagger
under loads of wood. {14} The elders are gone from the city gate;
the young men have stopped their music. {15} Joy is gone from our
hearts; our dancing has turned to mourning. {16} The crown has
fallen from our head. Woe to us, for we have sinned! {17} Because
of this our hearts are faint, because of these things our eyes grow dim
{18} for Mount Zion, which lies desolate, with jackals prowling over
it. {19} You, O LORD, reign forever; your throne endures from
generation to generation. {20} Why do you always forget us? Why
do you forsake us so long? {21} Restore us to yourself, O LORD,
that we may return; renew our days as of old {22} unless you have
utterly rejected us and are angry with us beyond measure. |
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