meta: {"file": "/data/tomer/Sefaria-Export/txt/Tanakh/Writings/Lamentations/English/The Koren Jerusalem Bible.txt"}
text: Lamentations
  איכה
  The Koren Jerusalem Bible
  
  
  Lamentations
  
  
  
  
  
  How does the city sit solitary, that was full of people! how is she become like a widow! she that was great among the nations, and princess among the provinces, how is she become a vassal!
  She weeps sore in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks: among all her lovers she has none to comfort her: all her friends have dealt treacherously with her, they have become her enemies.
  Yehuda is gone into exile because of affliction, and because of great servitude: she dwells among the nations, she finds no rest: all her persecutors overtook her within the straits.
  The ways of Żiyyon do mourn, because none come to the solemn assembly: all her gates are desolate: her priests sigh, her virgins are afflicted, and she is in bitterness.
  Her adversaries have become the chief, her enemies prosper; for the Lord has afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions: her infants are gone into captivity before the enemy.
  And from the daughter of Żiyyon all her splendour is departed: her princes are become like harts that find no pasture, and they are gone without strength before the pursuer.
  Yerushalayim remembers 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 gloated at her destruction.
  Yerushalayim has grievously sinned; therefore she is become loathsome: all that honoured her despise her, because they have seen her nakedness: she herself also sighs, and turns backward.
  Her filthiness was in her skirts; she took no thought of her last end; therefore she came down astonishingly: she has no comforter. O Lord, behold my affliction: for the enemy has magnified himself.
  The adversary has spread out his hand upon all her pleasant things: for she has seen that heathen nations invade her sanctuary, those whom Thou didst forbid to enter into Thy congregation.
  All her people sigh, they seek bread; they have given their pleasant things for food to relieve the soul: see, O Lord, and consider; how abject I am become.
  Is it nothing to you, all you that pass by? behold, and see if there is any pain like my pain, which is done to me, with which the Lord has afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger.
  From above he has sent fire into my bones, and it prevails against them: he has spread a net for my feet, he has turned me back: he has made me desolate and faint all the day.
  The yoke of my transgressions is fastened on by his hand: they are knit together, and come up upon my neck: he has made my strength to fall, the Lord has delivered me into the hands of those against whom I am not able to rise up.
  The Lord has spurned all my mighty men in the midst of me: he has called an assembly against me to crush my young men: the Lord has trodden the virgin, the daughter of Yehuda, as in a winepress.
  For these things I weep; my eye, my eye runs down with water, because the comforter that should relieve my soul is far from me: my children are desolate, because the enemy has prevailed.
  Żiyyon spreads out her hands, and there is none to comfort her: the Lord has commanded against Ya῾aqov, adversaries round about him: Yerushalayim is like a menstruous woman among them.
  The Lord is righteous; for I have rebelled against his word: hear, I pray you, all the peoples, and behold my pain: my virgins and my young men are gone into captivity.
  I called for my lovers, but they deceived me: my priests and my elders perished in the city, while they sought food for themselves to relieve their souls.
  Behold, O Lord; for I am in distress: my bowels are troubled; my heart is turned within me; for I have grievously rebelled: abroad the sword bereaves, at home it is like death.
  They have heard that I sigh: there is none to comfort me: all my 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 me.
  Let all their wickedness come before Thee; and do to them, as Thou hast done to me for all my transgressions: for my sighs are many, and my heart is faint.
  
  
  
  How has the Lord covered the daughter of Żiyyon with a cloud in his anger, and cast down from heaven to earth the beauty of Yisra᾽el, and remembered not his footstool in the day of  his anger!
  The Lord has swallowed up without pity all the habitations of Ya῾aqov: he has thrown down in his wrath the strongholds of the daughter of Yehuda; he has brought them down to the ground: he has profaned the kingdom and its princes.
  He has cut off in his fierce anger all the horn of Yisra᾽el: he has drawn back his right hand from before the enemy, and he has burned against Ya῾aqov like a flaming fire, which devours round about.
  He has bent his bow like an enemy: with his right hand set like an adversary, he has slain all that were pleasant to the eye: in the tent of the daughter of Żiyyon, he has poured out his fury like fire.
  The Lord was like an enemy: he has swallowed up Yisra᾽el, he has swallowed up all her palaces: he has destroyed his strongholds, and has increased in the daughter of Yehuda mourning and lamentation.
  And he has stripped his tabernacle, as if it were a garden: he has destroyed his place of assembly: the Lord has caused the appointed seasons and sabbaths to be forgotten in Żiyyon, and has spurned in the indignation of his anger both king and priest.
  The Lord has cast off his altar, he has abhorred his sanctuary, he has 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 assembly.
  The Lord has purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Żiyyon: he has stretched out a line, he has not withdrawn his hand from destroying: therefore he made the rampart and the wall to lament; they languish together.
  Her gates are sunk into the ground; he has destroyed and broken her bars: her king and her princes are among the nations: there is no Tora; her prophets also find no vision from the Lord.
  The elders of the daughter of Żiyyon sit upon the ground, and keep silence: they have cast up dust upon their heads; they have girded themselves with sackcloth: the virgins of Yerushalayim hang down their heads to the ground.
  My eyes fail with tears, my bowels are troubled, my liver is poured upon the earth, for the breach of the daughter of my people; because the children and the sucklings swoon in the broad places of the city.
  They say to their mothers, Where is corn and wine? when they swoon like wounded men in the broad places of the city, when their soul is poured out into their mothers’ bosom.
  What shall I take to witness for thee? what shall I liken to thee, O daughter of Yerushalayim? what shall I equal to thee, that I may comfort thee, O virgin daughter of Żiyyon? for thy breach is great like the sea: who can heal thee?
  Thy prophets have seen for thee vain and foolish visions: and they have not exposed thy iniquity, to restore thy captivity; but have prophesied for thee burdens of falsehood and deceit.
  All that pass by clap their hands at thee; they hiss and wag their head at the daughter of Yerushalayim, saying, Is this the city that men call The perfection of beauty, The joy of the whole earth?
  All thy 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 have looked for; we have found it, we have seen it.
  The Lord has done that which he devised; he has fulfilled his word that he commanded in the days of old: he has thrown down without pity: and he has caused the enemy to rejoice over thee, he has raised up the horn of thy adversaries.
  Their heart cried to the Lord. O wall of the daughter of Żiyyon, let tears run down like a river day and night: give thyself no rest; let not the apple of thy eye cease.
  Arise, cry out in the night: in the beginning of the watches pour out thy heart like water before the face of the Lord: lift up thy hands towards him for the life of thy young children, that faint for hunger at the head of every street.
  Behold, O Lord, and consider to whom Thou hast done this. Shall the women eat their fruit, their cherished babes? shall priest and prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord?
  Young and 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 Thy anger; Thou hast killed, and not pitied.
  Thou hast called as in the day of a solemn assembly, my terrors round about, so that in the day of the Lord’s anger none escaped or remained: those that I have cherished and brought up my enemy has consumed.
  
  
  
  I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.
  He has led me, and brought me into darkness, but not into light.
  Surely he is turned against me; he turns his hand against me all the day.
  He has made my flesh and my skin to waste away; he has broken my bones.
  He has built a mound against me, and has beset me round about at head and hell.
  He has set me in dark places, as those who are long ago dead.
  He has hedged me about, so that I cannot get out: he has made my chain heavy.
  Even when I cry and call for help, he stops up my prayer.
  He has enclosed my ways with hewn stone, he has made my paths crooked.
  He is to me like a bear lying in wait, and like a lion in secret places.
  He has turned aside my ways, and pulled me in pieces: he has made me desolate.
  He has bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow.
  He has caused the arrows of his quiver to enter into my reins.
  I am become a derision to all my people; and their song all the day.
  He has filled me with bitterness, he has sated me with wormwood.
  He has also broken my teeth with gravel stones, he has pressed me down into the ashes.
  My soul is far removed from peace: I have forgotten prosperity.
  And I said, My strength and my hope are perished from the Lord.
  Remember my affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall.
  My soul has them still in remembrance, and is bowed down within me.
  This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope:
  that the Lord’s steadfast love has not ceased, and that his compassions do not fail.
  They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.
  The Lord is my portion, says my soul; therefore I will hope in him.
  The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul that seeks him.
  It is good that a man should quietly hope for the salvation of the Lord.
  It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.
  Let him sit alone and keep silence, because he has taken it upon him.
  Let him put his mouth in the dust; perhaps there may be hope.
  Let him offer his cheek to him who strikes him; let him take his fill of insult.
  For the Lord will not cast off for ever:
  but though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love.
  For he does not willingly afflict or grieve the children of men.
  To crush under foot all the prisoners of the earth,
  to turn aside the right of a man before the face of the most High,
  to subvert a man in his cause, the Lord approves not.
  Who is he that says, and it comes to pass, when the Lord commands it not?
  Out of the mouth of the most High do not both good and evil come?
  Why then does a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?
  Let us search and try our ways, and turn back to the Lord.
  Let us lift up our heart with our hands to God in the heavens.
  We have transgressed and have rebelled: Thou hast not pardoned.
  Thou hast covered with anger, and pursued us: Thou hast slain, Thou hast not pitied.
  Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud, so that prayer should not pass through.
  Thou hast made us offscouring and refuse in the midst of the people.
  All our enemies have opened their mouths wide against us.
  Fear and the pit are come upon us, desolation and destruction.
  My eye runs down with rivers of water for the breach of the daughter of my people.
  My eye trickles down, and ceases not, without any intermission,
  till the Lord look down, and behold from heaven.
  My eye affects my soul because of all the daughters of my city.
  They chased me sore, like a bird, those who hate me without cause.
  They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and have cast stones upon me.
  Waters flowed over my head; then I said, I am cut off.
  I called upon Thy name, O Lord, out of the nethermost pit.
  Thou hast heard my voice: hide not Thy ear at my sighing, at my cry.
  Thou didst draw near in the day that I called upon Thee: Thou didst say,
  Fear not. O Lord, Thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul; Thou hast redeemed my life.
  O Lord, Thou hast seen my wrong: judge my cause.
  Thou hast seen all their vengeance and all their devices against me.
  Thou hast heard their insult, O Lord, and all their devices against me;
  the lips of those who rose up against me, and their muttering against me all the day.
  Behold their sitting down, and their rising up; I am their song.
  Render to them a recompense, O Lord, according to the work of their hands.
  Give them sorrow of heart; Thy curse be on them!
  Pursue them in anger and destroy them from under the heavens of the Lord.
  
  
  
  How is the gold become dim! how is the most fine gold changed! the hallowed stones are poured out at the top of every street.
  The precious sons of Żiyyon, comparable to fine gold, how are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter!
  Even the jackals 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.
  The tongue of the sucking child cleaves to the roof of his mouth for thirst: the young children ask bread, and no man gives it to them.
  They that did feed on dainties are desolate in the streets: they that were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghills.
  For the doom of the daughter of my people is greater than the sin of Sedom, that was overthrown as in a moment, no hands being laid upon her.
  Her Nazirites were purer than snow, they were whiter than milk, they were more ruddy in body than rubies, their polishing was as of sapphire:
  now their visage is blacker than coal; they are not known in the streets: their skin is shrivelled upon their bones; it is withered, it is become like a stick.
  Those slain with the sword are better than those slain with hunger: for when pierced through, the former do ooze with the produce of the fields.
  Hands of compassionate women have boiled their own children: they were their food in the destruction of the daughter of my people.
  The Lord has accomplished his fury; he has poured out his fierce anger, and has kindled a fire in Żiyyon and it has devoured its foundations.
  The kings of the earth, and all the inhabitants of the world, would not have believed that the adversary and the enemy would enter the gates of Yerushalayim.
  It was for the sins of her prophets, and the iniquities of her priests, who shed the blood of the just in the midst of her.
  They wandered blind through the streets, polluted with blood, so that none could touch their garments.
  Away! unclean! they cried at them; away! away! do not touch. So they fled, and wandered away: among the nations it was said, They shall no longer sojourn here.
  The anger of the Lord has divided them; he will no more regard them: they respected not the persons of the priests, they were not gracious to the elders.
  As for us, our eyes do yet fail for our vain help: in our watching we have watched for a nation that could not save.
  They hunt our steps, that we cannot walk in our broad places: our end is near, our days are fulfilled; for our end is come.
  Our pursuers were swifter than the vultures in the sky: they chased us upon the mountains, they lay in wait for us in the wilderness.
  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 nations.
  Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, that dwellest in the land of ῾Uż; the cup shall also pass over to thee: thou shalt be drunken, and strip thyself bare.
  The punishment of thy iniquity is accomplished, O daughter of Żiyyon; he will no more carry thee away into exile: he will visit thy iniquity, O daughter of Edom; he will uncover thy sins.
  
  
  
  Remember, O Lord, what is come upon us: consider, and behold our insult.
  Our inheritance is turned over to strangers, our houses to aliens.
  We are become orphans and fatherless, our mothers are like widows.
  We have drunk our water for money; our own wood is sold to us.
  We are pursued to our necks: we labour, and have no rest.
  We have given the hand to Miżrayim, and to Ashshur, to be satisfied with bread.
  Our fathers have sinned, and are no more; but we bear their iniquities.
  Servants rule over us: there is none to deliver us out of their hand.
  We get our bread with the peril of our lives because of the sword of the wilderness.
  Our skin is hot like an oven because of the burning famine.
  Women are ravished in Żiyyon, and maidens in the cities of Yehuda.
  Princes are hanged up by their hand: the faces of elders are not honoured.
  Young men drag the millstone, and youths stumble under the wood.
  The elders have ceased from the gate, the young men from their music.
  The joy of our heart is ceased; our dance is turned into mourning.
  The crown is fallen from our head: woe to us, that we have sinned!
  For this our heart is faint; for these things our eyes are dim.
  Because of the mountain of Żiyyon, which is desolate, foxes prowl over it.
  Thou, O Lord, art enthroned forever; Thy throne is from generation to generation.
  Why dost Thou forget us forever, why dost Thou so long forsake us?
  Turn us to Thee, O Lord, and we shall be turned; renew our days as of old:
  unless Thou hast utterly rejected us; and art exceedingly angry against us.