1  How lonely sits the city

that was full of people!

How like a ^awidow has she become,

she who was great among the nations!

She who was a princess among the provinces

has become a slave.

2  She weeps bitterly in the night,

with tears on her cheeks;

among all her ^blovers

she has none to comfort her;

all her friends have dealt treacherously with her;

they have become her enemies.

3  Judah has gone into exile because of affliction¹

and hard servitude;

she dwells now among the nations,

but finds ^cno resting place;

her pursuers have all overtaken her

in the midst of her distress.²

4  The ^droads to Zion mourn,

for none come to the festival;

all her gates are desolate;

her priests groan;

her virgins have been afflicted,³

and she herself suffers bitterly.

5  Her foes have become the ^ehead;

her enemies prosper,

because the Lord has afflicted her

for the multitude of her transgressions;

^fher children have gone away,

captives before the foe.

6  From the daughter of Zion

all her majesty has departed.

Her princes have become like deer

that find no pasture;

they fled without strength

before the pursuer.

7  Jerusalem remembers

in the days of her affliction and wandering

all the ^gprecious things

that were hers from days of old.

When her people fell into the hand of the foe,

and there was none to ^hhelp her,

her foes gloated over her;

they mocked at her downfall.

8  Jerusalem sinned grievously;

therefore she became filthy;

all who honored her despise her,

for they have ⁱseen her nakedness;

she herself groans

and turns her face away.

9  Her uncleanness was in her skirts;

she took no thought of her future;⁴

therefore her fall is terrible;

she has no comforter.

“O Lord, behold my affliction,

for the enemy has triumphed!”

10  The enemy has stretched out his hands

over all her precious things;

for she has seen the nations

^jenter her sanctuary,

those whom you ^kforbade

to enter your congregation.

11  ^lAll her people groan

as they search for bread;

they trade their treasures for food

to revive their strength.

“Look, O Lord, and see,

for I am despised.”

12  “Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by?

Look and see

if there is any sorrow like my sorrow,

which was brought upon me,

which the Lord inflicted

on the day of his fierce anger.

13  “From on high he sent fire;

into my bones⁵ he made it descend;

he spread a net for my feet;

he turned me back;

he has left me stunned,

faint all the day long.

14  “My transgressions were bound⁶ into a ^myoke;

by his hand they were fastened together;

they were set upon my neck;

he caused my strength to fail;

the Lord gave me into the hands

of those whom I cannot withstand.

15  “The Lord rejected

all my mighty men in my midst;

he summoned an assembly against me

to crush my young men;

the Lord has trodden as in a winepress

the virgin daughter of Judah.

16  “For these things ⁿI weep;

my eyes flow with tears;

for a comforter is far from me,

one to revive my spirit;

my children are desolate,

for the enemy has prevailed.”

17  Zion ^ostretches out her hands,

but there is none to comfort her;

the Lord has commanded against Jacob

that his neighbors should be his foes;

Jerusalem has become

a filthy thing among them.

18  “The Lord is ^pin the right,

for I have rebelled against his word;

but hear, all you peoples,

and see my suffering;

^qmy young women and my young men

have gone into captivity.

19  “I called to my lovers,

but they deceived me;

my priests and elders

perished in the city,

while they sought food

to revive their strength.

20  “Look, O Lord, for I am in distress;

my stomach churns;

my heart is wrung within me,

because I have been very rebellious.

^rIn the street the sword bereaves;

in the house it is like death.

21  “They heard⁷ my groaning,

yet there is no one to comfort me.

All my enemies have heard of my trouble;

they are glad that you have done it.

You have brought⁸ the day you announced;

now let them be as I am.

22  “Let all their evildoing come before you,

and deal with them

as you have dealt with me

because of all my transgressions;

for my groans are many,

and my heart is faint.”

1  By the waters of ^lBabylon,

^mthere we sat down and wept,

when we remembered Zion.

2  On the willows¹ there

we hung up our lyres.

3  For there our captors

required of us songs,

and our tormentors, mirth, saying,

“Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”

4  How shall we sing the Lord’s song

in a foreign land?

5  If I ⁿforget you, O Jerusalem,

let my right hand forget its skill!

6  Let my ^otongue stick to the roof of my mouth,

if I do not remember you,

if I do not set Jerusalem

above my highest joy!

7  ^pRemember, O Lord, against the Edomites

^qthe day of Jerusalem,

how they said, “Lay it bare, lay it bare,

down to its foundations!”

8  O daughter of Babylon, doomed to be destroyed,

blessed shall he be who ^rrepays you

with what you have done to us!

9  Blessed shall he be who takes your little ones

and ^sdashes them against the rock!

^w“If the righteous is scarcely saved,

what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?”³