LAM 1:1 How
lonely sits the city That was full of people! She
has become like a widow Who was once great among the
nations! She who was a princess among the provinces
Has become a forced laborer!
LAM 1:2 She weeps bitterly in the night, And
her tears are on her cheeks; She has none to comfort
her Among all her lovers. All her friends have dealt
treacherously with her; They have become her
enemies.
LAM 1:3 Judah has gone into exile under
affliction, And under harsh servitude; She dwells
among the nations, But she has found no rest; All
her pursuers have overtaken her In the midst of
distress.
LAM 1:4 The roads of Zion are in mourning
Because no one comes to the appointed feasts. All
her gates are desolate; Her priests are groaning,
Her virgins are afflicted, And she herself is
bitter.
LAM 1:5 Her adversaries have become her
masters, Her enemies prosper; For the Lord has
caused her grief Because of the multitude of her
transgressions; Her little ones have gone away As
captives before the adversary.
LAM 1:6 And all her majesty Has departed from
the daughter of Zion; Her princes have become like
bucks That have found no pasture; And they have fled
without strength Before the pursuer.
LAM 1:7 In the days of her affliction and
homelessness Jerusalem remembers all her precious
things That were from the days of old When her
people fell into the hand of the adversary, And no
one helped her. The adversaries saw her, They mocked
at her ruin.
LAM 1:8 Jerusalem sinned greatly, Therefore
she has become an unclean thing. All who honored her
despise her Because they have seen her nakedness;
Even she herself groans and turns away.
LAM 1:9 Her uncleanness was in her skirts;
She did not consider her future; Therefore she has
fallen astonishingly; She has no comforter."See, O
Lord, my affliction, For the enemy has magnified
himself!"
LAM 1:10 The adversary has stretched out his
hand Over all her precious things, For she has seen
the nations enter her sanctuary, The ones whom Thou
didst command That they should not enter into Thy
congregation.
LAM 1:11 All her people groan seeking bread;
They have given their precious things for food To
restore their lives themselves."See, O Lord, and
look, For I am despised."
LAM 1:12 "Is it nothing to all you who pass
this way? Look and see if there is any pain like my
pain Which was severely dealt out to me, Which the
Lord inflicted on the day of His fierce anger.
LAM 1:13 "From on high He sent fire into my
bones, And it prevailed over them; He has spread a
net for my feet; He has turned me back; He has made
me desolate, Faint all day long.
LAM 1:14 "The yoke of my transgressions is
bound; By His hand they are knit together; They have
come upon my neck; He has made my strength fail; The
Lord has given me into the hands Of those against
whom I am not able to stand.
LAM 1:15 "The Lord has rejected all my strong
men In my midst; He has called an appointed time
against me To crush my young men; The Lord has
trodden as in a wine press The virgin daughter of
Judah.
LAM 1:16 "For these things I weep; My eyes
run down with water; Because far from me is a
comforter, One who restores my soul; My children are
desolate Because the enemy has prevailed."
LAM 1:17 Zion stretches out her hands; There
is no one to comfort her; The Lord has commanded
concerning Jacob That the ones round about him
should be his adversaries; Jerusalem has become an
unclean thing among them.
LAM 1:18 "The Lord is righteous; For I have
rebelled against His command; Hear now, all peoples,
And behold my pain; My virgins and my young men Have
gone into captivity.
LAM 1:19 "I called to my lovers, but they
deceived me; My priests and my elders perished in
the city, While they sought food to restore their
strength themselves.
LAM 1:20 "See, O Lord, for I am in distress;
My spirit is greatly troubled; My heart is
overturned within me, For I have been very
rebellious. In the street the sword slays; In the
house it is like death.
LAM 1:21 "They have heard that I groan; There
is no one to comfort me; All my enemies have heard
of my calamity; They are glad that Thou hast done
it. Oh, that Thou wouldst bring the day which Thou
hast proclaimed, That they may become like me.
LAM 1:22 "Let all their wickedness come
before Thee; And deal with them as Thou hast dealt
with me For all my transgressions; For my groans are
many, and my heart is faint."
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LAM 2:1 How the
Lord has covered the daughter of Zion With a cloud
in His anger! He has cast from heaven to earth The
glory of Israel, And has not remembered His
footstool In the day of His anger.
LAM 2:2 The Lord has swallowed up; He has not
spared All the habitations of Jacob. In His wrath He
has thrown down The strongholds of the daughter of
Judah; He has brought them down to the ground; He
has profaned the kingdom and its princes.
LAM 2:3 In fierce anger He has cut off All
the strength of Israel; He has drawn back His right
hand From before the enemy. And He has burned in
Jacob like a flaming fire Consuming round about.
LAM 2:4 He has bent His bow like an enemy, He
has set His right hand like an adversary And slain
all that were pleasant to the eye; In the tent of
the daughter of Zion He has poured out His wrath
like fire.
LAM 2:5 The Lord has become like an enemy. He
has swallowed up Israel; He has swallowed up all its
palaces; He has destroyed its strongholds And
multiplied in the daughter of Judah Mourning and
moaning.
LAM 2:6 And He has violently treated His
tabernacle like a garden booth; He has destroyed His
appointed meeting place; The Lord has caused to be
forgotten The appointed feast and sabbath in Zion,
And He has despised king and priest In the
indignation of His anger.
LAM 2:7 The Lord has rejected His altar, He
has abandoned His sanctuary; He has delivered 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 an appointed feast.
LAM 2:8 The Lord determined to destroy The
wall of the daughter of Zion. He has stretched out a
line, He has not restrained His hand from
destroying; And He has caused rampart and wall to
lament; They have languished together.
LAM 2:9 Her gates have sunk into the ground,
He has destroyed and broken her bars. Her king and
her princes are among the nations; The law is no
more; Also, her prophets find No vision from the
Lord.
LAM 2:10 The elders of the daughter of Zion
Sit on the ground, they are silent. They have thrown
dust on their heads; They have girded themselves
with sackcloth. The virgins of Jerusalem Have bowed
their heads to the ground.
LAM 2:11 My eyes fail because of tears, My
spirit is greatly troubled; My heart is poured out
on the earth, Because of the destruction of the
daughter of my people, When little ones and infants
faint In the streets of the city.
LAM 2:12 They say to their mothers, "Where is
grain and wine?" As they faint like a wounded man In
the streets of the city, As their life is poured out
On their mothers' bosom.
LAM 2:13 How shall I admonish you? To what
shall I compare you, O daughter of Jerusalem? To
what shall I liken you as I comfort you, O virgin
daughter of Zion? For your ruin is as vast as the
sea; Who can heal you?
LAM 2:14 Your prophets have seen for you
False and foolish visions; And they have not exposed
your iniquity So as to restore you from captivity,
But they have seen for you false and misleading
oracles.
LAM 2:15 All who pass along the way Clap
their hands in derision at you; They hiss and shake
their heads At the daughter of Jerusalem, "Is this
the city of which they said, 'The perfection of
beauty, A joy to all the earth'?"
LAM 2:16 All your enemies Have opened their
mouths wide against you; They hiss and gnash their
teeth. They say, "We have swallowed her up! Surely
this is the day for which we waited; We have reached
it, we have seen it."
LAM 2:17 The Lord has done what He purposed;
He has accomplished His word Which He commanded from
days of old. He has thrown down without sparing, And
He has caused the enemy to rejoice over you; He has
exalted the might of your adversaries.
LAM 2:18 Their heart cried out to the Lord,
"O wall of the daughter of Zion, Let your tears run
down like a river day and night; Give yourself no
relief; Let your eyes have no rest.
LAM 2:19 "Arise, cry aloud in the night At
the beginning of the night watches; Pour out your
heart like water Before the presence of the Lord;
Lift up your hands to Him For the life of your
little ones Who are faint because of hunger At the
head of every street."
LAM 2:20 See, O Lord, and look! With whom
hast Thou dealt thus? Should women eat their
offspring, The little ones who were born healthy?
Should priest and prophet be slain In the sanctuary
of the Lord?
LAM 2:21 On the ground in the streets Lie
young and old, My virgins and my young men Have
fallen by the sword. Thou hast slain them in the day
of Thine anger, Thou hast slaughtered, not sparing.
LAM 2:22 Thou didst call as in the day of an
appointed feast My terrors on every side; And there
was no one who escaped or survived In the day of the
Lord's anger. Those whom I bore and reared, My enemy
annihilated them.
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LAM 3:1 I am the
man who has seen affliction Because of the rod of
His wrath.
LAM 3:2 He has driven me and made me walk In
darkness and not in light.
LAM 3:3 Surely against me He has turned His
hand Repeatedly all the day.
LAM 3:4 He has caused my flesh and my skin to
waste away, He has broken my bones.
LAM 3:5 He has besieged and encompassed me
with bitterness and hardship.
LAM 3:6 In dark places He has made me dwell,
Like those who have long been dead.
LAM 3:7 He has walled me in so that I cannot
go out; He has made my chain heavy.
LAM 3:8 Even when I cry out and call for
help, He shuts out my prayer.
LAM 3:9 He has blocked my ways with hewn
stone; He has made my paths crooked.
LAM 3:10 He is to me like a bear lying in
wait, Like a lion in secret places.
LAM 3:11 He has turned aside my ways and torn
me to pieces; He has made me desolate.
LAM 3:12 He bent His bow And set me as a
target for the arrow.
LAM 3:13 He made the arrows of His quiver To
enter into my inward parts.
LAM 3:14 I have become a laughingstock to all
my people, Their mocking song all the day.
LAM 3:15 He has filled me with bitterness, He
has made me drunk with wormwood.
LAM 3:16 And He has broken my teeth with
gravel; He has made me cower in the dust.
LAM 3:17 And my soul has been rejected from
peace; I have forgotten happiness.
LAM 3:18 So I say, "My strength has perished,
And so has my hope from the Lord."
LAM 3:19 Remember my affliction and my
wandering, the wormwood and bitterness.
LAM 3:20 Surely my soul remembers And is
bowed down within me.
LAM 3:21 This I recall to my mind, Therefore
I have hope.
LAM 3:22 The Lord's lovingkindnesses indeed
never cease, For His compassions never fail.
LAM 3:23 They are new every morning; Great is
Thy faithfulness.
LAM 3:24 "The Lord is my portion," says my
soul, "Therefore I have hope in Him."
LAM 3:25 The Lord is good to those who wait
for Him, To the person who seeks Him.
LAM 3:26 It is good that he waits silently
For the salvation of the Lord.
LAM 3:27 It is good for a man that he should
bear The yoke in his youth.
LAM 3:28 Let him sit alone and be silent
Since He has laid it on him.
LAM 3:29 Let him put his mouth in the dust,
Perhaps there is hope.
LAM 3:30 Let him give his cheek to the smiter;
Let him be filled with reproach.
LAM 3:31 For the Lord will not reject
forever,
LAM 3:32 For if He causes grief, Then He will
have compassion According to His abundant
lovingkindness.
LAM 3:33 For He does not afflict willingly,
Or grieve the sons of men.
LAM 3:34 To crush under His feet All the
prisoners of the land,
LAM 3:35 To deprive a man of justice In the
presence of the Most High,
LAM 3:36 To defraud a man in his lawsuit - -
Of these things the Lord does not approve.
LAM 3:37 Who is there who speaks and it comes
to pass, Unless the Lord has commanded it?
LAM 3:38 Is it not from the mouth of the Most
High That both good and ill go forth?
LAM 3:39 Why should any living mortal, or any
man, Offer complaint in view of his sins?
LAM 3:40 Let us examine and probe our ways,
And let us return to the Lord.
LAM 3:41 We lift up our heart and hands
Toward God in heaven;
LAM 3:42 We have transgressed and rebelled,
Thou hast not pardoned.
LAM 3:43 Thou hast covered Thyself with anger
And pursued us; Thou hast slain and hast not spared.
LAM 3:44 Thou hast covered Thyself with a
cloud So that no prayer can pass through.
LAM 3:45 Mere offscouring and refuse Thou
hast made us In the midst of the peoples.
LAM 3:46 All our enemies have opened their
mouths against us.
LAM 3:47 Panic and pitfall have befallen us,
Devastation and destruction;
LAM 3:48 My eyes run down with streams of
water Because of the destruction of the daughter of
my people.
LAM 3:49 My eyes pour down unceasingly,
Without stopping,
LAM 3:50 Until the Lord looks down And sees
from heaven.
LAM 3:51 My eyes bring pain to my soul
Because of all the daughters of my city.
LAM 3:52 My enemies without cause Hunted me
down like a bird;
LAM 3:53 They have silenced me in the pit And
have placed a stone on me.
LAM 3:54 Waters flowed over my head; I said,
"I am cut off!"
LAM 3:55 I called on Thy name, O Lord, Out of
the lowest pit.
LAM 3:56 Thou hast heard my voice, "Do not
hide Thine ear from my prayer for relief, From my
cry for help."
LAM 3:57 Thou didst draw near when I called
on Thee; Thou didst say, "Do not fear!"
LAM 3:58 O Lord, Thou didst plead my soul's
cause; Thou hast redeemed my life.
LAM 3:59 O Lord, Thou hast seen my
oppression; Judge my case.
LAM 3:60 Thou hast seen all their vengeance,
All their schemes against me.
LAM 3:61 Thou hast heard their reproach, O
Lord, All their schemes against me.
LAM 3:62 The lips of my assailants and their
whispering Are against me all day long.
LAM 3:63 Look on their sitting and their
rising; I am their mocking song.
LAM 3:64 Thou wilt recompense them, O Lord,
According to the work of their hands.
LAM 3:65 Thou wilt give them hardness of
heart, Thy curse will be on them.
LAM 3:66 Thou wilt pursue them in anger and
destroy them From under the heavens of the Lord!
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LAM 4:1 How dark
the gold has become, How the pure gold has changed!
The sacred stones are poured out At the corner of
every street.
LAM 4:2 The precious sons of Zion, Weighed
against fine gold, How they are regarded as earthen
jars, The work of a potter's hands!
LAM 4:3 Even jackals offer the breast, They
nurse their young; But the daughter of my people has
become cruel Like ostriches in the wilderness.
LAM 4:4 The tongue of the infant cleaves To
the roof of its mouth because of thirst; The little
ones ask for bread, But no one breaks it for them.
LAM 4:5 Those who ate delicacies Are desolate
in the streets; Those reared in purple Embrace ash
pits.
LAM 4:6 For the iniquity of the daughter of
my people Is greater than the sin of Sodom, Which
was overthrown as in a moment, And no hands were
turned toward her.
LAM 4:7 Her consecrated ones were purer than
snow, They were #663300r than milk; They were more
ruddy in body than corals, Their polishing was like
lapis lazuli.
LAM 4:8 Their appearance is blacker than
soot, They are not recognized in the streets; Their
skin is shriveled on their bones, It is withered, it
has become like wood.
LAM 4:9 Better are those slain with the sword
Than those slain with hunger; For they pine away,
being stricken For lack of the fruits of the field.
LAM 4:10 The hands of compassionate women
Boiled their own children; They became food for them
Because of the destruction of the daughter of my
people.
LAM 4:11 The Lord has accomplished His wrath,
He has poured out His fierce anger; And He has
kindled a fire in Zion Which has consumed its
foundations.
LAM 4:12 The kings of the earth did not
believe, Nor did any of the inhabitants of the
world, That the adversary and the enemy Could enter
the gates of Jerusalem.
LAM 4:13 Because of the sins of her prophets
And the iniquities of her priests, Who have shed in
her midst The blood of the righteous,
LAM 4:14 They wandered, blind, in the
streets; They were defiled with blood So that no one
could touch their garments.
LAM 4:15 "Depart! Unclean!" they cried of
themselves."Depart, depart, do not touch!" So they
fled and wandered; Men among the nations said, "They
shall not continue to dwell with us."
LAM 4:16 The presence of the Lord has
scattered them; He will not continue to regard them.
They did not honor the priests, They did not favor
the elders.
LAM 4:17 Yet our eyes failed; Looking for
help was useless. In our watching we have watched
For a nation that could not save.
LAM 4:18 They hunted our steps So that we
could not walk in our streets; Our end drew near,
Our days were finished For our end had come.
LAM 4:19 Our pursuers were swifter Than the
eagles of the sky. They chased us on the mountains;
They waited in ambush for us in the wilderness.
LAM 4:20 The breath of our nostrils, the
Lord's anointed, Was captured in their pits, Of whom
we had said, "Under his shadow We shall live among
the nations."
LAM 4:21 Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of
Edom, Who dwells in the land of Uz; But the cup will
come around to you as well, You will become drunk
and make yourself naked.
LAM 4:22 The punishment of your iniquity has
been completed, O daughter of Zion; He will exile
you no longer. But He will punish your iniquity, O
daughter of Edom; He will expose your sins!
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LAM 5:1 Remember,
O Lord, what has befallen us; Look, and see our
reproach!
LAM 5:2 Our inheritance has been turned over
to strangers, Our houses to aliens.
LAM 5:3 We have become orphans without a
father, Our mothers are like widows.
LAM 5:4 We have to pay for our drinking
water, Our wood comes to us at a price.
LAM 5:5 Our pursuers are at our necks; We are
worn out, there is no rest for us.
LAM 5:6 We have submitted to Egypt and
Assyria to get enough bread.
LAM 5:7 Our fathers sinned, and are no more;
It is we who have borne their iniquities.
LAM 5:8 Slaves rule over us; There is no one
to deliver us from their hand.
LAM 5:9 We get our bread at the risk of our
lives Because of the sword in the wilderness.
LAM 5:10 Our skin has become as hot as an
oven, Because of the burning heat of famine.
LAM 5:11 They ravished the women in Zion, The
virgins in the cities of Judah.
LAM 5:12 Princes were hung by their hands;
Elders were not respected.
LAM 5:13 Young men worked at the grinding
mill; And youths stumbled under loads of wood.
LAM 5:14 Elders are gone from the gate, Young
men from their music.
LAM 5:15 The joy of our hearts has ceased;
Our dancing has been turned into mourning.
LAM 5:16 The crown has fallen from our head;
Woe to us, for we have sinned!
LAM 5:17 Because of this our heart is faint;
Because of these things our eyes are dim;
LAM 5:18 Because of Mount Zion which lies
desolate, Foxes prowl in it.
LAM 5:19 Thou, O Lord, dost rule forever; Thy
throne is from generation to generation.
LAM 5:20 Why dost Thou forget us forever; Why
dost Thou forsake us so long?
LAM 5:21 Restore us to Thee, O Lord, that we
may be restored; Renew our days as of old,
LAM 5:22 Unless Thou hast utterly rejected
us, And art exceedingly angry with us.
