Lamentations of Jeremiah
1 {1:1} How doth the city sit solitary, [that was] full of
people [how] is she become as a widow she [that was] great
among the nations, [and] princess among the provinces,
[how] is she become tributary {1:2} She weepeth sore in the
night, and her tears [are] on her cheeks: among all her
lovers she hath none to comfort [her:] all her friends have
dealt treacherously with her, they are become her enemies.
{1:3} Judah is gone into captivity because of affliction, and
because of great servitude: she dwelleth among the heathen,
she findeth no rest: all her persecutors overtook her between
the straits. {1:4} The ways of Zion do mourn, because none
come to the solemn feasts: all her gates are desolate: her
priests sigh, her virgins are afflicted, and she [is] in
bitterness. {1:5} Her adversaries are the chief, her enemies
prosper; for the LORD hath afflicted her for the multitude
of her transgressions: her children are gone into captivity
before the enemy. {1:6} And from the daughter of Zion all
her beauty is departed: her princes are become like harts
[that] find no pasture, and they are gone without strength
before the pursuer. {1:7} Jerusalem remembered 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] did mock at her sabbaths. {1:8} Jerusalem
hath grievously sinned; therefore she is removed: all that
honoured her despise her, because they have seen her
nakedness: yea, she sigheth, and turneth backward. {1:9}
Her filthiness [is] in her skirts; she remembereth not her last
end; therefore she came down wonderfully: she had no
comforter. O LORD, behold my affliction: for the enemy
hath magnified [himself.] {1:10} The adversary hath spread
out his hand upon all her pleasant things: for she hath seen
[that] the heathen entered into her sanctuary, whom thou
didst command [that] they should not enter into thy
congregation. {1:11} All her people sigh, they seek bread;
they have given their pleasant things for meat to relieve the
soul: see, O LORD, and consider; for I am become vile.
{1:12} [Is it] nothing to you, all ye that pass by? behold,
and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is
done unto me, wherewith the LORD hath afflicted [me] in
the day of his fierce anger. {1:13} From above hath he sent
fire into my bones, and it prevaileth against them: he hath
spread a net for my feet, he hath turned me back: he hath
made me desolate [and] faint all the day. {1:14} The yoke
of my transgressions is bound by his hand: they are
wreathed, [and] come up upon my neck: he hath made my
strength to fall, the Lord hath delivered me into [their]
hands, [from whom] I am not able to rise up. {1:15} The
Lord hath trodden under foot all my mighty [men] in the
midst of me: he hath called an assembly against me to crush
my young men: the Lord hath trodden the virgin, the
daughter of Judah, [as] in a winepress. {1:16} For these
[things] I weep; mine eye, mine eye runneth down with
water, because the comforter that should relieve my soul is
far from me: my children are desolate, because the enemy
prevailed. {1:17} Zion spreadeth forth her hands, [and there
is] none to comfort her: the LORD hath commanded
concerning Jacob, [that] his adversaries [should be] round
about him: Jerusalem is as a menstruous woman among
them.
{1:18} The LORD is righteous; for I have rebelled against
his commandment: hear, I pray you, all people, and behold
my sorrow: my virgins and my young men are gone into
captivity. {1:19} I called for my lovers, [but] they deceived
me: my priests and mine elders gave up the ghost in the
city, while they sought their meat to relieve their souls.
{1:20} Behold, O LORD; for I [am] in distress: my bowels
are troubled; mine heart is turned within me; for I have
grievously rebelled: abroad the sword bereaveth, at home
[there is] as death. {1:21} They have heard that I sigh:
[there is] none to comfort me: all mine 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 unto me. {1:22} Let all their wickedness come before
thee; and do unto them, as thou hast done unto me for all
my transgressions: for my sighs [are] many, and my heart
[is] faint.
2 {2:1} How hath the Lord covered the daughter of Zion
with a cloud in his anger, [and] cast down from heaven unto
the earth the beauty of Israel, and remembered not his
footstool in the day of his anger! {2:2} The Lord hath
swallowed up all the habitations of Jacob, and hath not
pitied: he hath thrown down in his wrath the strong holds of
the daughter of Judah; he hath brought [them] down to the
ground: he hath polluted the kingdom and the princes
thereof. {2:3} He hath cut off in [his] fierce anger all the
horn of Israel: he hath drawn back his right hand from
before the enemy, and he burned against Jacob like a
flaming fire, [which] devoureth round about. {2:4} He hath
bent his bow like an enemy: he stood with his right hand as
an adversary, and slew all [that were] pleasant to the eye in
the tabernacle of the daughter of Zion: he poured out his
fury like fire. {2:5} The Lord was as an enemy: he hath
swallowed up Israel, he hath swallowed up all her palaces:
he hath destroyed his strong holds, and hath increased in the
daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation. {2:6} And he
hath violently taken away his tabernacle, as [if it were of] a
garden: he hath destroyed his places of the assembly: the
LORD hath caused the solemn feasts and sabbaths to be
forgotten in Zion, and hath despised in the indignation of
his anger the king and the priest. {2:7} The Lord hath cast
off his altar, he hath abhorred his sanctuary, he hath 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 feast. {2:8} The LORD hath purposed to
destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion: he hath stretched
out a line, he hath not withdrawn his hand from destroying:
therefore he made the rampart and the wall to lament; they
languished together. {2:9} Her gates are sunk into the
ground; he hath destroyed and broken her bars: her king and
her princes [are] among the Gentiles: the law [is] no [more;]
her prophets also find no vision from the LORD. {2:10}
The elders of the daughter of Zion sit upon the ground,
[and] keep silence: they have cast up dust upon their heads;
they have girded themselves with sackcloth: the virgins of
Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground. {2:11}
Mine eyes do fail with tears, my bowels are troubled, my
liver is poured upon the earth, for the destruction of the
daughter of my people; because the children and the
sucklings swoon in the streets of the city. {2:12} They say
to their mothers, Where [is] corn and wine? when they
swooned as the wounded in the streets of the city, when
their soul was poured out into their mothers’ bosom. {2:13}
What thing shall I take to witness for thee? what thing shall
I liken to thee, O daughter of Jerusalem? what shall I equal
to thee, that I may comfort thee, O virgin daughter of Zion?
for thy breach is great like the sea: who can heal thee?
{2:14} Thy prophets have seen vain and foolish things for
thee: and they have not discovered thine iniquity, to turn
away thy captivity; but have seen for thee false burdens and
causes of banishment. {2:15} All that pass by clap [their]
hands at thee; they hiss and wag their head at the daughter
of Jerusalem, saying, Is this the city that [men] call The
perfection of beauty, The joy of the whole earth? {2:16} All
thine 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 looked for; we have
found, we have seen [it.] {2:17} The LORD hath done
[that] which he had devised; he hath fulfilled his word that
he had commanded in the days of old: he hath thrown down,
and hath not pitied: and he hath caused [thine] enemy to
rejoice over thee, he hath set up the horn of thine
adversaries. {2:18} Their heart cried unto the Lord, O wall
of the daughter of Zion, let tears run down like a river day
and night: give thyself no rest; let not the apple of thine eye
cease. {2:19} Arise, cry out in the night: in the beginning of
the watches pour out thine heart like water before the face
of the Lord: lift up thy hands toward him for the life of thy
young children, that faint for hunger in the top of every
street.
{2:20} Behold, O LORD, and consider to whom thou hast
done this. Shall the women eat their fruit, [and] children of
a span long? shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the
sanctuary of the Lord? {2:21} The young and the 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
thine anger; thou hast killed, [and] not pitied. {2:22} Thou
hast called as in a solemn day my terrors round about, so
that in the day of the LORD’S anger none escaped nor
remained: those that I have swaddled and brought up hath
mine enemy consumed.
3 {3:1} I [am] the man [that] hath seen affliction by the
rod of his wrath. {3:2} He hath led me, and brought [me into]
darkness, but not [into] light. {3:3} Surely against me is he
turned; he turneth his hand [against me] all the day. {3:4}
My flesh and my skin hath he made old; he hath broken my
bones. {3:5} He hath builded against me, and compassed
[me] with gall and travail. {3:6} He hath set me in dark
places, as [they that be] dead of old. {3:7} He hath hedged
me about, that I cannot get out: he hath made my chain
heavy. {3:8} Also when I cry and shout, he shutteth out my
prayer. {3:9} He hath inclosed my ways with hewn stone,
he hath made my paths crooked. {3:10} He [was] unto me
[as] a bear lying in wait, [and as] a lion in secret places.
{3:11} He hath turned aside my ways, and pulled me in
pieces: he hath made me desolate. {3:12} He hath bent his
bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow. {3:13} He hath
caused the arrows of his quiver to enter into my reins.
{3:14} I was a derision to all my people; [and] their song all
the day. {3:15} He hath filled me with bitterness, he hath
made me drunken with wormwood. {3:16} He hath also
broken my teeth with gravel stones, he hath covered me
with ashes. {3:17} And thou hast removed my soul far off
from peace: I forgat prosperity. {3:18} And I said, My
strength and my hope is perished from the LORD: {3:19}
Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the
wormwood and the gall. {3:20} My soul hath [them] still in
remembrance, and is humbled in me. {3:21} This I recall to
my mind, therefore have I hope.
{3:22} [It is of] the LORD’S mercies that we are not
consumed, because his compassions fail not. {3:23} [They
are] new every morning: great [is] thy faithfulness. {3:24}
The LORD [is] my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I
hope in him. {3:25} The LORD [is] good unto them that
wait for him, to the soul [that] seeketh him. {3:26} [It is]
good that [a man] should both hope and quietly wait for the
salvation of the LORD. {3:27} [It is] good for a man that he
bear the yoke in his youth. {3:28} He sitteth alone and
keepeth silence, because he hath borne it upon him. {3:29}
He putteth his mouth in the dust; if so be there may be hope.
{3:30} He giveth [his] cheek to him that smiteth him: he is
filled full with reproach. {3:31} For the Lord will not cast
off for ever: {3:32} But though he cause grief, yet will he
have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies.
{3:33} For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the
children of men. {3:34} To crush under his feet all the
prisoners of the earth, {3:35} To turn aside the right of a
man before the face of the most High, {3:36} To subvert a
man in his cause, the Lord approveth not. {3:37} Who [is]
he [that] saith, and it cometh to pass, [when] the Lord
commandeth [it] not? {3:38} Out of the mouth of the most
High proceedeth not evil and good? {3:39} Wherefore doth
a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his
sins? {3:40} Let us search and try our ways, and turn again
to the LORD. {3:41} Let us lift up our heart with [our]
hands unto God in the heavens. {3:42} We have
transgressed and have rebelled: thou hast not pardoned.
{3:43} Thou hast covered with anger, and persecuted us:
thou hast slain, thou hast not pitied. {3:44} Thou hast
covered thyself with a cloud, that [our] prayer should not
pass through. {3:45} Thou hast made us [as] the offscouring
and refuse in the midst of the people. {3:46} All our
enemies have opened their mouths against us. {3:47} Fear
and a snare is come upon us, desolation and destruction.
{3:48} Mine eye runneth down with rivers of water for the
destruction of the daughter of my people. {3:49} Mine eye
trickleth down, and ceaseth not, without any intermission,
{3:50} Till the LORD look down, and behold from heaven.
{3:51} Mine eye affecteth mine heart because of all the
daughters of my city. {3:52} Mine enemies chased me sore,
like a bird, without cause. {3:53} They have cut off my life
in the dungeon, and cast a stone upon me. {3:54} Waters
flowed over mine head; [then] I said, I am cut off. {3:55} I
called upon thy name, O LORD, out of the low dungeon.
{3:56} Thou hast heard my voice: hide not thine ear at my
breathing, at my cry. {3:57} Thou drewest near in the day
[that] I called upon thee: thou saidst, Fear not. {3:58} O
Lord, thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul; thou hast
redeemed my life. {3:59} O LORD, thou hast seen my
wrong: judge thou my cause. {3:60} Thou hast seen all their
vengeance [and] all their imaginations against me. {3:61}
Thou hast heard their reproach, O LORD, [and] all their
imaginations against me; {3:62} The lips of those that rose
up against me, and their device against me all the day.
{3:63} Behold their sitting down, and their rising up; I [am]
their musick.
{3:64} Render unto them a recompence, O LORD,
according to the work of their hands. {3:65} Give them
sorrow of heart, thy curse unto them. {3:66} Persecute and
destroy them in anger from under the heavens of the LORD.
4 {4:1} How is the gold become dim! [how] is the most fine
gold changed! the stones of the sanctuary are poured out in
the top of every street. {4:2} The precious sons of Zion,
comparable to fine gold, how are they esteemed as earthen
pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter! {4:3} Even the
sea monsters 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. {4:4} The tongue of the
sucking child cleaveth to the roof of his mouth for thirst: the
young children ask bread, [and] no man breaketh [it] unto
them. {4:5} They that did feed delicately are desolate in the
streets: they that were brought up in scarlet embrace
dunghills. {4:6} For the punishment of the iniquity of the
daughter of my people is greater than the punishment of the
sin of Sodom, that was overthrown as in a moment, and no
hands stayed on her. {4:7} Her Nazarites were purer than
snow, they were whiter than milk, they were more ruddy in
body than rubies, their polishing [was] of sapphire: {4:8}
Their visage is blacker than a coal; they are not known in
the streets: their skin cleaveth to their bones; it is withered,
it is become like a stick. {4:9} [They that be] slain with the
sword are better than [they that be] slain with hunger: for
these pine away, stricken through for [want of] the fruits of
the field. {4:10} The hands of the pitiful women have
sodden their own children: they were their meat in the
destruction of the daughter of my people. {4:11} The
LORD hath accomplished his fury; he hath poured out his
fierce anger, and hath kindled a fire in Zion, and it hath
devoured the foundations thereof. {4:12} The kings of the
earth, and all the inhabitants of the world, would not have
believed that the adversary and the enemy should have
entered into the gates of Jerusalem.
{4:13} For the sins of her prophets, [and] the iniquities of
her priests, that have shed the blood of the just in the midst
of her, {4:14} They have wandered [as] blind [men] in the
streets, they have polluted themselves with blood, so that
men could not touch their garments. {4:15} They cried unto
them, Depart ye; [it is] unclean; depart, depart, touch not:
when they fled away and wandered, they said among the
heathen, They shall no more sojourn [there. ]{4:16} The
anger of the LORD hath divided them; he will no more
regard them: they respected not the persons of the priests,
they favoured not the elders. {4:17} As for us, our eyes as
yet failed for our vain help: in our watching we have
watched for a nation [that] could not save [us.] {4:18} They
hunt our steps, that we cannot go in our streets: our end is
near, our days are fulfilled; for our end is come. {4:19} Our
persecutors are swifter than the eagles of the heaven: they
pursued us upon the mountains, they laid wait for us in the
wilderness. {4:20} 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 heathen.
{4:21} Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, that
dwellest in the land of Uz; the cup also shall pass through
unto thee: thou shalt be drunken, and shalt make thyself
naked.
{4:22} The punishment of thine iniquity is accomplished,
O daughter of Zion; he will no more carry thee away into
captivity: he will visit thine iniquity, O daughter of Edom;
he will discover thy sins.
5 {5:1} Remember, O LORD, what is come upon us:
consider, and behold our reproach. {5:2} Our inheritance is
turned to strangers, our houses to aliens. {5:3} We are
orphans and fatherless, our mothers [are] as widows. {5:4}
We have drunken our water for money; our wood is sold
unto us. {5:5} Our necks [are] under persecution: we
labour, [and] have no rest. {5:6} We have given the hand
[to] the Egyptians, [and to] the Assyrians, to be satisfied
with bread. {5:7} Our fathers have sinned, [and are] not;
and we have borne their iniquities. {5:8} Servants have
ruled over us: [there is] none that doth deliver [us] out of
their hand. {5:9} We gat our bread with [the peril of] our
lives because of the sword of the wilderness. {5:10} Our
skin was black like an oven because of the terrible famine.
{5:11} They ravished the women in Zion, [and] the maids
in the cities of Judah. {5:12} Princes are hanged up by their
hand: the faces of elders were not honoured. {5:13} They
took the young men to grind, and the children fell under the
wood. {5:14} The elders have ceased from the gate, the
young men from their musick. {5:15} The joy of our heart
is ceased; our dance is turned into mourning. {5:16} The
crown is fallen [from] our head: woe unto us, that we have
sinned! {5:17} For this our heart is faint; for these [things]
our eyes are dim. {5:18} Because of the mountain of Zion,
which is desolate, the foxes walk upon it. {5:19} Thou, O
LORD, remainest for ever; thy throne from generation to
generation. {5:20} Wherefore dost thou forget us for ever,
[and] forsake us so long time? {5:21} Turn thou us unto
thee, O LORD, and we shall be turned; renew our days as of
old. {5:22} But thou hast utterly rejected us; thou art very
wroth against us.