1 How doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people! howis she become as a widow! she that was great among thenations, and princess among the provinces, how is she becometributary!
2 She weepeth sore in the night, and her tears are on hercheeks: among all her lovers she hath none to comfort her: allher friends have dealt treacherously with her, they are becomeher enemies.
3 Judah is gone into captivity because of affliction, andbecause of great servitude: she dwelleth among the heathen,she findeth no rest: all her persecutors overtook her betweenthe straits.
4 The ways of Zion do mourn, because none come to the solemnfeasts: all her gates are desolate: her priests sigh, hervirgins are afflicted, and she is in bitterness.
5 Her adversaries are the chief, her enemies prosper; for theLORD hath afflicted her for the multitude of hertransgressions: her children are gone into captivity beforethe enemy.
6 And from the daughter of Zion all her beauty is departed: herprinces are become like harts that find no pasture, and theyare gone without strength before the pursuer.
7 Jerusalem remembered in the days of her affliction and of hermiseries all her pleasant things that she had in the days ofold, when her people fell into the hand of the enemy, and nonedid help her: the adversaries saw her, and did mock at hersabbaths.
8 Jerusalem hath grievously sinned; therefore she is removed:all that honoured her despise her, because they have seen hernakedness: yea, she sigheth, and turneth backward.
9 Her filthiness is in her skirts; she remembereth not her lastend; therefore she came down wonderfully: she had nocomforter. O LORD, behold my affliction: for the enemy hathmagnified himself.
10 The adversary hath spread out his hand upon all her pleasantthings: for she hath seen that the heathen entered into hersanctuary, whom thou didst command that they should not enterinto thy congregation.
11 All her people sigh, they seek bread; they have given theirpleasant things for meat to relieve the soul: see, O LORD, andconsider; for I am become vile.
12 Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? behold, and see ifthere be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done untome, wherewith the LORD hath afflicted me in the day of hisfierce anger.
13 From above hath he sent fire into my bones, and it prevailethagainst them: he hath spread a net for my feet, he hath turnedme back: he hath made me desolate and faint all the day.
14 The yoke of my transgressions is bound by his hand: they arewreathed, and come up upon my neck: he hath made my strengthto fall, the LORD hath delivered me into their hands, fromwhom I am not able to rise up.
15 The LORD hath trodden under foot all my mighty men in themidst of me: he hath called an assembly against me to crush myyoung men: the LORD hath trodden the virgin, the daughter ofJudah, as in a winepress.
16 For these things I weep; mine eye, mine eye runneth down withwater, because the comforter that should relieve my soul isfar from me: my children are desolate, because the enemyprevailed.
17 Zion spreadeth forth her hands, and there is none to comforther: the LORD hath commanded concerning Jacob, that hisadversaries should be round about him: Jerusalem is as amenstruous woman among them.
18 The LORD is righteous; for I have rebelled against hiscommandment: hear, I pray you, all people, and behold mysorrow: my virgins and my young men are gone into captivity.
19 I called for my lovers, but they deceived me: my priests andmine elders gave up the ghost in the city, while they soughttheir meat to relieve their souls.
20 Behold, O LORD; for I am in distress: my bowels are troubled;mine heart is turned within me; for I have grievouslyrebelled: abroad the sword bereaveth, at home there is asdeath.
21 They have heard that I sigh: there is none to comfort me: allmine enemies have heard of my trouble; they are glad that thouhast done it: thou wilt bring the day that thou hast called,and they shall be like unto me.
22 Let all their wickedness come before thee; and do unto them,as thou hast done unto me for all my transgressions: for mysighs are many, and my heart is faint.
1 How hath the LORD covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud inhis anger, and cast down from heaven unto the earth the beautyof Israel, and remembered not his footstool in the day of hisanger!
2 The Lord hath swallowed up all the habitations of Jacob, andhath not pitied: he hath thrown down in his wrath the strongholds of the daughter of Judah; he hath brought them down tothe ground: he hath polluted the kingdom and the princesthereof.
3 He hath cut off in his fierce anger all the horn of Israel: hehath drawn back his right hand from before the enemy, and heburned against Jacob like a flaming fire, which devourethround about.
4 He hath bent his bow like an enemy: he stood with his righthand as an adversary, and slew all that were pleasant to theeye in the tabernacle of the daughter of Zion: he poured outhis fury like fire.
5 The LORD was as an enemy: he hath swallowed up Israel, he hathswallowed up all her palaces: he hath destroyed his strongholds, and hath increased in the daughter of Judah mourningand lamentation.
6 And he hath violently taken away his tabernacle, as if it wereof a garden: he hath destroyed his places of the assembly: theLORD hath caused the solemn feasts and sabbaths to beforgotten in Zion, and hath despised in the indignation of hisanger the king and the priest.
7 The LORD hath cast off his altar, he hath abhorred hissanctuary, he hath given up into the hand of the enemy thewalls of her palaces; they have made a noise in the house ofthe LORD, as in the day of a solemn feast.
8 The LORD hath purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter ofZion: he hath stretched out a line, he hath not withdrawn hishand from destroying: therefore he made the rampart and thewall to lament; they languished together.
9 Her gates are sunk into the ground; he hath destroyed andbroken her bars: her king and her princes are among theGentiles: the law is no more; her prophets also find no visionfrom the LORD.
10 The elders of the daughter of Zion sit upon the ground, andkeep silence: they have cast up dust upon their heads; theyhave girded themselves with sackcloth: the virgins ofJerusalem hang down their heads to the ground.
11 Mine eyes do fail with tears, my bowels are troubled, my liveris poured upon the earth, for the destruction of the daughterof my people; because the children and the sucklings swoon inthe streets of the city.
12 They say to their mothers, Where is corn and wine? when theyswooned as the wounded in the streets of the city, when theirsoul was poured out into their mothers' bosom.
13 What thing shall I take to witness for thee? what thing shallI liken to thee, O daughter of Jerusalem? what shall I equalto thee, that I may comfort thee, O virgin daughter of Zion?for thy breach is great like the sea: who can heal thee?
14 Thy prophets have seen vain and foolish things for thee: andthey have not discovered thine iniquity, to turn away thycaptivity; but have seen for thee false burdens and causes ofbanishment.
15 All that pass by clap their hands at thee; they hiss and wagtheir head at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying, Is this thecity that men call The perfection of beauty, The joy of thewhole earth?
16 All thine enemies have opened their mouth against thee: theyhiss 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.
17 The LORD hath done that which he had devised; he hathfulfilled his word that he had commanded in the days of old:he hath thrown down, and hath not pitied: and he hath causedthine enemy to rejoice over thee, he hath set up the horn ofthine adversaries.
18 Their heart cried unto the Lord, O wall of the daughter ofZion, let tears run down like a river day and night: givethyself no rest; let not the apple of thine eye cease.
19 Arise, cry out in the night: in the beginning of the watchespour out thine heart like water before the face of the Lord:lift up thy hands toward him for the life of thy youngchildren, that faint for hunger in the top of every street.
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 ofthe LORD?
21 The young and the old lie on the ground in the streets: myvirgins and my young men are fallen by the sword; thou hastslain them in the day of thine anger; thou hast killed, andnot pitied.
22 Thou hast called as in a solemn day my terrors round about, sothat in the day of the LORD's anger none escaped nor remained:those that I have swaddled and brought up hath mine enemyconsumed.
1 IAm the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of hiswrath.
2 He hath led me, and brought me into darkness, but not intolight.
3 Surely against me is he turned; he turneth his hand against meall the day.
4 My flesh and my skin hath he made old; he hath broken mybones.
5 He hath builded against me, and compassed me with gall andtravel.
6 He hath set me in dark places, as they that be dead of old.
7 He hath hedged me about, that I cannot get out: he hath mademy chain heavy.
8 Also when I cry and shout, he shutteth out my prayer.
9 He hath inclosed my ways with hewn stone, he hath made mypaths crooked.
10 He was unto me as a bear lying in wait, and as a lion insecret places.
11 He hath turned aside my ways, and pulled me in pieces: he hathmade me desolate.
12 He hath bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow.
13 He hath caused the arrows of his quiver to enter into myreins.
14 I was a derision to all my people; and their song all the day.
15 He hath filled me with bitterness, he hath made me drunkenwith wormwood.
16 He hath also broken my teeth with gravel stones, he hathcovered me with ashes.
17 And thou hast removed my soul far off from peace: I forgatprosperity.
18 And I said, My strength and my hope is perished from the LORD:
19 Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood andthe gall.
20 My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me.
21 This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope.
22 It is of the LORD's mercies that we are not consumed, becausehis compassions fail not.
23 They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.
24 The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hopein him.
25 The LORD is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul thatseeketh him.
26 It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait forthe salvation of the LORD.
27 It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.
28 He sitteth alone and keepeth silence, because he hath borne itupon him.
29 He putteth his mouth in the dust; if so be there may be hope.
30 He giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him: he is filled fullwith reproach.
31 For the LORD will not cast off for ever:
32 But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassionaccording to the multitude of his mercies.
33 For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children ofmen.
34 To crush under his feet all the prisoners of the earth,
35 To turn aside the right of a man before the face of the mostHigh,
36 To subvert a man in his cause, the LORD approveth not.
37 Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when the LORDcommandeth it not?
38 Out of the mouth of the most High proceedeth not evil andgood?
39 Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishmentof his sins?
40 Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the LORD.
41 Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in theheavens.
42 We have transgressed and have rebelled: thou hast notpardoned.
43 Thou hast covered with anger, and persecuted us: thou hastslain, thou hast not pitied.
44 Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud, that our prayer shouldnot pass through.
45 Thou hast made us as the offscouring and refuse in the midstof the people.
46 All our enemies have opened their mouths against us.
47 Fear and a snare is come upon us, desolation and destruction.
48 Mine eye runneth down with rivers of water for the destructionof the daughter of my people.
49 Mine eye trickleth down, and ceaseth not, without anyintermission,
50 Till the LORD look down, and behold from heaven.
51 Mine eye affecteth mine heart because of all the daughters ofmy city.
52 Mine enemies chased me sore, like a bird, without cause.
53 They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and cast a stoneupon me.
54 Waters flowed over mine head; then I said, I am cut off.
55 I called upon thy name, O LORD, out of the low dungeon.
56 Thou hast heard my voice: hide not thine ear at my breathing,at my cry.
57 Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee: thousaidst, Fear not.
58 O LORD, thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul; thou hastredeemed my life.
59 O LORD, thou hast seen my wrong: judge thou my cause.
60 Thou hast seen all their vengeance and all their imaginationsagainst me.
61 Thou hast heard their reproach, O LORD, and all theirimaginations against me;
62 The lips of those that rose up against me, and their deviceagainst me all the day.
63 Behold their sitting down, and their rising up; I am theirmusick.
64 Render unto them a recompence, O LORD, according to the workof their hands.
65 Give them sorrow of heart, thy curse unto them.
66 Persecute and destroy them in anger from under the heavens ofthe LORD.
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 everystreet.
2 The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, how arethey esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands ofthe potter!
3 Even the sea monsters draw out the breast, they give suck totheir young ones: the daughter of my people is become cruel,like the ostriches in the wilderness.
4 The tongue of the sucking child cleaveth to the roof of hismouth for thirst: the young children ask bread, and no manbreaketh it unto them.
5 They that did feed delicately are desolate in the streets:they that were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghills.
6 For the punishment of the iniquity of the daughter of mypeople is greater than the punishment of the sin of Sodom,that was overthrown as in a moment, and no hands stayed onher.
7 Her Nazarites were purer than snow, they were whiter thanmilk, they were more ruddy in body than rubies, theirpolishing was of sapphire:
8 Their visage is blacker than a coal; they are not known in thestreets: their skin cleaveth to their bones; it is withered,it is become like a stick.
9 They that be slain with the sword are better than they that beslain with hunger: for these pine away, stricken through forwant of the fruits of the field.
10 The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children:they were their meat in the destruction of the daughter of mypeople.
11 The LORD hath accomplished his fury; he hath poured out hisfierce anger, and hath kindled a fire in Zion, and it hathdevoured the foundations thereof.
12 The kings of the earth, and all the inhabitants of the world,would not have believed that the adversary and the enemyshould have entered into the gates of Jerusalem.
13 For the sins of her prophets, and the iniquities of herpriests, that have shed the blood of the just in the midst ofher,
14 They have wandered as blind men in the streets, they havepolluted themselves with blood, so that men could not touchtheir garments.
15 They cried unto them, Depart ye; it is unclean; depart,depart, touch not: when they fled away and wandered, they saidamong the heathen, They shall no more sojourn there.
16 The anger of the LORD hath divided them; he will no moreregard them: they respected not the persons of the priests,they favoured not the elders.
17 As for us, our eyes as yet failed for our vain help: in ourwatching we have watched for a nation that could not save us.
18 They hunt our steps, that we cannot go in our streets: our endis near, our days are fulfilled; for our end is come.
19 Our persecutors are swifter than the eagles of the heaven:they pursued us upon the mountains, they laid wait for us inthe wilderness.
20 The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the LORD, wastaken in their pits, of whom we said, Under his shadow weshall live among the heathen.
21 Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, that dwellest in theland of Uz; the cup also shall pass through unto thee: thoushalt be drunken, and shalt make thyself naked.
22 The punishment of thine iniquity is accomplished, O daughterof Zion; he will no more carry thee away into captivity: hewill visit thine iniquity, O daughter of Edom; he willdiscover thy sins.
1 Remember, O LORD, what is come upon us: consider, and beholdour reproach.
2 Our inheritance is turned to strangers, our houses to aliens.
3 We are orphans and fatherless, our mothers are as widows.
4 We have drunken our water for money; our wood is sold unto us.
5 Our necks are under persecution: we labour, and have no rest.
6 We have given the hand to the Egyptians, and to the Assyrians,to be satisfied with bread.
7 Our fathers have sinned, and are not; and we have borne theiriniquities.
8 Servants have ruled over us: there is none that doth deliverus out of their hand.
9 We gat our bread with the peril of our lives because of thesword of the wilderness.
10 Our skin was black like an oven because of the terriblefamine.
11 They ravished the women in Zion, and the maids in the citiesof Judah.
12 Princes are hanged up by their hand: the faces of elders werenot honoured.
13 They took the young men to grind, and the children fell underthe wood.
14 The elders have ceased from the gate, the young men from theirmusick.
15 The joy of our heart is ceased; our dance is turned intomourning.
16 The crown is fallen from our head: woe unto us, that we havesinned!
17 For this our heart is faint; for these things our eyes aredim.
18 Because of the mountain of Zion, which is desolate, the foxeswalk upon it.
19 Thou, O LORD, remainest for ever; thy throne from generationto generation.
20 Wherefore dost thou forget us for ever, and forsake us so longtime?
21 Turn thou us unto thee, O LORD, and we shall be turned; renewour days as of old.
22 But thou hast utterly rejected us; thou art very wroth againstus.
Old Testament
Deuterocanon/Apocrypha
New Testament