The Lamentations
OF JEREMIAH
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.
2:1: 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.
3:1: 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.
4:1: 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.
5:1: 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.