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Zion Lays Desolate

¹ How ^(C1)lonely sits the city
That was ^(C2)great with people!
She has become like a ^(C3)widow
Who was once ^(C4)great among the nations!
She who was a princess among the ^(F1)provinces
Has become a ^(C5)forced laborer!

² She ^(C1)weeps bitterly in the night,
And her tears are on her cheeks;
She has none to comfort her
Among all her ^(C2)lovers.
All her friends have ^(C3)dealt treacherously with her;
They have become her enemies.

^3 (C1)Judah has gone into exile because of affliction
And because of great slavery;
She sits ^(C2)among the nations,
But she has found no rest;
All ^(C3)her pursuers have overtaken her
In the midst of ^(F1)distress.

⁴ The roads ^(F1)of Zion are in mourning
Because ^(C1)no one comes to the appointed times.
All her gates are ^(C2)desolate;
Her priests are sighing,
Her ^(C3)virgins are grieving,
And she herself ^(F2)is ^(C4)bitter.

⁵ Her adversaries have become ^(F1)her masters;
Her enemies are complacent;
For ^(F2)Yahweh has ^(C1)caused her grief
Because of the greatness of her transgressions;
Her infants have gone away
As captives before the adversary.

⁶ So all her ^(C1)majesty
Has gone out from the daughter of Zion;
Her princes have become like deer
That have found no pasture;
So they have ^(F1)(C2)fled without strength
Before the pursuer.

⁷ In the days of her affliction and homelessness
^(C1)Jerusalem remembers all her precious things
That were from the days of old,
When her people fell into the hand of the adversary
And ^(C2)no one helped her.
The adversaries saw her;
They ^(C3)laughed at her ^(F1)ruin.

⁸ Jerusalem sinned ^(C1)greatly;
Therefore ^(C2)she has become an impure thing.
All who honored her despise her
Because they have seen her nakedness;
Even ^(C3)she herself sighs and turns away.

⁹ Her ^(C1)uncleanness was in her skirts;
She did not remember her ^(C2)future.
Therefore she has ^(C3)gone down astonishingly;
^(C4)She has no comforter.
"^(C5)See, O Yahweh, my affliction,
For the enemy has ^(C6)magnified himself!"

¹⁰ The adversary has stretched out his hand
Over all her desirable things,
For she has seen the ^(C1)nations enter her sanctuary,
The ones whom You commanded
That they should ^(C2)not enter into Your assembly.

¹¹ All her people are sighing, ^(C1)seeking bread;
They have given their desirable things for food
To ^(C2)restore their souls.
"See, O Yahweh, and look,
For I am ^(C3)despised."

¹² "Is ^(C1)it nothing to all you who pass this way?
Look and see if there is any ^(F1)pain like my ^(F1)pain
Which was dealt severely to me,
Which ^(C2)Yahweh grieved me with on the day of His ^(C3)burning anger.

¹³ "From on high He sent fire into my ^(C1)bones,
And it dominated them.
He has spread a ^(C2)net for my feet;
He has turned me back;
He has made me ^(C3)desolate,
^(F1)Faint all day long.

¹⁴ "The ^(C1)yoke of my transgressions is bound;
By His hand they are knit together.
They have ^(C2)come upon my neck;
He has made my strength stumble.
The Lord ^(C3)has given me into the hands
Of those against whom I am not able to stand.

¹⁵ "The ^(C1)Lord has rejected all my mighty men
In my midst;
He has called an appointed time against me
To break my ^(C2)young men;
The Lord has ^(C3)trodden as in a wine press
The virgin daughter of Judah.

¹⁶ "For these things I ^(C1)am weeping;
^(F1)My eyes run down with water;
Because far from me is a ^(C2)comforter,
One who restores my soul.
My children are desolate
Because the enemy has prevailed."

¹⁷ Zion ^(C1)stretches out her hands;
There is no one to comfort her;
Yahweh has ^(C2)commanded concerning Jacob
That the ones round about him should be his adversaries;
^(C3)Jerusalem has become an impure thing among them.

¹⁸ "Yahweh is ^(C1)righteous;
For I have ^(C2)rebelled against His ^(F1)command;
Hear now, all peoples,
And ^(C3)behold my ^(F2)pain;
^(C4)My virgins and my young men
Have gone into captivity.

¹⁹ "I ^(C1)called to my lovers, but they deceived me;
My ^(C2)priests and my elders breathed their last in the city
While they sought food for themselves in order to ^(C3)restore their souls.

²⁰ "See, O Yahweh, for I am in distress;
My ^(F1)(C1)inmost being is greatly disturbed;
My heart is overturned within me,
For I have been very ^(C2)rebellious.
In the street the sword bereaves;
In the house it is like death.

²¹ "They have heard that I ^(C1)am sighing;
There is no one to comfort me;
All my enemies have heard of the ^(F1)evil done to me;
They ^(C2)rejoice that You have done it.
You have brought the day which You have proclaimed,
So that they will become ^(C3)like me.

²² "Let all their evil come before You;
And ^(C1)deal severely with them as You have dealt severely with me
For all my transgressions;
For my groans are great and my heart is faint."