Study Desk

"Because of these things, I weep; my eyes, my eyes stream with tears; for anyone who could comfort me and revive my courage is far away. My children are in a state of shock, because the enemy has prevailed."

Tziyon spreads out her hands, but no one is there to console her. Concerning Ya‘akov, Adonai has ordered those around him to be his foes; Yerushalayim has become for them an unclean, filthy thing.

" Adonai is in the right, for I rebelled against his word. Listen, please, all you peoples; and see how I am in pain! My young women and my young men have gone into captivity.

"Let all their wickedness come before you. Then do to them as you have done to me because of all my offenses. For my groans are many, and I am sick at heart."

Adonai became like an enemy; he swallowed up Isra'el, swallowed up all its palaces, and destroyed all its strongholds. For the daughter of Y'hudah he has multiplied mourning and moaning.

What can be said to you, what can be compared with you, daughter of Yerushalayim? What example can I give to comfort you, virgin daughter of Tziyon? For your downfall is as vast as the sea; who can heal you?

The visions your prophets saw for you were futile, just a whitewash. They did not expose your guilt, so as to reverse your fortunes — no, the visions they saw for you were alluring, but futile.

All your adversaries open their mouths to jeer at you. They hiss, they grind their teeth; they say, "We have swallowed her up! This is the day we were waiting for, and now we have lived to see it!"

"Get up! Cry out in the night, at the beginning of every watch! Pour your heart out like water before the face of Adonai! Lift up your hands to him for the lives of your babies, who are fainting away from hunger at every streetcorner."

Even when I cry out, pleading for help, he shuts out my prayer.

He lies in wait for me like a bear, like a lion in hiding.

He has bent his bow and used me as a target for his arrows.

Adonai is good to those waiting for him, to those who are seeking him out.

It is good to wait patiently for the saving help of Adonai .

It is good for a man to bear the yoke from his youth.

For rejection by Adonai does not last forever.

For he does not arbitrarily torment or punish human beings.

Why should anyone alive complain, even a strong man, about the punishment for his sins?

"We, for our part, have transgressed and rebelled; you, for your part, have not forgiven.

Those who are my enemies for no reason hunted me down like a bird.