Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition

THE LAMENTATIONS OF JEREMIAH

The Deserted City

1 *How lonely sits the city

that was full of people!

How like a widow has she become,

she that was great among the nations!

She that was a princess among the cities

has become a vassal.

²She weeps bitterly in the night,

tears on her cheeks;

among all her lovers

she has none to comfort her;

all her friends have dealt treacherously with her,

they have become her enemies.

³Judah has gone into exile because of affliction

and hard servitude;

she dwells now among the nations,

but finds no resting place;

her pursuers have all overtaken her

in the midst of her distress.

⁴The roads to Zion mourn,

for none come to the appointed feasts;

all her gates are desolate,

her priests groan;

her maidens have been dragged away, ^a

and she herself suffers bitterly.

⁵Her foes have become the head,

her enemies prosper,

because the LORD has made her suffer

for the multitude of her transgressions;

her children have gone away,

captives before the foe.

⁶From the daughter of Zion has departed

all her majesty.

Her princes have become like deer

that find no pasture;

they fled without strength

before the pursuer.

⁷Jerusalem remembers

in the days of her affliction and bitterness ^b

all the precious things

that were hers from days of old.

When her people fell into the hand of the foe,

and there was none to help her,

the foe gloated over her,

mocking at her downfall.

⁸Jerusalem sinned grievously,

therefore she became filthy;

all who honored her despise her,

for they have seen her nakedness;

yes, she herself groans,

and turns her face away.

⁹Her uncleanness was in her skirts;

she took no thought of her doom;

therefore her fall is terrible,

she has no comforter.

“O LORD, behold my affliction,

for the enemy has triumphed!”

¹⁰The enemy has stretched out his hands

over all her precious things;

yes, she has seen the nations

invade her sanctuary,

those whom you forbade

to enter your congregation.

¹¹All her people groan

as they search for bread;

they trade their treasures for food

to revive their strength.

“Look, O LORD, and behold,

for I am despised.”

¹²“Is it nothing to you, ^c all you who pass by?

Look and see

if there is any sorrow like my sorrow

which was brought upon me,

which the LORD inflicted

on the day of his fierce anger.

¹³“From on high he sent fire;

into my bones ^d he made it descend;

he spread a net for my feet;

he turned me back;

he has left me stunned,

faint all the day long.

¹⁴“My transgressions were bound ^e into a yoke;

by his hand they were fastened together;

they were set upon my neck;

he caused my strength to fail;

the Lord gave me into the hands

of those whom I cannot withstand.

¹⁵“The LORD flouted all my mighty men

in the midst of me;

he summoned an assembly against me

to crush my young men;

the Lord has trodden as in a wine press

the virgin daughter of Judah.

¹⁶“For these things I weep;

my eyes flow with tears;

for a comforter is far from me,

one to revive my courage;

my children are desolate,

for the enemy has prevailed.”

¹⁷Zion stretches out her hands,

but there is none to comfort her;

the LORD has commanded against Jacob

that his neighbors should be his foes;

Jerusalem has become

a filthy thing among them.

¹⁸“The LORD is in the right,

for I have rebelled against his word;

but hear, all you peoples,

and behold my suffering;

my maidens and my young men

have gone into captivity.

¹⁹“I called to my lovers

but they deceived me;

my priests and elders

perished in the city,

while they sought food

to revive their strength.

²⁰“Behold, O LORD, for I am in distress,

my soul is in tumult,

my heart is wrung within me,

because I have been very rebellious.

In the street the sword bereaves;

in the house it is like death.

²¹“Hear ^f how I groan;

there is none to comfort me.

All my enemies have heard of my trouble;

they are glad that you have done it.

Bring^g the day you have announced,

and let them be as I am.

²²“Let all their evil-doing come before you;

and deal with them

as you have dealt with me

because of all my transgressions;

for my groans are many

and my heart is faint.”

God’s Warnings Are Fulfilled

2 How the Lord in his anger

has set the daughter of Zion under a cloud!

He has cast down from heaven to earth

the splendor of Israel;

he has not remembered his footstool

in the day of his anger.

²The Lord has destroyed without mercy

all the habitations of Jacob;

in his wrath he has broken down

the strongholds of the daughter of Judah;

he has brought down to the ground in dishonor

the kingdom and its rulers.

³He has cut down in fierce anger

all the might of Israel;

he has withdrawn from them his right hand

in the face of the enemy;

he has burned like a flaming fire in Jacob,

consuming all around.

⁴He has bent his bow like an enemy,

with his right hand set like a foe;

and he has slain all the pride of our eyes

in the tent of the daughter of Zion;

he has poured out his fury like fire.

⁵The Lord has become like an enemy,

he has destroyed Israel;

he has destroyed all its palaces,

laid in ruins its strongholds;

and he has multiplied in the daughter of Judah

mourning and lamentation.

⁶He has broken down his booth like that of a garden,

laid in ruins the place of his appointed feasts;

the LORD has brought to an end in Zion

appointed feast and sabbath,

and in his fierce indignation has spurned

king and priest.

⁷The Lord has scorned his altar,

disowned his sanctuary;

he has delivered into the hand of the enemy

the walls of her palaces;

a clamor was raised in the house of the LORD

as on the day of an appointed feast.

⁸The LORD determined to lay in ruins

the wall of the daughter of Zion;

he marked it off by the line;

he restrained not his hand from destroying;

he caused rampart and wall to lament,

they languish together.

⁹Her gates have sunk into the ground;

he has ruined and broken her bars;

her king and princes are among the nations;

the law is no more,

and her prophets obtain

no vision from the LORD.

¹⁰The elders of the daughter of Zion

sit on the ground in silence;

they have cast dust on their heads

and put on sackcloth;

the maidens of Jerusalem

have bowed their heads to the ground.

¹¹My eyes are spent with weeping;

my soul is in tumult;

my heart is poured out in grief ^h

because of the destruction of the daughter of my people,

because infants and babies faint

in the streets of the city.

¹²They cry to their mothers,

“Where is bread and wine?”

as they faint like wounded men

in the streets of the city,

as their life is poured out

on their mothers’ bosom.

¹³What can I say for you, to what compare you,

O daughter of Jerusalem?

What can I liken to you, that I may comfort you,

O virgin daughter of Zion?

For vast as the sea is your ruin;

who can restore you?

¹⁴Your prophets have seen for you

false and deceptive visions;

they have not exposed your iniquity

to restore your fortunes,

but have seen for you oracles

false and misleading.

¹⁵All who pass along the way

clap their hands at you;

they hiss and wag their heads

at the daughter of Jerusalem;

“Is this the city which was called

the perfection of beauty,

the joy of all the earth?”

¹⁶All your enemies

rail against you;

they hiss, they gnash their teeth,

they cry: “We have destroyed her!

Ah, this is the day we longed for;

now we have it; we see it!”

¹⁷The LORD has done what he planned,

has carried out his threat;

as he ordained long ago,

he has demolished without pity;

he has made the enemy rejoice over you,

and exalted the might of your foes.

¹⁸Cry aloud ⁱ to the Lord!

O ^j daughter of Zion!

Let tears stream down like a torrent

day and night!

Give yourself no rest,

your eyes no respite!

¹⁹Arise, cry out in the night,

at the beginning of the watches!

Pour out your heart like water

before the presence of the Lord!

Lift your hands to him

for the lives of your children,

who faint for hunger

at the head of every street.

²⁰Look, O LORD, and see!

With whom have you dealt thus?

Should women eat their offspring,

the children of their tender care?

Should priest and prophet be slain

in the sanctuary of the Lord?

²¹In the dust of the streets

lie the young and the old;

my maidens and my young men

have fallen by the sword;

in the day of your anger you have slain them,

slaughtering without mercy.

²²You invited as to the day of an appointed feast

my terrors on every side;

and on the day of the anger of the LORD

none escaped or survived;

those whom I dandled and reared

my enemy destroyed.

God’s Merciful Love Endures

3 I am the man who has seen affliction

under the rod of his wrath;

²he has driven and brought me

into darkness without any light;

³surely against me he turns his hand

again and again the whole day long.

⁴He has made my flesh and my skin waste away,

and broken my bones;

⁵he has besieged and enveloped me

with bitterness and tribulation;

⁶he has made me dwell in darkness

like the dead of long ago.

⁷He has walled me about so that I cannot escape;

he has put heavy chains on me;

⁸though I call and cry for help,

he shuts out my prayer;

⁹he has blocked my ways with hewn stones,

he has made my paths crooked.

¹⁰He is to me like a bear lying in wait,

like a lion in hiding;

¹¹he led me off my way and tore me to pieces;

he has made me desolate;

¹²he bent his bow and set me

as a mark for his arrow.

¹³He drove into my heart

the arrows of his quiver;

¹⁴I have become the laughingstock of all peoples,

the burden of their songs all day long.

¹⁵He has filled me with bitterness,

he has sated me with wormwood.

¹⁶He has made my teeth grind on gravel,

and made me cower in ashes;

¹⁷my soul is bereft of peace,

I have forgotten what happiness is;

¹⁸so I say, “Gone is my glory,

and my expectation from the LORD.”

¹⁹Remember my affliction and my bitterness, ^k

the wormwood and the gall!

²⁰My soul continually thinks of it

and is bowed down within me.

²¹But this I call to mind,

and therefore I have hope:

²²The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases, ^l

his mercies never come to an end;

²³they are new every morning;

great is your faithfulness.

²⁴“The LORD is my portion,” says my soul,

“therefore I will hope in him.”

²⁵The LORD is good to those who wait for him,

to the soul that seeks him.

²⁶It is good that one should wait quietly

for the salvation of the LORD.

²⁷It is good for a man that he bear

the yoke in his youth.

²⁸Let him sit alone in silence

when he has laid it on him;

²⁹let him put his mouth in the dust—

there may yet be hope;

³⁰let him give his cheek to the one who strikes him,

and be filled with insults.

³¹For the Lord will not

cast off for ever,

³²but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion

according to the abundance of his steadfast love;

³³for he does not willingly afflict

or grieve the sons of men.

³⁴To crush under foot

all the prisoners of the earth,

³⁵to turn aside the right of a man

in the presence of the Most High,

³⁶to subvert a man in his cause,

the Lord does not approve.

³⁷Who has commanded and it came to pass,

unless the Lord has ordained it?

³⁸Is it not from the mouth of the Most High

that good and evil come?

³⁹Why should a living man complain,

a man, about the punishment of his sins?

⁴⁰Let us test and examine our ways,

and return to the LORD!

⁴¹Let us lift up our hearts and hands

to God in heaven:

⁴²“We have transgressed and rebelled,

and you have not forgiven.

⁴³“You have wrapped yourself with anger and pursued us,

slaying without pity;

⁴⁴you have wrapped yourself with a cloud

so that no prayer can pass through.

⁴⁵You have made us offscouring and refuse

among the peoples.

⁴⁶“All our enemies

rail against us;

⁴⁷panic and pitfall have come upon us,

devastation and destruction;

⁴⁸my eyes flow with rivers of tears

because of the destruction of the daughter of my people.

⁴⁹“My eyes will flow without ceasing,

without respite,

⁵⁰until the LORD from heaven

looks down and sees;

⁵¹my eyes cause me grief

at the fate of all the maidens of my city.

⁵²“I have been hunted like a bird

by those who were my enemies without cause;

⁵³they flung me alive into the pit

and cast stones on me;

⁵⁴water closed over my head;

I said, ‘I am lost.’

⁵⁵“I called on your name, O LORD,

from the depths of the pit;

⁵⁶you heard my plea, ‘Do not close

your ear to my cry for help!’ ^m

⁵⁷You came near when I called on you;

you said, ‘Do not fear!’

⁵⁸“You have taken up my cause, O Lord,

you have redeemed my life.

⁵⁹You have seen the wrong done to me, O LORD;

do judge my cause.

⁶⁰You have seen all their vengeance,

all their devices against me.

⁶¹“You have heard their taunts, O LORD,

all their devices against me.

⁶²The lips and thoughts of my assailants

are against me all the day long.

⁶³Behold their sitting and their rising;

I am the burden of their songs.

⁶⁴“You will repay them, O LORD,

according to the work of their hands.

⁶⁵You will give them dullness of heart;

your curse will be on them.

⁶⁶You will pursue them in anger and destroy them

from under your heavens, O LORD.” ⁿ

The Punishment and Distress of Zion

4 How the gold has grown dim,

how the pure gold is changed!

The holy stones lie scattered

at the head of every street.

²The precious sons of Zion,

worth their weight in fine gold,

how they are reckoned as earthen pots,

the work of a potter’s hands!

³Even the jackals give the breast

and suckle their young,

but the daughter of my people has become cruel,

like the ostriches in the wilderness.

⁴The tongue of the infant clings

to the roof of its mouth for thirst;

the children beg for food,

but no one gives to them.

⁵Those who feasted on dainties

perish in the streets;

those who were brought up in purple

lie on ash heaps.

⁶For the chastisement ^o of the daughter of my people has been greater

than the punishment ^p of Sodom,

which was overthrown in a moment,

no hand being laid on it. ^q

⁷Her princes were purer than snow,

whiter than milk;

their bodies were more ruddy than coral,

the beauty of their form ^r was like sapphire. ^s

⁸Now their visage is blacker than soot,

they are not recognized in the streets;

their skin has shriveled upon their bones,

it has become as dry as wood.

⁹Happier were the victims of the sword

than the victims of hunger,

who pined away, stricken

by want of the fruits of the field.

¹⁰The hands of compassionate women

have boiled their own children;

they became their food

in the destruction of the daughter of my people.

¹¹The LORD gave full vent to his wrath,

he poured out his hot anger;

and he kindled a fire in Zion,

which consumed its foundations.

¹²The kings of the earth did not believe,

or any of the inhabitants of the world,

that foe or enemy could enter

the gates of Jerusalem.

¹³This was for the sins of her prophets

and the iniquities of her priests,

who shed in the midst of her

the blood of the righteous.

¹⁴They wandered, blind, through the streets,

so defiled with blood

that none could touch

their garments.

¹⁵“Away! Unclean!” men cried at them;

“Away! Away! Touch not!”

So they became fugitives and wanderers;

men said among the nations,

“They shall stay with us no longer.”

¹⁶The LORD himself has scattered them,

he will regard them no more;

no honor was shown to the priests,

no favor to the elders.

¹⁷Our eyes failed, ever watching

vainly for help;

in our watching ^t we watched

for a nation which could not save.

¹⁸Men dogged our steps

so that we could not walk in our streets;

our end drew near; our days were numbered;

for our end had come.

¹⁹Our pursuers were swifter

than the vultures in the heavens;

they chased us on the mountains,

they lay in wait for us in the wilderness.

²⁰The breath of our nostrils, the LORD’s anointed,

was taken in their pits,

he of whom we said, “Under his shadow

we shall live among the nations.”

²¹Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of E'dom,

dweller in the land of Uz;

but to you also the cup shall pass;

you shall become drunk and strip yourself bare.

²²The punishment of your iniquity,

O daughter of Zion, is accomplished,

he will keep you in exile no longer;

but your iniquity, O daughter of E'dom, he will punish,

he will uncover your sins.

A Prayer for Mercy

5 Remember, O LORD, what has befallen us;

behold, and see our disgrace!

²Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers,

our homes to aliens.

³We have become orphans, fatherless;

our mothers are like widows.

⁴We must pay for the water we drink,

the wood we get must be bought.

⁵With a yoke ^u on our necks we are hard driven;

we are weary, we are given no rest.

⁶We have given the hand to Egypt,

and to Assyria, to get bread enough.

⁷Our fathers sinned, and are no more;

and we bear their iniquities.

⁸Slaves rule over us;

there is none to deliver us from their hand.

⁹We get our bread at the peril of our lives,

because of the sword in the wilderness.

¹⁰Our skin is hot as an oven

with the burning heat of famine.

¹¹Women are ravished in Zion,

virgins in the towns of Judah.

¹²Princes are hung up by their hands;

no respect is shown to the elders.

¹³Young men are compelled to grind at the mill;

and boys stagger under loads of wood.

¹⁴The old men have quit the city gate,

the young men their music.

¹⁵The joy of our hearts has ceased;

our dancing has been turned to mourning.

¹⁶The crown has fallen from our head;

woe to us, for we have sinned!

¹⁷For this our heart has become sick,

for these things our eyes have grown dim,

¹⁸for Mount Zion which lies desolate;

jackals prowl over it.

¹⁹But you, O LORD, reign for ever;

your throne endures to all generations.

²⁰Why do you forget us for ever,

why do you so long forsake us?

²¹Restore us to yourself, O LORD, that we may be restored!

Renew our days as of old!

²²Or have you utterly rejected us?

Are you exceedingly angry with us?