Chronological Plan

¹How solitary and lonely sits the city [Jerusalem] That was [once] full of people! How like a widow she has become. She who was great among the nations! The princess among the provinces, Has become a forced laborer!

²She weeps bitterly in the night And her tears are [constantly] on her cheeks; Among all her lovers (political allies) She has no one to comfort her. All her friends have dealt treacherously with her; They have become her enemies.

³Judah has gone into exile under affliction And under harsh servitude; She dwells among the [pagan] nations, But she has found no rest; All her pursuers have overtaken her In the midst of [her] distress.

⁴The roads to Zion are in mourning Because no one comes to the appointed feasts. All her gates are desolate; Her priests are groaning, Her virgins are grieved and suffering, And she suffers bitterly.

⁵Her adversaries have become her masters, Her enemies prosper; For the LORD has caused her grief Because of the multitude of her transgressions; Her young children have gone Into captivity before the enemy.

⁶All her beauty and majesty Have departed from the Daughter of Zion (Jerusalem). Her princes have become like deer That have found no pasture; They have fled without strength Before the pursuer.

⁷In the days of her affliction and homelessness Jerusalem remembers all her precious things That she had from the days of old, When her people fell into the hand of the adversary, And no one helped her, The enemy saw her, They mocked at her downfall.

⁸Jerusalem sinned greatly; Therefore she has become an unclean thing [and has been removed]. All who honored her [now] despise her Because they have seen her nakedness; Even she herself groans and turns [her face] away.

⁹Her (ceremonial) uncleanness was on her skirts; She did not [seriously] consider her future. Therefore she has come down [from throne to slavery] in an astonishing manner; She has no comforter. "O LORD" [cries Jerusalem], "look at my affliction, For the enemy has magnified himself [in triumph]!"

¹⁰The adversary has spread out his hand Over all her precious and desirable things; For she has seen the [Gentile] nations enter her sanctuary (the Jerusalem temple)— The ones whom You commanded That they should not enter into Your congregation [not even in the outer courts].

¹¹All her people groan, seeking bread; They have exchanged their desirable and precious things for food To restore their lives. "See, O LORD, and consider How despised and repulsive I have become!"

¹²"Is it nothing to you, all you who pass this way? Look and see if there is any pain like my pain Which was severely dealt out to me, Which the LORD has inflicted [on me] on the day of His fierce anger.

¹³"From on high He sent fire into my bones, And it prevailed over them. He has spread a net for my feet; He has turned me back. He has made me desolate and hopelessly miserable, Faint all the day long.

¹⁴"The yoke of my transgressions is bound; By His hand they are knit and woven together. They have come upon my neck. He has made my strength fail; The Lord has put me into the hand Of those against whom I cannot stand.

¹⁵"The Lord has rejected all the strong men In my midst; He has proclaimed an established time against me To crush my young men. The Lord has trampled down as in a wine press The Virgin Daughter of Judah.

¹⁶"I weep for these things; My eyes overflow with tears, Because a comforter, One who could restore my soul, is far away from me. My children are desolate and perishing, For the enemy has prevailed."

¹⁷Zion stretches out her hands, But there is no comforter for her. The LORD has commanded concerning Jacob That his neighbors should be his enemies; Jerusalem has become a filthy thing [an object of contempt] among them.

¹⁸"The LORD is righteous and just; For I have rebelled against His commandment (His word). Hear now, all you peoples, And look at my pain; My virgins and my young men Have gone into captivity.

¹⁹"I [Jerusalem] called to my lovers (political allies), but they deceived me. My priests and my elders perished in the city While they looked for food to restore their strength.

²⁰"See, O LORD, how distressed I am! My spirit is deeply disturbed; My heart is overturned within me and cannot rest, For I have been very rebellious. In the street the sword kills and bereaves; In the house there is [famine, disease and] death!

²¹"People have heard that I groan, That I have no comforter [in You]. All my enemies have heard of my desperation; They are delighted [O LORD] that You have done it. Oh, that You would bring the day [of judgment] which You have proclaimed So that they will become like me.

²²"Let all their wickedness 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."

¹How the Lord has covered the Daughter of Zion (Jerusalem) With a cloud in His anger! He has cast down from heaven to the earth The glory and splendor of Israel And has not remembered His footstool In the day of His anger.

²The Lord has swallowed up; He has not spared All the country places of Jacob. In His wrath He has thrown down The strongholds of the Daughter of Judah (Jerusalem). He has brought them down to the ground [in disgrace]; He has debased the kingdom and its princes.

³In fierce anger He has cut off and destroyed Every horn of Israel. He has withdrawn His right hand From the presence of the enemy. And He has burned in Jacob like a flaming fire Consuming all around.

⁴He has bent His bow like an enemy; He has set His right hand like an adversary And slain all that were delightful and pleasing to the eye; In the tent of the Daughter of Zion He has poured out His wrath like fire.

⁵The Lord has become like an enemy; He has swallowed up Israel. He has swallowed up all its palaces; He has destroyed its strongholds And multiplied in the Daughter of Judah Mourning and lamentation (expressions of grief).

⁶And He has violently broken down His temple like a [fragile] garden hedge; He has destroyed His appointed meeting place. The LORD has caused the appointed feast and Sabbath To be forgotten in Zion And has despised and rejected the king and the priest In the indignation of His anger.

⁷The Lord has rejected His altar; He has abandoned His sanctuary. He has given into the hand of the enemy The walls of her palaces; They have made a noise in the house of the LORD As on a day of an appointed feast.

⁸The LORD determined to lay in ruins The [city] wall of the Daughter of Zion. He has stretched out a line, He has not stopped His hand from destroying. He has caused the rampart and the wall to lament (mourn in grief); They have languished together.

⁹Her gates have sunk into the ground; He has destroyed and broken her bars. Her king and her princes are [exiled] among the nations; The law is no more. Also, her prophets no longer find Vision from the LORD.

¹⁰The elders of the Daughter of Zion Sit on the ground keeping silent; They have thrown dust on their heads, They have covered themselves with sackcloth. The virgins of Jerusalem Have bowed their heads to the ground.

¹¹My eyes fail because of tears [mourns Jeremiah], My spirit is deeply disturbed; My heart is poured out on the earth [in grief] Because of the destruction of the daughter of my people [Jerusalem], When little ones and infants faint In the streets of the city.

¹²They cry to their mothers, "Where is grain and wine?" As they faint like a wounded man In the streets of the city, As their life [slips away and] is poured out In their mothers' arms.

¹³How shall I console you? To what shall I compare you, O Daughter of Jerusalem? With what shall I compare you, so that I may comfort you, O Virgin Daughter of Zion? For your ruin is as vast as the sea; Who can heal you?

¹⁴Your prophets have seen (imagined) for you False and foolish visions; And they have not exposed your wickedness To restore you from captivity [by teaching you to repent], But they have seen (imagined) and declared to you false and misleading oracles.

¹⁵All who pass along the way Clap their hands in derision at you; They scoff and shake their heads At the Daughter of Jerusalem, saying, "Is this the city that was called 'The perfection of beauty, The joy of all the earth'?"

¹⁶All your enemies Have opened their mouths wide against you; They [scornfully] hiss and gnash their teeth. They say, "We have swallowed her up! Certainly this is the day for which we waited; We have reached it, we have seen it!"

¹⁷The LORD has done what He planned; He has accomplished His word Which He commanded from days of old. He has demolished without sparing, And He has caused the enemy to rejoice over you; He has exalted the power of your enemies.

¹⁸Their hearts cried out to the Lord. "O wall of the Daughter of Zion, Let your tears run down like a river day and night; Give yourself no relief, Let your eyes have no rest.

¹⁹"Arise, cry aloud in the night, At the beginning of the night watches; Pour out your heart like water Before the presence of the Lord; Lift up your hands to Him For the life of your little ones Who are faint from hunger At the head of every street."

²⁰See, O LORD, and look! With whom have You dealt this way? Should women eat their offspring, The little ones who were born healthy and beautiful? Should priest and prophet be killed In the sanctuary of the Lord?

²¹The young and the old Lie on the ground in the streets; My virgins and my young men Have fallen by the sword. You have killed them in the day of Your anger, You have slaughtered, not sparing.

²²You [LORD] called as in the day of an appointed feast My terrors (dangers) on every side; And there was no one who escaped or survived In the day of the Lord's anger. Those I have cared for and brought up with tenderness, My enemy annihilated them.

¹I am [Jeremiah] the man who has seen affliction Because of the rod of His wrath.

²He has led me and made me walk In darkness and not in light.

³Surely He has turned His hand against me Repeatedly all the day.

⁴He has caused my flesh and my skin to waste away; He has shattered my bones.

⁵He has besieged and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship.

⁶He has made me live in dark places Like those who have long been dead.

⁷He walled me in so that I cannot get out; He has weighted down my chain.

⁸Even when I cry out and shout for help, He shuts out my prayer.

⁹He has blocked my ways with cut stone; He has made my paths crooked.

¹⁰He is to me like a bear lying in wait, And like a lion [hiding] in secret places.

¹¹He has turned aside my ways and torn me in pieces; He has made me desolate.

¹²He has bent His bow And set me as a target for the arrow.

¹³He has caused the arrows of His quiver To enter my inner parts.

¹⁴I have become the [object of] ridicule to all my people, And [the subject of] their mocking song all the day.

¹⁵He has filled me with bitterness; He has made me drunk with wormwood (bitterness).

¹⁶He has broken my teeth with gravel; He has [covered me with ashes and] made me cower in the dust.

¹⁷My soul has been cast far away from peace; I have forgotten happiness.

¹⁸So I say, "My strength has perished And so has my hope and expectation from the LORD."

¹⁹Remember [O LORD] my affliction and my wandering, the wormwood and the gall (bitterness).

²⁰My soul continually remembers them And is bowed down within me.

²¹But this I call to mind, Therefore I have hope.

²²It is because of the Lord's lovingkindnesses that we are not consumed, Because His [tender] compassions never fail.

²³They are new every morning; Great and beyond measure is Your faithfulness.

²⁴"The LORD is my portion and my inheritance," says my soul; "Therefore I have hope in Him and wait expectantly for Him."

²⁵The LORD is good to those who wait [confidently] for Him, To those who seek Him [on the authority of God's word].

²⁶It is good that one waits quietly For the salvation of the LORD.

²⁷It is good for a man that he should bear The yoke [of godly discipline] in his youth.

²⁸Let him sit alone [in hope] and keep quiet, Because God has laid it on him [for his benefit].

²⁹Let him put his mouth in the dust [in recognition of his unworthiness]; There may yet be hope.

³⁰Let him give his cheek to the one who strikes him; Let him be filled with reproach.

³¹For the Lord will not reject forever,

³²For if He causes grief, Then He will have compassion According to His abundant lovingkindness and tender mercy.

³³For He does not afflict willingly and from His heart Or grieve the children of men.

³⁴To trample and crush under His feet All the prisoners of the land,

³⁵To deprive a man of justice In the presence of the Most High,

³⁶To defraud a man in his lawsuit— The Lord does not approve of these things.