Chronological Plan

³⁷Who can speak and have it happen if the Lord has not decreed it?

³⁸Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that both calamities and good things come?

³⁹Why should the living complain when punished for their sins?

⁴⁰Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the LORD.

⁴¹Let us lift up our hearts and our hands to God in heaven, and say:

⁴²“We have sinned and rebelled and you have not forgiven.

⁴³“You have covered yourself with anger and pursued us; you have slain without pity.

⁴⁴You have covered yourself with a cloud so that no prayer can get through.

⁴⁵You have made us scum and refuse among the nations.

⁴⁶“All our enemies have opened their mouths wide against us.

⁴⁷We have suffered terror and pitfalls, ruin and destruction.”

⁴⁸Streams of tears flow from my eyes because my people are destroyed.

⁴⁹My eyes will flow unceasingly, without relief,

⁵⁰until the LORD looks down from heaven and sees.

⁵¹What I see brings grief to my soul because of all the women of my city.

⁵²Those who were my enemies without cause hunted me like a bird.

⁵³They tried to end my life in a pit and threw stones at me;

⁵⁴the waters closed over my head, and I thought I was about to perish.

⁵⁵I called on your name, LORD, from the depths of the pit.

⁵⁶You heard my plea: “Do not close your ears to my cry for relief.”

⁵⁷You came near when I called you, and you said, “Do not fear.”

⁵⁸You, Lord, took up my case; you redeemed my life.

⁵⁹LORD, you have seen the wrong done to me. Uphold my cause!

⁶⁰You have seen the depth of their vengeance, all their plots against me.

⁶¹LORD, you have heard their insults, all their plots against me—

⁶²what my enemies whisper and mutter against me all day long.

⁶³Look at them! Sitting or standing, they mock me in their songs.

⁶⁴Pay them back what they deserve, LORD, for what their hands have done.

⁶⁵Put a veil over their hearts, and may your curse be on them!

⁶⁶Pursue them in anger and destroy them from under the heavens of the LORD.

¹How the gold has lost its luster, the fine gold become dull! The sacred gems are scattered at every street corner.

²How the precious children of Zion, once worth their weight in gold, are now considered as pots of clay, the work of a potter’s hands!

³Even jackals offer their breasts to nurse their young, but my people have become heartless like ostriches in the desert.

⁴Because of thirst the infant’s tongue sticks to the roof of its mouth; the children beg for bread, but no one gives it to them.

⁵Those who once ate delicacies are destitute in the streets. Those brought up in royal purple now lie on ash heaps.

⁶The punishment of my people is greater than that of Sodom, which was overthrown in a moment without a hand turned to help her.

⁷Their princes were brighter than snow and whiter than milk, their bodies more ruddy than rubies, their appearance like lapis lazuli.

⁸But now they are blacker than soot; they are not recognized in the streets. Their skin has shriveled on their bones; it has become as dry as a stick.

⁹Those killed by the sword are better off than those who die of famine; racked with hunger, they waste away for lack of food from the field.

¹⁰With their own hands compassionate women have cooked their own children, who became their food when my people were destroyed.

¹¹The LORD has given full vent to his wrath; he has poured out his fierce anger. He kindled a fire in Zion that consumed her foundations.

¹²The kings of the earth did not believe, nor did any of the peoples of the world, that enemies and foes could enter the gates of Jerusalem.

¹³But it happened because of the sins of her prophets and the iniquities of her priests, who shed within her the blood of the righteous.

¹⁴Now they grope through the streets as if they were blind. They are so defiled with blood that no one dares to touch their garments.

¹⁵“Go away! You are unclean!” people cry to them. “Away! Away! Don’t touch us!” When they flee and wander about, people among the nations say, “They can stay here no longer.”

¹⁶The LORD himself has scattered them; he no longer watches over them. The priests are shown no honor, the elders no favor.

¹⁷Moreover, our eyes failed, looking in vain for help; from our towers we watched for a nation that could not save us.

¹⁸People stalked us at every step, so we could not walk in our streets. Our end was near, our days were numbered, for our end had come.

¹⁹Our pursuers were swifter than eagles in the sky; they chased us over the mountains and lay in wait for us in the desert.

²⁰The LORD’s anointed, our very life breath, was caught in their traps. We thought that under his shadow we would live among the nations.

²¹Rejoice and be glad, Daughter Edom, you who live in the land of Uz. But to you also the cup will be passed; you will be drunk and stripped naked.

²²Your punishment will end, Daughter Zion; he will not prolong your exile. But he will punish your sin, Daughter Edom, and expose your wickedness.

¹Remember, LORD, what has happened to us; look, and see our disgrace.

²Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers, our homes to foreigners.

³We have become fatherless, our mothers are widows.

⁴We must buy the water we drink; our wood can be had only at a price.

⁵Those who pursue us are at our heels; we are weary and find no rest.

⁶We submitted to Egypt and Assyria to get enough bread.

⁷Our ancestors sinned and are no more, and we bear their punishment.

⁸Slaves rule over us, and there is no one to free us from their hands.

⁹We get our bread at the risk of our lives because of the sword in the desert.

¹⁰Our skin is hot as an oven, feverish from hunger.

¹¹Women have been violated in Zion, and virgins in the towns of Judah.

¹²Princes have been hung up by their hands; elders are shown no respect.

¹³Young men toil at the millstones; boys stagger under loads of wood.

¹⁴The elders are gone from the city gate; the young men have stopped their music.

¹⁵Joy is gone from our hearts; our dancing has turned to mourning.

¹⁶The crown has fallen from our head. Woe to us, for we have sinned!

¹⁷Because of this our hearts are faint, because of these things our eyes grow dim

¹⁸for Mount Zion, which lies desolate, with jackals prowling over it.

¹⁹You, LORD, reign forever; your throne endures from generation to generation.

²⁰Why do you always forget us? Why do you forsake us so long?

²¹Restore us to yourself, LORD, that we may return; renew our days as of old

²²unless you have utterly rejected us and are angry with us beyond measure.