Lamentations

Lamentations

Lamentations consists of five poems:

Chapters 1–4 are alphabetic acrostics (each verse begins with a successive Hebrew letter).

———

Chapter 5 breaks the pattern—chaotic, like the state of the nation.

This structure is not only literary—it is theological:

Even grief has order before God. Until it breaks.

The voice alternates between Zion, the narrator, and sometimes a chorus.

It mourns sin, exile, starvation, desecration—and yet, in the center (3:21–23), a spark:

“The steadfast love of YHWH never ceases…”

Lamentations teaches us that even when all is lost, God is still to be sought—in silence, in ash, in prayer.

(Each verse begins with successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet — acrostic structure preserved. This is sacred poetry of exile and sorrow.)

———

א (Aleph)

How lonely sits the city,

once full of people!

She has become like a widow,

she who was great among the nations.

The princess among provinces

has become a slave.

ב (Bet)

She weeps bitterly in the night,

with tears on her cheeks.

Among all her lovers

there is none to comfort her.

All her friends have dealt treacherously;

they have become her enemies.

ג (Gimel)

Judah has gone into exile

because of affliction and harsh servitude.

She dwells among the nations,

but finds no resting place.

All her pursuers have overtaken her

in the midst of distress.

ד (Dalet)

The roads to Zion mourn,

for none come to her appointed feasts.

All her gates are desolate;

her priests groan.

Her virgins are afflicted,

and she herself is in bitter anguish.

ה (He)

Her adversaries have become the head;

her enemies prosper,

for YHWH has afflicted her

because of the multitude of her transgressions.

Her little ones have gone away

captive before the foe.

ו (Vav)

From daughter Zion

all her splendor has departed.

Her princes have become like deer

that find no pasture;

they fled without strength

before the pursuer.

ז (Zayin)

Jerusalem remembers

in the days of her affliction and wandering

all the treasures that were hers from days of old.

When her people fell into the hand of the foe,

there was none to help her.

Her adversaries saw her

and mocked at her downfall.

ח (Chet)

Jerusalem has grievously sinned;

therefore she has become filthy.

All who honored her despise her,

for they have seen her nakedness.

She herself groans

and turns her face away.

ט (Tet)

Her uncleanness was in her skirts;

she took no thought of her future.

Her fall was astonishing;

there was no one to comfort her.

“Look, O YHWH, on my affliction,

for the enemy has triumphed!”

י (Yod)

The enemy has stretched out his hands

over all her precious things.

She has seen the nations

enter her sanctuary—

those whom You forbade

to enter Your congregation.

כ (Kaf)

All her people groan

as they search for bread;

they trade their treasures for food

to revive their soul.

“Look, O YHWH, and see,

for I am despised!”

ל (Lamed)

Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by?

Look and see

if there is any sorrow like my sorrow,

which was brought upon me,

which YHWH inflicted

on the day of His fierce anger.

מ (Mem)

From on high He sent fire

into my bones;

He spread a net for my feet;

He turned me back.

He has left me stunned,

faint all the day long.

נ (Nun)

My transgressions are bound into a yoke;

by His hand they are fastened together.

They have come up upon my neck;

He has caused my strength to fail.

The Master has given me

into the hands of those I cannot withstand.

ס (Samekh)

YHWH has rejected

all my mighty men in the midst of me.

He has summoned an assembly against me

to crush my young warriors.

YHWH has trodden

as in a winepress the virgin daughter of Judah.

ע (Ayin)

For these things I weep;

my eyes flow with tears;

for a comforter is far from me,

one to revive my soul.

My children are desolate,

for the enemy has prevailed.

פ (Pe)

Zion stretches out her hands,

but there is none to comfort her.

YHWH has commanded

against Jacob that his neighbors

should be his foes;

Jerusalem has become

a filthy thing among them.

צ (Tsade)

YHWH is righteous,

for I have rebelled against His word.

Hear, all you peoples,

and behold my sorrow;

my young women and young men

have gone into captivity.

ק (Qof)

I called to my lovers,

but they deceived me;

my priests and elders perished in the city

while seeking food

to revive their soul.

ר (Resh)

Look, O YHWH, for I am in distress;

my innermost being is troubled.

My heart is turned within me,

for I have been very rebellious.

In the street the sword bereaves;

in the house it is like death.

ש (Shin)

They heard my groaning,

yet there is no one to comfort me.

All my enemies heard of my trouble;

they rejoiced that You have done it.

You have brought the day You announced;

now let them be as I am.

ת (Tav)

Let all their evil come before You;

deal with them as You have dealt with me

because of all my transgressions.

For my groans are many,

and my heart is faint.

———

א (Aleph)

How the Master in His anger

has covered daughter Zion with a cloud!

He has cast down from heaven to earth

the splendor of Israel,

and has not remembered His footstool

on the day of His wrath.

ב (Bet)

YHWH has swallowed up without mercy

all the habitations of Jacob;

in His wrath He has broken down

the strongholds of daughter Judah;

He has brought down to the ground in dishonor

the kingdom and its rulers.

ג (Gimel)

In fierce anger He has cut down

all the might of Israel;

He has withdrawn His right hand

from before the enemy;

He has burned like a flaming fire in Jacob,

consuming all around.

ד (Dalet)

He bent His bow like an enemy,

with His right hand set like a foe;

He slew all who were pleasant to the eye;

in the tent of daughter Zion

He poured out His wrath like fire.

ה (He)

YHWH has become like an enemy;

He has swallowed up Israel;

He has swallowed up all her palaces;

He has laid in ruins her strongholds,

and multiplied mourning and lamentation

in daughter Judah.

ו (Vav)

He has laid waste His booth like a garden;

He has destroyed His meeting place;

YHWH has made Zion forget

festival and Sabbath,

and in His fierce indignation

has spurned king and priest.

ז (Zayin)

The Master has scorned His altar;

He has disowned His sanctuary;

He has delivered into the hand of the enemy

the walls of her palaces;

they raised a shout in the house of YHWH

as on a feast day.

ח (Chet)

YHWH determined to lay in ruins

the wall of daughter Zion;

He stretched out the measuring line;

He did not restrain His hand from destroying;

He caused rampart and wall to lament;

they languished together.

ט (Tet)

Her 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 find no vision from YHWH.

י (Yod)

The elders of daughter Zion

sit on the ground in silence;

they throw dust on their heads

and wear sackcloth;

the virgins of Jerusalem

bow their heads to the ground.

כ (Kaf)

My eyes are spent with weeping;

my stomach churns;

my bile is poured out on the ground

because of the destruction

of the daughter of my people,

because infants and babies

faint in the streets of the city.

ל (Lamed)

They cry to their mothers,

“Where is bread and wine?”

as they faint like the wounded

in the streets of the city,

as their life is poured out

on their mothers’ bosom.

מ (Mem)

What can I say for you,

to what can I compare you,

O daughter Jerusalem?

To what can I liken you,

that I may comfort you,

O virgin daughter of Zion?

For your ruin is as vast as the sea;

who can heal you?

נ (Nun)

Your 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

that are false and misleading.

ס (Samekh)

All who pass along the way

clap their hands at you;

they hiss and wag their heads

at daughter Jerusalem:

“Is this the city that was called

the perfection of beauty,

the joy of all the earth?”

ע (Ayin)

All your enemies

open their mouths against you;

they hiss, they gnash their teeth,

they cry, “We have swallowed her!

Ah, this is the day we longed for;

now we have it; we see it!”

פ (Pe)

YHWH has done what He purposed;

He has carried out His word

which He commanded long ago;

He has thrown down without pity;

He has made the enemy rejoice over you

and exalted the might of your foes.

צ (Tsade)

The heart of the people cried out to YHWH:

“O wall of daughter Zion,

let tears stream down like a river day and night!

Give yourself no rest,

your eyes no respite!”

ק (Qof)

Arise, cry out in the night,

at the beginning of the watches!

Pour out your heart like water

before the face of YHWH!

Lift your hands to Him

for the lives of your children,

who faint for hunger

at the head of every street.

ר (Resh)

Look, YHWH, and see!

To whom have You done this?

Should women eat the fruit of their womb,

the children they have held?

Should priest and prophet be killed

in the sanctuary of YHWH?

ש (Shin)

On the ground in the streets

lie young and old;

my young women and young men

have fallen by the sword;

You have killed them

in the day of Your anger,

slaughtering without pity.

ת (Tav)

You summoned as on a festival day

terrors all around me,

and on the day of YHWH’s wrath

no one escaped or survived;

those whom I bore and raised

my enemy destroyed.

———

Chapter 3 — I Am the Man Who Has Seen Affliction

(Aleph א)

I am the man who has seen affliction

under the rod of His wrath;

He has driven me and made me walk

in darkness without light;

surely against me He turns His hand again and again

all the day long.

(Bet ב)

He has worn away my flesh and my skin;

He has broken my bones.

He has besieged and surrounded me

with bitterness and hardship.

He has made me dwell in dark places

like those long dead.

(Gimel ג)

He has walled me in so I cannot escape;

He has made my chains heavy.

Even when I cry out and plead,

He shuts out my prayer.

He has blocked my ways with hewn stones;

He has made my paths crooked.

(Dalet ד)

He is to me like a bear lying in wait,

like a lion hiding.

He turned aside my steps and tore me to pieces;

He has made me desolate.

He bent His bow and set me

as a target for His arrow.

(He ה)

He drove into my kidneys

the arrows of His quiver.

I have become the laughingstock of all peoples,

the object of their taunts all day long.

He has filled me with bitterness,

sated me with wormwood.

(Vav ו)

He has made my teeth grind on gravel

and made me cower in ashes.

My soul is deprived of peace;

I have forgotten what happiness is.

So I say, “My strength is gone,

and so is my hope from YHWH.”

(Zayin ז)

Remember my affliction and my wanderings,

the wormwood and the gall!

My soul remembers them well

and is bowed down within me.

But this I recall to mind,

and therefore I have hope:

(Chet ח)

The steadfast love of YHWH never ceases;

His mercies never come to an end;

they are new every morning;

great is Your faithfulness.

“YHWH is my portion,” says my soul,

“therefore I will hope in Him.”

(Tet ט)

YHWH is good to those who wait for Him,

to the soul who seeks Him.

It is good to wait silently

for the salvation of YHWH.

It is good for a person

to bear the yoke in youth.

(Yod י)

Let him sit alone in silence

when it is laid upon him.

Let him put his mouth in the dust—

there may yet be hope.

Let him give his cheek to the one who strikes,

and be filled with reproach.

(Kaf כ)

For the Master will not reject forever.

Though He cause grief, He will have compassion

according to the abundance of His steadfast love;

for He does not afflict from His heart

or grieve the children of men.

(Lamed ל)

To crush under foot

all the prisoners of the earth,

to turn aside the right of a man

in the face of the Most High,

to subvert a person in his lawsuit—

the Master does not approve.

(Mem מ)

Who has spoken, and it came to pass,

unless YHWH has commanded it?

Is it not from the mouth of the Most High

that good and bad come?

Why should a living human complain,

a man, about the punishment of his sins?

(Nun נ)

Let us search and examine our ways,

and turn again to YHWH.

Let us lift up our hearts and hands

to God in heaven:

“We have transgressed and rebelled,

and You have not forgiven.”

(Samekh ס)

You have wrapped Yourself with anger and pursued us;

You have slain without pity.

You have wrapped Yourself with a cloud

so that no prayer can pass through.

You have made us scum and refuse

among the peoples.

(Ayin ע)

All our enemies open their mouths against us;

panic and pitfall have come upon us,

devastation and destruction.

My eyes flow with rivers of tears

for the destruction of the daughter of my people.

(Pe פ)

My eyes will flow without ceasing,

without respite,

until YHWH from heaven

looks down and sees.

My eyes cause me grief

at the fate of all the daughters of my city.

(Tsade צ)

I have been hunted like a bird

by those who were my enemies without cause;

they flung me alive into the pit

and cast stones on me.

Water closed over my head;

I said, “I am lost.”

(Qof ק)

I called on Your name, O YHWH,

from the depths of the pit.

You heard my plea,

“Do not close Your ear to my cry for help!”

You came near when I called on You;

You said, “Do not fear!”

(Resh ר)

You have taken up my cause, O Master;

You have redeemed my life.

You have seen the wrong done to me, O YHWH;

judge my cause.

You have seen all their vengeance,

all their plots against me.

(Shin ש)

You have heard their taunts, O YHWH,

all their schemes against me—

the lips of my assailants

and their whispering against me all day long.

Behold their sitting and their rising;

I am the object of their mocking song.

(Tav ת)

You will repay them, O YHWH,

according to the work of their hands.

You will give them dullness of heart;

Your curse will be on them.

You will pursue them in anger and destroy them

from under the heavens, O YHWH.

———

How the gold has become dim!

How the pure gold is changed!

The sacred stones lie scattered

at the head of every street.

The precious sons of Zion,

once worth their weight in fine gold,

how they are regarded as earthen pots,

the work of a potter’s hands!

Even jackals offer the breast;

they nurse their young.

But the daughter of my people has become cruel,

like the ostriches in the wilderness.

The tongue of the nursing infant

sticks to the roof of its mouth for thirst;

the children beg for bread,

but no one gives to them.

Those who once feasted on delicacies

perish in the streets;

those brought up in scarlet

embrace ash heaps.

The punishment of the daughter of my people

is greater than the punishment of Sodom,

which was overthrown in a moment,

with no hand laid on her.

Her princes were purer than snow,

whiter than milk;

their bodies were more ruddy than coral,

their appearance like sapphire.

Now their face is blacker than soot;

they are not recognized in the streets.

Their skin has shriveled on their bones;

it has become dry as wood.

Happier were the victims of the sword

than the victims of hunger,

who wasted away,

pierced by lack of the fruits of the field.

The hands of compassionate women

have boiled their own children;

they became their food

during the destruction of the daughter of my people.

YHWH gave full vent to His wrath;

He poured out His fierce anger;

He kindled a fire in Zion

that consumed its foundations.

The kings of the earth did not believe,

nor any of the world’s inhabitants,

that the foe could enter

the gates of Jerusalem.

This was for the sins of her prophets

and the iniquities of her priests,

who shed the blood of the righteous

in her midst.

They wandered, blind, through the streets;

they were so defiled with blood

that no one could touch their garments.

“Away! Unclean!” people cried at them.

“Away, away, do not touch!”

So they became fugitives and wanderers;

people said among the nations,

“They shall stay with us no longer.”

YHWH Himself has scattered them;

He will regard them no more.

They did not honor the priests;

they showed no favor to the elders.

Our eyes failed, ever watching vainly for help;

in our watching we watched

for a nation that could not save.

They hunted our steps

so that we could not walk in our streets;

our end drew near;

our days were finished, for our end had come.

Our pursuers were swifter

than the eagles of the heavens;

they chased us on the mountains;

they lay in wait for us in the wilderness.

The breath of our nostrils,

YHWH’s anointed, was captured in their pits,

he of whom we said,

“Under his shadow we shall live among the nations.”

Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom,

you who dwell in the land of Uz;

but to you also the cup shall pass;

you shall become drunk and strip yourself bare.

The punishment of your iniquity, O daughter Zion, is accomplished;

He will keep you in exile no longer.

But your iniquity, O daughter Edom, He will punish;

He will uncover your sins.

———

Remember, O YHWH, what has befallen us;

look, and see our disgrace!

Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers,

our homes to foreigners.

We have become orphans, fatherless;

our mothers are like widows.

We must pay for the water we drink;

the wood we get must be bought.

We are pursued; we are weary;

we are given no rest.

We have given the hand to Egypt,

and to Assyria, to get bread enough.

Our fathers sinned, and are no more,

and we bear their iniquities.

Slaves rule over us;

there is no one to deliver us from their hand.

We get our bread at the peril of our lives,

because of the sword in the wilderness.

Our skin is hot as an oven

with the burning heat of famine.

Women are raped in Zion,

young women in the towns of Judah.

Princes are hung up by their hands;

no respect is shown to the elders.

Young men are forced to grind at the mill,

and boys stagger under loads of wood.

The old men have left the city gate,

the young men their music.

The joy of our hearts has ceased;

our dancing has been turned to mourning.

The crown has fallen from our head;

woe to us, for we have sinned!

For this our heart has become faint,

for these things our eyes have grown dim,

for Mount Zion, which lies desolate;

jackals prowl over it.

But You, O YHWH, reign forever;

Your throne endures to all generations.

Why do You forget us forever,

why forsake us for so many days?

Restore us to Yourself, O YHWH, that we may return!

Renew our days as of old—

unless You have utterly rejected us,

and are exceedingly angry with us.