Day 293 of 365

¹ALEPH How the city sits solitary, that was full of people! She has become as a widow, who was great among the nations! She who was a princess among the provinces has become a forced laborer!

²She weeps bitterly in the night, and her tears are 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 harsh servitude; she dwells among the nations, she finds no rest: all her persecutors overtook her in the midst of her distress.

⁴The roads to Zion mourn, because no one comes to the solemn assembly; all her gates are desolate, her priests groan: her virgins are afflicted, and she herself is in bitterness.

⁵Her adversaries have become the head, her enemies prosper; for the Lord has afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions: her young children have gone into captivity before the adversary.

⁶All majesty has departed from the daughter of Zion: her leaders have become like deer that find no pasture, they fled exhausted before the pursuer.

⁷Jerusalem remembers in the days of her affliction and wandering all her precious things that were from the days of old: when her people fell into the hand of the adversary, and no one helped her. The adversaries saw her, they mocked at her desolations.

⁸Jerusalem has grievously sinned; therefore she has become as an unclean thing; all who honored her despise her, because they have seen her nakedness: yes, she groans, and turns away.

⁹Her filthiness was in her skirts; she did not remember her latter end; therefore her fall was astonishing; she has no comforter. "Look, Lord, on my affliction, for the enemy has magnified himself."

¹⁰The adversary has spread out his hand on all her precious things: for she has seen that the nations have entered into her sanctuary, concerning whom you commanded that they should not enter into your assembly.

¹¹All her people sigh, they seek bread; they have given their precious things for food to refresh the soul. "Look, Lord, and see, for I am despised."

¹²Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look, and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow, which is brought on me, with which the Lord has afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger.

¹³From on high he has sent fire into my bones, and it overcame them. He has spread a net for my feet, he has turned me back. He has made me desolate and faint all the day.

¹⁴My transgressions are bound into a yoke; by his hand they are fastened together, they are set upon my neck; he has made my strength to fail. The Lord has delivered me into their hands, against whom I am not able to stand.

¹⁵The Lord has rejected all my mighty men in my midst; he has called a solemn assembly against me to crush my young men. The Lord has trodden as in a winepress the virgin daughter of Judah.

¹⁶For these things I weep; my eyes, my eyes flow with tears; because the comforter who should refresh my soul is far from me. My children are desolate, because the enemy has prevailed.

¹⁷Zion spreads forth her hands; there is none to comfort her. The Lord has commanded concerning Jacob, that those who are around him should be his adversaries. Jerusalem is among them as an unclean thing.

¹⁸The Lord is righteous, for I have rebelled against his commandment. Please listen all you people, and see my suffering. My virgins and my young men have gone into captivity.

¹⁹I called for my lovers, but they deceived me. My priests and my elders perished in the city, while they searched for food to refresh their souls.

²⁰See, Lord, for I am in distress; my stomach churns; my heart is turned within me; for I have grievously rebelled. Outside the sword bereaves, inside there is death.

²¹They have heard that 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 the day that you have proclaimed, so that they shall end up like me.

²²Let all their wickedness come before you. Do to them, as you have done to me for all my transgressions. For my groans are many, and my heart is faint.

¹ALEPH How the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger! He has cast down from heaven to the earth the splendor of Israel, and hasn't remembered his footstool in the day of his anger.

²The Lord has swallowed up all the habitations of Jacob, and has not pitied. He has thrown down in his wrath the strongholds of the daughter of Judah. He has brought them down to the ground; he has humiliated the kingdom and its princes.

³He has cut off in fierce anger all the strength of Israel. He has drawn back his right hand before the enemy. He has blazed in Jacob like a flaming fire, which devours all around.

⁴He has bent his bow like an enemy; his right hand he has positioned like an adversary. He killed all that were pleasant to the eye. In the tent of the daughter of Zion he has poured out his wrath like fire.

⁵The Lord has become as an enemy; he has swallowed up Israel; he has swallowed up all her palaces and has destroyed its strongholds. He has multiplied in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation.

⁶He has done violence to his temple, as if it were a garden; he has destroyed his place of assembly. The Lord has caused solemn assembly and Sabbath to be forgotten in Zion. He has spurned in his fierce anger the king and the priest.

⁷The Lord has rejected his altar, he has disowned his sanctuary, and has given up into the hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces. They have made a shout in the house of the Lord, as in the day of a solemn assembly.

⁸The Lord has determined to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion. He has stretched out the line, he has not withdrawn his hand from destroying. He has made the rampart and wall to lament; they languish together.

⁹Her gates are sunk into the ground; he has destroyed and broken her bars. Her king and her princes are among the nations where the law is no more, and her prophets find no vision from the Lord.

¹⁰The elders of the daughter of Zion sit on the ground in silence. They have cast up dust on their heads; they have clothed themselves with sackcloth. The virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground.

¹¹My eyes are worn out from weeping, my stomach is churning. My heart is poured on the earth, because of the destruction of the daughter of my people, because the young children and the infants faint in the streets of the city.

¹²They tell their mothers, "Where is grain and wine?" When they faint as the wounded in the streets of the city, as their lives fade away in their mothers' bosom.

¹³What shall I testify of you? What shall I liken to you, daughter of Jerusalem? What shall I compare to you, that I may comfort you, virgin daughter of Zion? For your ruin is great like the sea. Who can heal you?

¹⁴Your prophets have seen for you false and deceptive visions. They have not uncovered your iniquity, to bring back your captivity, but have seen for you false and misleading oracles.

¹⁵All that pass by clap their hands at you, they hiss and wag their head at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying, "Is this the city that men called 'The perfection of beauty,' 'The joy of the whole earth'?"

¹⁶All your enemies have opened wide their mouth against you. They hiss and gnash the teeth; they say, "We have swallowed her up. Certainly this is the day that we looked for; we have found, we have seen it."

¹⁷The Lord has done that which he purposed, he has fulfilled his word that he commanded in the days of old. He has thrown down, and has not pitied. He has caused the enemy to gloat over you and exalted the horn of your adversaries.

¹⁸Their heart cried to the Lord. O wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears run down like a river day and night. Give yourself no respite; do not let your tears cease.

¹⁹Arise, cry out in the night, at the beginning of the watches. Pour out your heart like water before the face of the Lord. Lift up your hands toward him for the life of your young children, that faint for hunger at the head of every street.

²⁰Look, Lord, and see to whom you have done like this! Shall the women eat their fruit, the children that are dandled in the hands? Shall the priest and the prophet be killed in the sanctuary of the Lord?

²¹The youth and the old man 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, without pity.

²²You have called, as in the day of a solemn assembly, my terrors on every side. There was none that escaped or remained in the day of the Lord's anger. Those that I have borne and brought up has my enemy destroyed.

¹ALEPH I am the man that has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.

²He has led me and caused me to walk in darkness, and not in light.

³Surely against me he turns his hand again and again all the day.

⁴My flesh and my skin he has made old; he has broken my bones.

⁵He has built against me, and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship.

⁶He has made me to dwell in dark places, like those that have been long dead.

⁷He has walled me in, so I can't escape; he has made my chains heavy.

⁸Yes, when I cry, and call for help, he shuts out my prayer.

⁹He has walled up my ways with cut stone; he has made my paths crooked.

¹⁰He is to me as a bear lying in wait, as a lion in hiding.

¹¹He has obstructed my path, and torn me in pieces; he has made me desolate.

¹²He has bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow.

¹³He has caused the arrows of his quiver to pierce my inward parts.

¹⁴I have become a laughingstock to all my people, and their song all the day.

¹⁵He has filled me with bitterness, he has given me in full measure wormwood.

¹⁶He has also broken my teeth with gravel; he has pressed me down in the dust.

¹⁷You have removed my soul far away from peace; I have forgotten what prosperity is.

¹⁸And I said, "My strength and my hope has perished from the Lord."

¹⁹Remember my affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall.

²⁰My soul considers them, and is depressed.

²¹But this I call to my mind; therefore I have hope:

²²The Lord's faithful love does not cease; his compassion does not fail.

²³They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

²⁴"The Lord is my portion," says my soul, "therefore will I hope in him."

²⁵The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul that seeks him.

²⁶It is good that a man should hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord.

²⁷It is good for a man that he bear the yoke while he is young.

²⁸Let him sit alone and keep silence when he is disciplining him.

²⁹Let him put his mouth to the dust, there may yet be hope.

³⁰Let him give his cheek to him who strikes him; let him be filled with insults.

³¹For the Lord will not reject forever.

³²For though he may cause grief, yet he will have compassion according to the abundance of his loving kindness.

³³For he is not predisposed to bring affliction or suffering to the children of men.

³⁴To crush under foot all the prisoners of the earth;

³⁵to deprive a man of justice before the face of the Most High,

³⁶to subvert a man in his cause, the Lord does not approve.

³⁷Who can speak a thing and have it come to pass, unless the Lord has commanded it?

³⁸Doesn't both calamity and good come out of the mouth of the Most High?

³⁹Why does a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?

⁴⁰Let us examine and search our ways, and return to the Lord.

⁴¹Let us lift up our heart with our hands to God in the heavens.

⁴²We have transgressed and have rebelled, and you have not forgiven.

⁴³You have covered yourself with anger and pursued us; you killed without sparing.

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

⁴⁵You have made us rubbish and refuse in the midst of the peoples.

⁴⁶All our enemies have opened their mouth wide against us.

⁴⁷Fear and the pit have come on us, devastation and destruction.

⁴⁸Streams of tears run down from my eyes because of the destruction of the daughter of my people.

⁴⁹My tears flow and do not cease, without respite,

⁵⁰until the Lord looks down and sees from heaven.

⁵¹My eyes bring my soul grief, because of all the daughters of my city.

⁵²They have chased me relentlessly like a bird, those who are my enemies without cause.

⁵³They have cut off my life in a pit, and have cast a stone on me.

⁵⁴Waters flowed over my head; I said, 'I am finished.'

⁵⁵I called on your name, Lord, out of the depths of the pit.

⁵⁶You heard my voice; do not hide your ear at my sighs, to my cry.

⁵⁷You drew near in the day that I called on you; you said, "Do not be afraid."

⁵⁸Lord, you have taken up the case for my soul; you have redeemed my life.

⁵⁹Lord, you have seen the wrong done to me; judge my case.

⁶⁰You have seen all their vengeance and all their plots against me.

⁶¹You have heard their insults, Lord, and all their plots against me.

⁶²The lips of those that rose up against me, and their plots against me all day long.

⁶³Behold their sitting down, and their rising up; I am their mocking song.

⁶⁴You will render to them what they deserve, Lord, according to the work of their hands.

⁶⁵You will give them hardness of heart as your curse to them.

⁶⁶You will pursue them in anger, and destroy them from under the heavens of the Lord.

¹Hear my prayer, Lord. Listen to my petitions. In your faithfulness and righteousness, relieve me.

²Do not enter into judgment with your servant, for in your sight no man living is righteous.

³For the enemy pursues my soul. He has struck my life down to the ground. He has made me live in dark places, as those who have been long dead.

⁴Therefore my spirit is overwhelmed within me. My heart within me is desolate.

⁵I remember the days of old. I meditate on all your doings. I contemplate the work of your hands.

⁶I spread forth my hands to you. My soul thirsts for you, like a parched land. Selah.

⁷Hurry to answer me, Lord. My spirit fails. Do not hide your face from me, so that I do not become like those who go down into the pit.

⁸Cause me to hear your loving kindness in the morning, for I trust in you. Cause me to know the way in which I should walk, for I lift up my soul to you.

⁹Deliver me, Lord, from my enemies. I flee to you to hide me.

¹⁰Teach me to do your will, for you are my God. Your Spirit is good. Lead me in the land of uprightness.

¹¹Revive me, Lord, for your name's sake. In your righteousness, bring my soul out of trouble.

¹²In your loving kindness, cut off my enemies, and destroy all those who afflict my soul, For I am your servant.

¹Every wise woman builds her house, but the foolish one tears it down with her own hands.

²He who walks in his uprightness fears the Lord, but he who is perverse in his ways despises him.

³The fool's talk brings a rod to his back, but the lips of the wise protect them.

⁴Where no oxen are, the crib is clean, but much increase is by the strength of the ox.

⁵A truthful witness will not lie, but a false witness pours out lies.

⁶A scoffer seeks wisdom, and doesn't find it, but knowledge comes easily to a discerning person.

⁷Stay away from a foolish man, for you won't find knowledge on his lips.

⁸The wisdom of the prudent is to think about his way, but the folly of fools is deceit.

⁹Fools mock at making atonement for sins, but among the upright there is good will.

¹⁰The heart knows its own bitterness and joy; he will not share these with a stranger.

¹¹The house of the wicked will be overthrown, but the tent of the upright will flourish.

¹²There is a way which seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.

¹³Even in laughter the heart may be sorrowful, and mirth may end in heaviness.

¹⁴The unfaithful will be repaid for his own ways; likewise a good man will be rewarded for his ways.

¹⁵A simple man believes everything, but the prudent man carefully considers his ways.

¹⁶A wise man fears, and shuns evil, but the fool is hotheaded and reckless.

¹⁷He who is quick to become angry will commit folly, and a crafty man is hated.

¹⁸The simple inherit folly, but the prudent are crowned with knowledge.

¹⁹The evil bow down before the good, and the wicked at the gates of the righteous.

²⁰The poor person is shunned even by his own neighbor, but the rich person has many friends.

²¹He who despises his neighbor sins, but blessed is he who has pity on the poor.

²²Do they not go astray who plot evil? But love and faithfulness belong to those who plan good.

²³In all hard work there is profit, but the talk of the lips leads only to poverty.

²⁴The crown of the wise is their riches, but the folly of fools crowns them with folly.

²⁵A truthful witness saves souls, but a false witness is deceitful.

²⁶In the fear of the Lord is a secure fortress, and he will be a refuge for his children.

²⁷The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, turning people from the snares of death.

²⁸In the multitude of people is the king's glory, but in the lack of people is the destruction of the prince.

²⁹He who is slow to anger has great understanding, but he who has a quick temper displays folly.

³⁰The life of the body is a heart at peace, but envy rots the bones.

³¹He who oppresses the poor shows contempt for his Maker, but he who is kind to the needy honors him.

³²The wicked is brought down in his calamity, but in death, the righteous has a refuge.

³³Wisdom rests in the heart of one who has understanding, and is even made known in the inward part of fools.

³⁴Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people.

³⁵The king's favor is toward a servant who deals wisely, but his wrath is toward one who causes shame.