Lamentations 1:1-11

How lonely sits the city once thronged with people! Once great among the nations, she is now lonely like a widow. Once a fair princess ruling among the provinces, now a shackled servant. She is weeping bitterly through the night, with tears streaming down her cheeks. Among all her lovers, not one can be found to comfort her. Her friends have all betrayed her and have now become her enemies. Judah’s people have gone into exile under harsh labor and much pain. They found no place to rest living among foreigners. All their enemies have seized them in the narrow passes. The empty roads to Zion mourn, for no one travels to her sacred feasts anymore. The singing maidens suffer, and the priests can only groan. The city gates stand empty, and Zion can only moan. Her foes have the upper hand while her enemies are now at ease. For YAHWEH has made Jerusalem suffer for her many, many sins. Her young children are taken into captivity as captives before the oppressor. All the splendor has departed from the fair daughter of Zion. Her princes are like deer that find no pasture. Weak and weary they stumble, unable to flee from those who pursue them. In her days of wandering and affliction, Jerusalem still remembers all her precious treasures that were hers from days gone by. When the enemies defeated her people, there was no one to help her. Her conquerors looked on, jeering and cheering at her downfall. Jerusalem has committed a horrible sin and has become an object of scorn. All who once honored her now despise her, for they have seen her nakedness. Shunned, she groans aloud and turns to hide her face in shame. Her filth stains her skirts— she never pictured this outcome. Therefore, her fall is terrible with no one to comfort her. Jerusalem groans, “YAHWEH, look how miserable I am; all the while my enemy gloats!” The enemy has seized all her precious treasures. Before her very eyes she witnessed foreigners enter her holy sanctuary, although you had forbidden them ever to enter your assembly. Everyone is groaning, longing for anything to eat; they have traded their treasures for food in order to keep themselves alive.