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Lamentations

The Deserted City

1How lonely sits the city
   that once was full of people!
How like a widow she has become,
   she that was great among the nations!
She that was a princess among the provinces
   has become a vassal.

² She weeps bitterly in the night,
   with tears on her cheeks;
among all her lovers
   she has no one to comfort her;
all her friends have dealt treacherously with her,
   they have become her enemies.

³ Judah has gone into exile with suffering
   and hard servitude;
she lives now among the nations,
   and finds no resting-place;
her pursuers have all overtaken her
   in the midst of her distress.

⁴ The roads to Zion mourn,
   for no one comes to the festivals;
all her gates are desolate,
   her priests groan;
her young girls grieve,^*
   and her lot is bitter.

⁵ Her foes have become the masters,
   her enemies prosper,
because the Lord has made her suffer
   for the multitude of her transgressions;
her children have gone away,
   captives before the foe.

⁶ From daughter Zion has departed
   all her majesty.
Her princes have become like stags
   that find no pasture;
they fled without strength
   before the pursuer.

¹⁹ The thought of my affliction and my homelessness
   is wormwood and gall!
²⁰ My soul continually thinks of it
   and is bowed down within me.
²¹ But this I call to mind,
   and therefore I have hope:

²² The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases,^*
   his mercies never come to an end;
²³ they are new every morning;
   great is your faithfulness.
²⁴ ‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul,
   ‘therefore I will hope in him.’

²⁵ The Lord is good to those who wait for him,
   to the soul that seeks him.
²⁶ It is good that one should wait quietly
   for the salvation of the Lord.