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Jerusalem in Affliction

  1How lonely sits the city
   That was full of people!
   How like a widow is she,
   Who was great among the nations!
   The princess among the provinces
   Has become a slave!
  2She weeps bitterly in the night,
   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 captivity,
   Under affliction and hard servitude;
   She dwells among the nations,
   She finds no rest;
   All her persecutors overtake her in dire straits.
  4The roads to Zion mourn
   Because no one comes to the set feasts.
   All her gates are desolate;
   Her priests sigh,
   Her virgins are afflicted,
   And she is in bitterness.
  5Her adversaries have become the master,
   Her enemies prosper;
   For the Lord has afflicted her
   Because of the multitude of her transgressions.
   Her children have gone into captivity before the enemy.
  6And from the daughter of Zion
   All her splendor has departed.
   Her princes have become like deer
   That find no pasture,
   That flee without strength
   Before the pursuer.
  7In the days of her affliction and roaming,
   Jerusalem remembers all her pleasant things
   That she had in the days of old.
   When her people fell into the hand of the enemy,
   With no one to help her,
   The adversaries saw her
   And mocked at her downfall.
  8Jerusalem has sinned gravely,
   Therefore she has become vile.
   All who honored her despise her
   Because they have seen her nakedness;
   Yes, she sighs and turns away.
  9Her uncleanness is in her skirts;
   She did not consider her destiny;
   Therefore her collapse was awesome;
   She had no comforter.
   “O Lord, behold my affliction,
   For the enemy is exalted!”
  10The adversary has spread his hand
   Over all her pleasant things;
   For she has seen the nations enter her sanctuary,
   Those whom You commanded
   Not to enter Your assembly.
  11All her people sigh,
   They seek bread;
   They have given their valuables for food to restore life.
   “See, O Lord, and consider,
   For I am scorned.”
  12Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by?
   Behold and see
   If there is any sorrow like my sorrow,
   Which has been brought on me,
   Which the Lord has inflicted
   In the day of His fierce anger.
  13“From above He has sent fire into my bones,
   And it overpowered them;
   He has spread a net for my feet
   And turned me back;
   He has made me desolate
   And faint all the day.
  14“The yoke of my transgressions was bound;
   They were woven together by His hands,
   And thrust upon my neck.
   He made my strength fail;
   The Lord delivered me into the hands of those whom I am not able to withstand.
  15“The Lord has trampled underfoot all my mighty men in my midst;
   He has called an assembly against me
   To crush my young men;
   The Lord trampled as in a winepress
   The virgin daughter of Judah.
  16“For these things I weep;
   My eye, my eye overflows with water;
   Because the comforter, who should restore my life,
   Is far from me.
   My children are desolate
   Because the enemy prevailed.”
  17Zion spreads out her hands,
   But no one comforts her;
   The Lord has commanded concerning Jacob
   That those around him become his adversaries;
   Jerusalem has become an unclean thing among them.
  18“The Lord is righteous,
   For I rebelled against His commandment.
   Hear now, all peoples,
   And behold my sorrow;
   My virgins and my young men
   Have gone into captivity.
  19“I called for my lovers,
   But they deceived me;
   My priests and my elders
   Breathed their last in the city,
   While they sought food
   To restore their life.
  20“See, O Lord, that I am in distress;
   My soul is troubled;
   My heart is overturned within me,
   For I have been very rebellious.
   Outside the sword bereaves,
   At home it is like death.
  21“They have heard that I sigh,
   But no one comforts me.
   All my enemies have heard of my trouble;
   They are glad that You have done it.
   Bring on the day You have announced,
   That they may become like me.
  22“Let all their wickedness come before You,
   And do to them as You have done to me
   For all my transgressions;
   For my sighs are many,
   And my heart is faint.”