Dual PanelSorrows of captive Zion
1HOW DESERTED lies the city, once thronging with people! Once great among nations, now become a widow; once queen among provinces, now put to forced labour!
2She weeps bitterly in the night; tears run down her cheeks. Among all who loved her she has no one to bring her comfort. Her friends have all betrayed her; they have become her enemies.
3Judah has wasted away through affliction and endless servitude. Living among the nations, she has found no resting-place; her persecutors all fell on her in her sore distress.
4The approaches to Zion mourn, for no pilgrims attend her sacred feasts; all her gates are desolate. Her priests groan, her maidens are made to suffer. How bitter is her fate!
5Her adversaries have become her masters, her enemies take their ease, for the LORD has made her suffer because of her countless sins. Her young children are gone, taken captive by an adversary.
6All splendour has vanished from the daughter of Zion. Her princes have become like deer that can find no pasture. They run on, their strength spent, pursued by the hunter.
7In the days of Jerusalem's misery and restlessness she called to mind all the treasures which were hers from days of old, when her people fell into the power of adversaries and she had no one to help her. The adversaries looked on, laughing at her downfall.
8Jerusalem, greatly sinning, was treated like a filthy rag. All who had honoured her held her cheap, now they had seen her nakedness. What could she do but groan and turn away?
9Uncleanness afflicted her body, and she gave no thought to her fate. Her fall was beyond belief and there was no one to comfort her. “Look, LORD, on my misery, for the enemy has triumphed.”
10The adversary stretched out his hand to seize all her treasures. Indeed she saw Gentiles invade her sanctuary, Gentiles forbidden by you to enter the assembly, for it was yours.
11All her people groaned, they begged for bread; they bartered their treasures for food to regain their strength. “Look, LORD, and see how cheap I am accounted.
12“Is it nothing to you, you passers-by? If only you would look and see: is there any agony like mine, like these torments which the LORD made me suffer on the day of his fierce anger?
13“From heaven he sent down fire, which ran through my bones; he spread out a net to catch my feet, and turned me back; he made me an example of desolation, racked with sickness all day long.
14“My sins were bound like a yoke tied fast by his own hand; set upon my neck, it caused my strength to fail. The LORD abandoned me to my sins, and in their grip I could not stand.
15“The Lord treated with scorn all the mighty men within my walls; he marshalled rank on rank against me to crush my young warriors. The Lord trod down, like grapes in the winepress, the virgin daughter of Judah.
16“This is why I weep over my plight, why tears stream from my eyes: because any who might comfort me and renew my strength are far away from me; my children have become desolate, for the enemy is victorious.”
17Zion lifted her hands in prayer, but there was no one to comfort her; the LORD ordered Jacob's enemies to beset him on every side. In their midst Jerusalem became an unclean thing to be shunned.
18“The LORD was in the right, for I rebelled against his command. Listen, all you nations, and look on my agony: my maidens and my young men are gone into captivity.
19“I called to my lovers, but they let me down; my priests and my elders perished in the city while seeking food to keep themselves alive.
20“LORD, see how sorely distressed I am. My bowels writhe in anguish and my heart within me turns over, because I wantonly rebelled. In the street the sword brings bereavement, like the plague within the house.
21“People have heard when I groan with no one to comfort me. My enemies, hearing of my plight, all rejoiced at what you had done. Hasten the day you have promised when they will suffer as I do!
22“Let all their evil deeds come before you; torment them in their turn, as you have tormented me on account of all my sins; for I groan continually and I am sick at heart.”