Lamentations 1

¹How 1:1 This chapter is an acrostic poem, each verse beginning with the successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet. lonely lies the city,

²She weeps aloud in the night,

³Judah has gone into exile

⁴The roads to Zion mourn,

⁵Her foes have become her masters;

⁶All the splendor has departed

⁷In the days of her affliction and wandering

⁸Jerusalem has sinned greatly;

⁹Her uncleanness stains her skirts;

¹⁰The adversary has seized

¹¹All her people groan

¹²Is this nothing to you, all you who pass by?

¹³He sent fire from on high,

¹⁴My transgressions are bound into a yoke,1:14 Most Hebrew manuscripts; other Hebrew manuscripts and LXX He kept watch over my sins

¹⁵The Lord has rejected

¹⁶For these things I weep;

¹⁷Zion stretches out her hands,

¹⁸The LORD is righteous,

¹⁹I called out to my lovers,

²⁰See, O LORD, how distressed I am!

²¹People have heard my groaning,

²²Let all their wickedness come before You,