To break my young men; He the winepress hath
Trod upon Judah’s daughter in His wrath.
16. For these things do I weep; mine eye, mine eye
Casts water out; for He which should be nigh
To comfort me, is now departed far;
The foe prevails, forlorn my children are.
17. There’s none, though Zion do stretch out her hand,
To comfort her; it is the Lord’s command
That Jacob’s foes girt him; Jerusalem
Is as an unclean woman amongst them.
18. But yet the Lord is just, and righteous still;
I have rebell’d against His holy will;
O hear all people, and my sorrow see,
My maids, my young men in captivity.
19. I called for my lovers then, but they
Deceived me, and my priests, and elders lay
Dead in the city; for they sought for meat
Which should refresh their souls, and none could get.
20. Because I am in straits, Jehovah, see!
My heart o’erturn’d, my bowels muddy be;
Because I have rebell’d so much, as fast
The sword without, as death within, doth waste.
21. Of all which here I mourn, none comforts me;
My foes have heard my grief, and glad they be,
That Thou hast done it; but Thy, promised day
Will come, when, as I suffer, so shall they.
22. Let all their wickedness appear to Thee;
Do unto them, as Thou hast done to me,
For all my sins; the sighs which I have had
Are very many, and my heart is sad.
Chapter II
1. How over Zion’s daughter hath God hung
His wrath’s thick cloud? and from heaven hath flung
To earth the beauty of Israel, and hath
Forgot His footstool in the day of wrath?
2. The Lord unsparingly hath swallowed
All Jacob’s dwellings, and demolished
To ground the strength of Judah, and profaned
The Princes of the kingdom, and the land.
3. In heat of wrath the horn of Israel He
Hath clean cut off, and lest the enemy
Be hinder’d, His right hand He doth retire,
But is towards Jacob all-devouring fire.
4. Like to an enemy He bent His bow;
His right hand was in posture of a foe,
To kill what Zion’s daughter did desire,
’Gainst whom His wrath He poured forth like fire.
5. For like an enemy Jehovah is,
Devouring Israel, and his palaces,
Destroying holds, giving additions
To Judah’s daughters’ lamentations.
6. Like to a garden hedge He hath cast down
The place where was His congregation,
And Zion’s feasts and sabbaths are forgot;
Her King, her Priest, His wrath regardeth not.
7. The Lord forsakes His altar, and detests
His sanctuary, and in the foes’ hands rests
His palace, and the walls, in which their cries
Are heard, as in the true solemnities.
8. The Lord hath cast a line, so to confound
And level Zion’s walls unto the ground;
He draws not back His hand, which doth o’erturn
The wall, and rampart, which together mourn.
9. Their gates are sunk into the ground, and He
Hath broke the bar; their king and princes be
Amongst the heathen, without law, nor there
Unto their prophets doth the Lord appear.
10. There Zion’s elders on the ground are placed,
And silence keep; dust on their heads they cast;
In sackcloth have they girt themselves, and low
The virgins towards ground their heads do throw.
11. My bowels are grown muddy, and mine eyes
Are faint with weeping; and my liver lies
Pour’d out upon the ground, for misery
That sucking children in the streets do die.
12. When they had cried unto their mothers, “Where
Shall we have bread, and drink?” they fainted there,
And in the street like wounded persons lay,
Till ’twixt their mothers’ breasts they went away.
13. Daughter Jerusalem, O what may be
A witness, or comparison for thee?
Zion, to ease thee, what shall I name like thee?
Thy breach is like the sea; what help can be?
14. For thee vain foolish things thy prophets sought;
Thee, thine iniquities they have not taught,
Which might disturb thy bondage; but for thee
False burdens, and false causes they would see.
15. The passengers do clap their hands, and hiss
And wag their head at thee, and say, “Is this
That city, which so many men did call
Joy of the earth, and perfectest of all?”
16. Thy foes do gape upon thee, and they hiss,
And gnash their teeth, and say, “Devour we this,
For this is certainly the day which we
Expected, and which now we find, and see.”
17. The Lord hath done that which He purposèd;
Fulfill’d His word of old determinèd;
He hath thrown down, and not spared, and thy foe
Made glad above thee, and advanced him so.
18. But now their hearts unto the Lord do call;
Therefore, O walls of Zion, let tears fall
Down like a river, day and night; take thee
No rest, but let thine eye incessant be.
19. Arise, cry in the night, pour out thy sins,
Thy heart, like water, when the watch begins;
Lift up thy hands to God, lest children die,
Which, faint for hunger, in the streets do lie.
20. Behold, O Lord, consider unto whom
Thou hast done this; what, shall the women come
To eat their children of a span? shall Thy
Prophet and priest be slain in sanctuary?
21. On ground in streets the young and old do lie;
My virgins and young men by sword do die;
Them in the day of Thy wrath Thou hast slain;
Nothing did Thee from killing them contain.
22. As to a solemn feast, all whom I fear’d
Thou call’st about me; when Thy wrath appear’d,
None did remain or scape, for those which I
Brought up, did perish by mine enemy.
Chapter III
1. I am the man which have affliction seen,
Under the rod of God’s wrath having been;
2. He hath led me to darkness, not to light,
3. And against me all day, His hand doth fight.
4. He hath broke my bones, worn out my flesh and skin,
5. Built up against me; and hath girt me in
With hemlock, and with labour; 6. And set me
In dark, as they who dead forever be.
7. He hath hedged me lest I ’scape, and added more
To my steel fetters heavier than before.
8. When I cry out He outshuts my prayer; 9. And hath
Stopp’d with hewn stone my way, and turn’d my path.
10. And like a lion hid in secrecy,
Or bear which lies in wait, He was to me.
11. He stops my way, tears me, made desolate;
12. And He makes me the mark He shooteth at.
13. He
