How doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people!
She is become as a widow, that was great among the nations!
She that was a princess among the provinces is become tributary!
She weepeth sore in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks;
Among all her lovers she hath none to comfort her:
All her friends have dealt treacherously with her; they are become her enemies.
Judah is gone into {Or, exile}captivity because of affliction, and because of great servitude;
She dwelleth among the nations, she findeth no rest:
All her persecutors overtook her within the straits.
The ways of Zion do mourn, because none come to the {Or, appointed feast}solemn assembly;
All her gates are desolate, her priests do sigh:
Her virgins are afflicted, and she herself is in bitterness.
Her adversaries are become the head, her enemies prosper;
For Jehovah hath afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions:
Her young children are gone into captivity before the adversary.
And from the daughter of Zion all her {Or, beauty}majesty is departed:
Her princes are become like harts that find no pasture,
And they are gone without strength before the pursuer.
Jerusalem remembereth in the days of her affliction and of her {Or, wanderings}miseries all her pleasant things that were from the days of old:
When her people fell into the hand of the adversary, and none did help her,
The adversaries saw her, they did mock at her {Hebrew: ceasings.}desolations.
Jerusalem hath grievously sinned; therefore she {Or, is removed}is become as an unclean thing;
All that honored her despise her, because they have seen her nakedness:
Yea, she sigheth, and turneth backward.
Her filthiness was in her skirts; she remembered not her latter end;
Therefore is she come down wonderfully; she hath no comforter:
Behold, O Jehovah, my affliction; for the enemy hath magnified himself.
The adversary hath spread out his hand upon all her pleasant things:
For she hath seen that the nations are entered into her sanctuary,
Concerning whom thou didst command that they should not enter into thine assembly.
All her people sigh, they seek bread;
They have given their pleasant things for food to refresh the soul:
See, O Jehovah, and behold; for I am become abject.
Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by?
Behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is brought upon me,
{Or, Whom Jehovah hath afflicted}Wherewith Jehovah hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger.
From on high hath he sent fire into my bones, and it prevaileth against them;
He hath spread a net for my feet, he hath turned me back:
He hath made me desolate and faint all the day.
The yoke of my transgressions is bound by his hand;
They are knit together, they are come up upon my neck; he hath made my strength to {Hebrew: stumble.}fail:
The Lord hath delivered me into their hands, {Or, from whom I am not able to rise up}against whom I am not able to stand.
The Lord hath set at nought all my mighty men in the midst of me;
He hath called a solemn assembly against me to crush my young men:
The Lord hath trodden as in a winepress the virgin daughter of Judah.
For these things I weep; mine eye, mine eye runneth down with water;
Because the comforter that should refresh my soul is far from me:
My children are desolate, because the enemy hath prevailed.
Zion spreadeth forth her hands; there is none to comfort her;
Jehovah hath commanded concerning Jacob, that they that are round about him should be his adversaries:
Jerusalem is among them as an unclean thing.
Jehovah is righteous; for I have rebelled against his commandment:
Hear, I pray you, all ye peoples, and behold my sorrow:
My virgins and my young men are gone into captivity.
I called for my lovers, but they deceived me:
My priests and mine elders gave up the ghost in the city,
While they sought them food to refresh their souls.
Behold, O Jehovah; for I am in distress; my heart is troubled;
My heart is turned within me; for I have grievously rebelled:
Abroad the sword bereaveth, at home there is as death.
They have heard that I sigh; there is none to comfort me;
All mine enemies have heard of my trouble; they are glad that thou hast done it:
Thou wilt bring the day that thou hast proclaimed, and they shall be like unto me.
Let all their wickedness come before thee;
And do unto them, as thou hast done unto me for all my transgressions:
For my sighs are many, and my heart is faint.
Querverweise zu Klagelieder 1,6 Klgl 1,6
This is the word that Jehovah hath spoken concerning him: The virgin daughter of Zion hath despised thee and laughed thee to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head {Hebrew: after.}at thee.
How hath the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger!He hath cast down from heaven unto the earth the beauty of Israel,And hath not remembered his footstool in the day of his anger.
The Lord hath swallowed up all the habitations of Jacob, and hath not pitied:He hath thrown down in his wrath the strongholds of the daughter of Judah;He hath brought them down to the ground; he hath profaned the kingdom and the princes thereof.
He hath cut off in fierce anger {Or, every horn}all the horn of Israel;He hath drawn back his right hand from before the enemy:And he hath burned up Jacob like a flaming fire, which devoureth round about.
He hath bent his bow like an enemy, he hath stood with his right hand as an adversary,And hath slain all that were pleasant to the eye: {Or, On}In the tent of the daughter of Zion he hath poured out his wrath like fire.
The Lord is become as an enemy, he hath swallowed up Israel;He hath swallowed up all her palaces, he hath destroyed his strongholds;And he hath multiplied in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation.
And he hath violently taken away his {Or, booth Or, hedge}tabernacle, as if it were of a garden; he hath destroyed his place of assembly:Jehovah hath caused {Or, appointed feast}solemn assembly and sabbath to be forgotten in Zion,And hath despised in the indignation of his anger the king and the priest.
The Lord hath cast off his altar, he hath abhorred his sanctuary;He hath given up into the hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces:They have made a noise in the house of Jehovah, as in the day of a solemn assembly.
And as for them that are left of you, I will send a faintness into their heart in the lands of their enemies: and the sound of a driven leaf shall chase them; and they shall flee, as one fleeth from the sword; and they shall fall when none pursueth.
Yea, the hind also in the field calveth, and forsaketh her young, because there is no grass.
Beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth,Is mount Zion, on the sides of the north,The city of the great King.
How much more, when wicked men have slain a righteous person in his own house upon his bed, shall I not now require his blood of your hand, and take you away from the earth?
And they shall stumble one upon another, as it were before the sword, when none pursueth: and ye shall have no power to stand before your enemies.
And the wild asses stand on the bare heights, they pant for air like {Or, the crocodile}jackals; their eyes fail, because there is no herbage.
God hath made himself known in her palaces for a {Or, high tower}refuge.
And David commanded his young men, and they slew them, and cut off their hands and their feet, and hanged them up beside the pool in Hebron. But they took the head of Ish-bosheth, and buried it in the grave of Abner in Hebron.
Jehovah will cause thee to be smitten before thine enemies; thou shalt go out one way against them, and shalt flee seven ways before them: and thou shalt be {Or, a terror unto all}tossed to and from among all the kingdoms of the earth.
At the noise of the stamping of the hoofs of his strong ones, at the rushing of his chariots, at the rumbling of his wheels, the fathers look not back to their children for feebleness of hands;
How is the faithful city become a harlot! she that was full of justice! righteousness lodged in her, but now murderers.
Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty,God hath shined forth.
How should one chase a thousand,And two put ten thousand to flight,Except their Rock had sold them,And Jehovah had delivered them up?
And Jehovah will create over {Or, every dwelling-place}the whole habitation of mount Zion, and over her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night; for over all the glory shall be spread a covering.
Oh worship Jehovah {Or, in the beauty of holiness}in holy array:Tremble before him, all the earth.
Therefore the children of Israel cannot stand before their enemies; they turn their backs before their enemies, because they are become accursed: I will not be with you any more, except ye destroy the devoted thing from among you.
Cry aloud and shout, thou {Hebrew: inhabitress.}inhabitant of Zion; for great in the midst of thee is the Holy One of Israel.
If thy children will keep my covenantAnd my testimony that I shall teach them,Their children also shall sit upon thy throne for evermore.
Up, sanctify the people, and say, Sanctify yourselves against to-morrow: for thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel, There is a devoted thing in the midst of thee, O Israel; thou canst not stand before thine enemies, until ye take away the devoted thing from among you.
Sing, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel; be glad and rejoice with all the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem.
Jehovah hath taken away thy judgments, he hath cast out thine enemy: the King of Israel, even Jehovah, is in the midst of thee; thou shalt not {Another reading is see.}fear evil any more.
In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem, Fear thou not; {Or, and to Zion}O Zion, let not thy hands be slack.
Jehovah thy God is in the midst of thee, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will {Hebrew: be silent.}rest in his love; he will joy over thee with singing.
For Jehovah hath chosen Zion;He hath desired it for his habitation.
But now thou hast cast us off, and brought us to dishonor,And goest not forth with our hosts.
Thou makest us to turn back from the adversary;And they that hate us take spoil for themselves.
Thou hast made us like sheep appointed for food,And hast scattered us among the nations.
But the army of the Chaldeans pursued after the king, and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho; and all his army was scattered from him.
Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, unto all the captivity, whom I have caused to be carried away captive from Jerusalem unto Babylon:
And he put out the eyes of Zedekiah; and the king of Babylon bound him in fetters, and carried him to Babylon, and put him in prison till the day of his death.
{Or, The cities are taken}Kerioth is taken, and the strongholds are seized, and the heart of the mighty men of Moab at that day shall be as the heart of a woman in her pangs.
And he burned the house of Jehovah, and the king's house; and all the houses of Jerusalem, even {Or, every great man's house}every great house, burned he with fire.
The mighty men of Babylon have forborne to fight, they remain in their strongholds; their might hath failed; they are become as women: her dwelling-places are set on fire; her bars are broken.
One post shall run to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to show the king of Babylon that his city is taken on every quarter:
and the {Or, fords}passages are seized, and the {Or, marshes}reeds they have burned with fire, and the men of war are affrighted.
As for the beauty of his ornament, {Or, they turned it to pride: and they &c.}he set it in majesty; but they made the images of their abominations and their detestable things {Or, thereof}therein: therefore have I made it unto them as an unclean thing.
And I will give it into the hands of the strangers for a prey, and to the wicked of the earth for a spoil; and they shall profane it.
My face will I turn also from them, and they shall profane my {Or, secret treasure}secret place; and robbers shall enter into it, and profane it.
Then a breach was made in the city, and all the men of war fled, and went forth out of the city by night by the way of the gate between the two walls, which was by the king's garden; now the Chaldeans were against the city round about); and they went toward the Arabah.
Then did the cherubim lift up their wings, and the wheels were {Or, over against}beside them; and the glory of the God of Israel was over them above.
And the glory of Jehovah went up from the midst of the city, and stood upon the mountain which is on the east side of the city.
Speak unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I will profane my sanctuary, the pride of your power, the desire of your eyes, and {Hebrew: the pity of your soul.}that which your soul pitieth; and your sons and your daughters whom ye have left behind shall fall by the sword.
And thou, son of man, shall it not be in the day when I take from them their {Or, stronghold}strength, the joy of their {Or, beauty}glory, the desire of their eyes, and {Hebrew: the lifting up of their soul.}that whereupon they set their heart, their sons and their daughters,