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 1,16 Klgl 1,16
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.
Though they bring up their children, yet will I bereave them, so that not a man shall be left: yea, woe also to them when I depart from them!
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.
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.
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.
Mine eyes do fail with tears, my heart is troubled;My liver is poured upon the earth, because of the {Or, breach}destruction of the daughter of my people,Because the young children and the sucklings swoon in the streets of the city.
See, O Jehovah, and behold to whom thou hast done thus!Shall the women eat their fruit, the children that are dandled in the hands?Shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord?
The youth and the old man lie on the ground in the streets;My virgins and my young men are fallen by the sword:Thou hast slain them in the day of thine anger; thou hast slaughtered, and not pitied.
Thou hast called, as in the day of a solemn assembly, my terrors on every side;And there was none that escaped or remained in the day of Jehovah's anger:Those that I have dandled and brought up hath mine enemy consumed.
Their heart cried unto the Lord:O wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears run down like a river day and night;Give thyself no respite; let not the apple of thine eye cease.
The precious sons of Zion, {Hebrew: that may be weighted against.}comparable to fine gold,How are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter!
Even the jackals draw out the breast, they give suck to their young ones:The daughter of my people is become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness.
The tongue of the sucking child cleaveth to the roof of his mouth for thirst:The young children ask bread, and no man breaketh it unto them.
They that did feed delicately are desolate in the streets:They that were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghills.
For the {Or, the punishment of the inquity}iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than {Or, the punishment of sin}the sin of Sodom,That was overthrown as in a moment, and no hands {Or, fell See 2 Samuel 2:29. }were laid upon her.
Her {Or, Nazirites}nobles were purer than snow, they were whiter than milk;They were more ruddy in body than {Or, corals}rubies, their polishing was as of sapphire.
Their visage is {Hebrew: darker than blackness.}blacker than a coal; they are not known in the streets:Their skin cleaveth to their bones; it is withered, it is become like a stick.
They that are slain with the sword are better than they that are slain with hunger;For these {Hebrew: flow away.}pine away, stricken through, for want of the fruits of the field.
The hands of the pitiful women have boiled their own children;They were their food in the destruction of the daughter of my people.
Mine eye runneth down with streams of water, for the destruction of the daughter of my people.
For death is come up into our windows, it is entered into our palaces; to cut off the children from without, and the young men from the streets.
Mine eye poureth down, and ceaseth not, without any intermission,
Streams of water run down mine eyes,Because they observe not thy law.
{[chapter 8:23. in Hebrew]} {Or, Oh that I were in the wilderness, in &c.}Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people! {[chapter 9:1. in Hebrew]}
For the mountains will I take up a weeping and wailing, and for the pastures of the wilderness a lamentation, because they are burned up, so that none passeth through; neither can men hear the voice of the cattle; both the birds of the heavens and the beasts are fled, they are gone.
But if ye will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret for your pride; and mine eye shall weep sore, and run down with tears, because Jehovah's flock is taken captive.
And thou shalt say this word unto them, Let mine eyes run down with tears night and day, and let them not cease; for the virgin daughter of my people is broken with a great breach, with a very grievous wound.
And when he drew nigh, he saw the city and wept over it,
saying, {Or, O that thou hadst known}If thou hadst known in {Some ancient authorities read this thy day.}this day, even thou, the things which belong unto {Some ancient authorities read thy peace.}peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes.
For the days shall come upon thee, when thine enemies shall cast up a {Greek: palisade.}bank about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side,
and shall dash thee to the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.
I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience bearing witness with me in the Holy Spirit,
that I have great sorrow and unceasing pain in my heart.
For I could {Or, pray}wish that I myself were anathema from Christ for my brethren's sake, my kinsmen according to the flesh: