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 1,18 Klgl 1,18
And Pharaoh sent, and called for Moses and Aaron, and said unto them, I have sinned this time: Jehovah is righteous, and I and my people are wicked.
We have transgressed and have rebelled; thou hast not pardoned.
and he cried unto the man of God that came from Judah, saying, Thus saith Jehovah, Forasmuch as thou hast {Or, rebelled against the word}been disobedient unto the mouth of Jehovah, and hast not kept the commandment which Jehovah thy God commanded thee,
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.
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.
The Rock, his work is perfect;For all his ways are justice:A God of faithfulness and without iniquity,Just and right is he.
If ye will fear Jehovah, and serve him, and hearken unto his voice, and not rebel against the commandment of Jehovah, {Or, then shall both ye…Jehovah your God: but &c.}and both ye and also the king that reigneth over you be followers of Jehovah your God, well:
And the generation to come, your children that shall rise up after you, and the foreigner that shall come from a far land, shall say, when they see the plagues of that land, and the sicknesses wherewith Jehovah hath made it sick;
and that the whole land thereof is brimstone, and salt, and a burning, that it is not sown, nor beareth, nor any grass groweth therein, like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which Jehovah overthrew in his anger, and in his wrath:
even all the nations shall say, Wherefore hath Jehovah done thus unto this land? what meaneth the heat of this great anger?
Then men shall say, Because they forsook the covenant of Jehovah, the God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them forth out of the land of Egypt,
and went and served other gods, and worshipped them, gods that they knew not, and that he had not {Hebrew: allotted.}given unto them:
therefore the anger of Jehovah was kindled against this land, to bring upon it all the curse that is written in this book;
and Jehovah rooted them out of their land in anger, and in wrath, and in great indignation, and cast them into another land, as at this day.
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.
And Adoni-bezek said, Threescore and ten kings, having their thumbs and their great toes cut off, gathered their food under my table: as I have done, so God hath requited me. And they brought him to Jerusalem, and he died there.
but if ye will not hearken unto the voice of Jehovah, but rebel against the commandment of Jehovah, then will the hand of Jehovah be against you, as it was against your fathers.
{Or, and this house shall be high; everyone &c.}And though this house is so high, yet shall every one that passeth by it be astonished, and shall hiss; and they shall say, Why hath Jehovah done thus unto this land, and to this house?
Thy sons and thy daughters shall be given unto another people; and thine eyes shall look, and fail with longing for them all the day: and there shall be nought in the power of thy hand.
The fruit of thy ground, and all thy labors, shall a nation which thou knowest not eat up; and thou shalt be only oppressed and crushed alway;
so that thou shalt be mad for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see.
Jehovah will smite thee in the knees, and in the legs, with a sore boil, whereof thou canst not be healed, from the sole of thy foot unto the crown of thy head.
Jehovah will bring thee, and thy king whom thou shalt set over thee, unto a nation that thou hast not known, thou nor thy fathers; and there shalt thou serve other gods, wood and stone.
And thou shalt become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword, among all the peoples whither Jehovah shall lead thee away.
Thou shalt carry much seed out into the field, and shalt gather little in; for the locust shall consume it.
Thou shalt plant vineyards and dress them, but thou shalt neither drink of the wine, nor gather the grapes; for the worm shall eat them.
Thou shalt have olive-trees throughout all thy borders, but thou shalt not anoint thyself with the oil; for thine olive shall cast its fruit.
Thou shalt beget sons and daughters, but they shall not be thine; for they shall go into captivity.
And after all that is come upon us for our evil deeds, and for our great guilt, seeing that thou our God hast punished us less than our iniquities deserve, and hast given us such a remnant,
For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as idolatry and teraphim. Because thou hast rejected the word of Jehovah, he hath also rejected thee from being king.
and they shall answer, Because they forsook Jehovah their God, who brought forth their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and laid hold on other gods, and worshipped them, and served them: therefore hath Jehovah brought all this evil upon them.
Howbeit thou art just in all that is come upon us; for thou hast dealt truly, but we have done wickedly;
let thine ear now be attentive, and thine eyes open, that thou mayest hearken unto the prayer of thy servant, which I pray before thee at this time, day and night, for the children of Israel thy servants while I confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against thee. Yea, I and my father's house have sinned:
we have dealt very corruptly against thee, and have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the ordinances, which thou commandedst thy servant Moses.
Remember, I beseech thee, the word that thou commandedst thy servant Moses, saying, If ye trespass, I will scatter you abroad among the peoples:
And many nations shall pass by this city, and they shall say every man to his neighbor, Wherefore hath Jehovah done thus unto this great city?
I know, O Jehovah, that thy judgments are righteous,And that in faithfulness thou hast afflicted me.
Nevertheless they were disobedient, and rebelled against thee, and cast thy law behind their back, and slew thy prophets that testified against them to turn them again unto thee, and they wrought great provocations.
Then they shall answer, Because they forsook the covenant of Jehovah their God, and worshipped other gods, and served them.
Jehovah is righteous in all his ways,And gracious in all his works.
Because they rebelled against the words of God,And contemned the counsel of the Most High:
And it shall be, if they refuse to take the cup at thy hand to drink, then shalt thou say unto them, Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: Ye shall surely drink.
Righteous art thou, O Jehovah, when I contend with thee; yet would I {Hebrew: speak of judgements.}reason the cause with thee: wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper? wherefore are all they at ease that deal very treacherously?
To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgiveness; {Or, though}for we have rebelled against him;
neither have we obeyed the voice of Jehovah our God, to walk in his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets.
Yea, all Israel have transgressed thy law, even turning aside, that they should not obey thy voice: therefore hath the curse been poured out upon us, and the oath that is written in the law of Moses the servant of God; for we have sinned against him.
And he hath confirmed his words, which he spake against us, and against our judges that judged us, by bringing upon us a great evil; for under the whole heaven hath not been done as hath been done upon Jerusalem.
As it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil is come upon us: yet have we not entreated the favor of Jehovah our God, that we should turn from our iniquities, and {Or, deal wisely}have discernment in thy truth.
Therefore hath Jehovah watched over the evil, and brought it upon us; for Jehovah our God is righteous in all his works which he doeth, and we have not obeyed his voice.
And now, O Lord our God, that hast brought thy people forth out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and hast gotten thee renown, as at this day; we have sinned, we have done wickedly.
O Lord, according to all thy {Hebrew: righteousnesses.}righteousness, let thine anger and thy wrath, I pray thee, be turned away from thy city Jerusalem, thy holy mountain; because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and thy people are become a reproach to all that are round about us.
For, lo, I begin to work evil at the city which is called by my name; and should ye be utterly unpunished? Ye shall not be unpunished; for I will call for a sword upon all the inhabitants of the earth, saith Jehovah of hosts.
O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto thee, but unto us confusion of face, as at this day; to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and unto all Israel, that are near, and that are far off, through all the countries whither thou hast driven them, because of their trespass that they have trespassed against thee.
For thus saith Jehovah: Behold, they {Or, whose judgement was not}to whom it pertained not to drink of the cup shall assuredly drink; and art thou he that shall altogether go unpunished? thou shalt not go unpunished, but thou shalt surely drink.
Therefore hath Jehovah watched over the evil, and brought it upon us; for Jehovah our God is righteous in all his works which he doeth, and we have not obeyed his voice.
Yet, behold, therein shall be left {Hebrew: they that escape.}a remnant that shall be carried forth, both sons and daughters: behold, they shall come forth unto you, and ye shall see their way and their doings; and ye shall be comforted concerning the evil that I have brought upon Jerusalem, even concerning all that I have brought upon it.
Jehovah in the midst of her is righteous; he will not do iniquity; {Hebrew: morning by morning.}every morning doth he bring his justice to light, he faileth not; but the unjust knoweth no shame.
And they shall comfort you, when ye see their way and their doings; and ye shall know that I have not done {Or, in vain}without cause all that I have done in it, saith the Lord Jehovah.
but after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up for thyself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God;
Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it speaketh to them that are under the law; that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may be brought under the judgment of God:
And they sing the song of Moses the {Greek: bondservant.}servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying,Great and marvellous are thy works, O Lord God, the Almighty; righteous and true are thy ways, thou King of the {Many ancient authorities read nations. Jeremiah 10:7.}ages.
Who shall not fear, O Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy; for all the nations shall come and {See marginal note on chapter 3:9}worship before thee; for thy righteous acts have been made manifest.
And I heard the angel of the waters saying, Righteous art thou, who art and who wast, thou Holy One, because thou didst thus {Or, judge. Because they…prophets, thou hast given them blood also to drink}judge:
for they poured out the blood of saints and prophets, and blood hast thou given them to drink: they are worthy.
And I heard the altar saying, Yea, O Lord God, the Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments.