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My eyes will flow unceasingly, without relief,
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What I see brings grief to my soul because of all the women of my city.
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Those who were my enemies without cause hunted me like a bird.
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They tried to end my life in a pit and threw stones at me;
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the waters closed over my head, and I thought I was about to perish.
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I called on your name, class="small-caps" >Lord, from the depths of the pit.
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You heard my plea: “Do not close your ears to my cry for relief.”
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You came near when I called you, and you said, “Do not fear.”
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You, Lord, took up my case; you redeemed my life.
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class="small-caps" >Lord, you have seen the wrong done to me. Uphold my cause!
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what my enemies whisper and mutter against me all day long.
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Pay them back what they deserve, class="small-caps" >Lord, for what their hands have done.
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Put a veil over their hearts, and may your curse be on them!
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How the gold has lost its luster, the fine gold become dull! The sacred gems are scattered at every street corner.
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How the precious children of Zion, once worth their weight in gold, are now considered as pots of clay, the work of a potter’s hands!
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Even jackals offer their breasts to nurse their young, but my people have become heartless like ostriches in the desert.
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Because of thirst the infant’s tongue sticks to the roof of its mouth; the children beg for bread, but no one gives it to them.
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Those who once ate delicacies are destitute in the streets. Those brought up in royal purple now lie on ash heaps.
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Their princes were brighter than snow and whiter than milk, their bodies more ruddy than rubies, their appearance like lapis lazuli.
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But now they are blacker than soot; they are not recognized in the streets. Their skin has shriveled on their bones; it has become as dry as a stick.
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Those killed by the sword are better off than those who die of famine; racked with hunger, they waste away for lack of food from the field.
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With their own hands compassionate women have cooked their own children, who became their food when my people were destroyed.
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The class="small-caps" >Lord has given full vent to his wrath; he has poured out his fierce anger. He kindled a fire in Zion that consumed her foundations.
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The kings of the earth did not believe, nor did any of the peoples of the world, that enemies and foes could enter the gates of Jerusalem.
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But it happened because of the sins of her prophets and the iniquities of her priests, who shed within her the blood of the righteous.
