For believers
1
How lonely sits the city
that was full of people!
How she has become like a widow,
who was once great among the nations!
She who was a princess among the provinces
has become a slave!
2
She weeps sorely in the night,
her tears are on her cheeks;
among all her lovers
she has none to comfort her.
All her friends have dealt treacherously with her;
they have become her enemies.
3
Judah has gone into captivity,
under affliction and great servitude;
she dwells among the nations,
she finds no rest;
all her persecutors overtook her
in the midst of distress.
4
The roads to Zion mourn
because no one comes to the solemn feasts.
All her gates are desolate;
her priests sigh,
her virgins are afflicted,
and she herself suffers bitterly.
5
Her adversaries have become her masters,
her enemies prosper;
for the Lord has afflicted her
because of the multitude of her transgressions.
Her children have gone into captivity
before the enemy.
6
From the daughter of Zion
all her beauty has departed.
Her princes have become like deer
that find no pasture;
they fled without strength
before the pursuer.
7
In the days of her affliction and misery
Jerusalem remembers all her pleasant things
that she had in the days of old.
When her people fell into the hand of the enemy,
there was no one to help her.
The adversaries saw her
and mocked at her desolation.