# Lamentations 1 (New King James Version)
Jerusalem in Affliction

##### Chapter 1
###### 1 How lonely sits the city  
_That was_ full of people!  
_How_ like a widow is she,  
Who _was_ great among the nations!  
The princess among the provinces  
Has become a slave!

###### 2 She weeps bitterly 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 hard servitude;  
She dwells among the nations,  
She finds no rest;  
All her persecutors overtake her in dire straits.

###### 4 The roads to Zion mourn  
Because no one comes to the set feasts.  
All her gates are desolate;  
Her priests sigh,  
Her virgins are afflicted,  
And she _is_ in bitterness.

###### 5 Her adversaries have become the master,  
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 And from the daughter of Zion  
All her splendor has departed.  
Her princes have become like deer  
_That_ find no pasture,  
That flee without strength  
Before the pursuer.

###### 7 In the days of her affliction and roaming,  
Jerusalem remembers all her pleasant things  
That she had in the days of old.  
When her people fell into the hand of the enemy,  
With no one to help her,  
The adversaries saw her  
_And_ mocked at her downfall.

###### 8 Jerusalem has sinned gravely,  
Therefore she has become vile.  
All who honored her despise her  
Because they have seen her nakedness;  
Yes, she sighs and turns away.

###### 9 Her uncleanness _is_ in her skirts;  
She did not consider her destiny;  
Therefore her collapse was awesome;  
She had no comforter.  
"O Lord, behold my affliction,  
For _the_ enemy is exalted!"

###### 10 The adversary has spread his hand  
Over all her pleasant things;  
For she has seen the nations enter her sanctuary,  
Those whom You commanded  
Not to enter Your assembly.

###### 11 All her people sigh,  
They seek bread;  
They have given their valuables for food to restore life.  
"See, O Lord, and consider,  
For I am scorned."

###### 12 "_Is it_ nothing to you, all you who pass by?  
Behold and see  
If there is any sorrow like my sorrow,  
Which has been brought on me,  
Which the Lord has inflicted  
In the day of His fierce anger.

###### 13 "From above He has sent fire into my bones,  
And it overpowered them;  
He has spread a net for my feet  
And turned me back;  
He has made me desolate  
_And_ faint all the day.

###### 14 "The yoke of my transgressions was bound;  
They were woven together by His hands,  
_And_ thrust upon my neck.  
He made my strength fail;  
The Lord delivered me into the hands of _those whom_ I am not able to withstand.

###### 15 "The Lord has trampled underfoot all my mighty _men_ in my midst;  
He has called an assembly against me  
To crush my young men;  
The Lord trampled _as_ in a winepress  
The virgin daughter of Judah.

###### 16 "For these _things_ I weep;  
My eye, my eye overflows with water;  
Because the comforter, who should restore my life,  
Is far from me.  
My children are desolate  
Because the enemy prevailed."

###### 17 Zion spreads out her hands,  
_But_ no one comforts her;  
The Lord has commanded concerning Jacob  
_That_ those around him _become_ his adversaries;  
Jerusalem has become an unclean thing among them.

###### 18 "The Lord is righteous,  
For I rebelled against His commandment.  
Hear now, all peoples,  
And behold my sorrow;  
My virgins and my young men  
Have gone into captivity.

###### 19 "I called for my lovers,  
_But_ they deceived me;  
My priests and my elders  
Breathed their last in the city,  
While they sought food  
To restore their life.

###### 20 "See, O Lord, that I _am_ in distress;  
My soul is troubled;  
My heart is overturned within me,  
For I have been very rebellious.  
Outside the sword bereaves,  
At home _it is_ like death.

###### 21 "They have heard that I sigh,  
_But_ no one comforts me.  
All my enemies have heard of my trouble;  
They are glad that You have done _it._  
Bring on the day You have announced,  
That they may become like me.

###### 22 "Let all their wickedness come before You,  
And do to them as You have done to me  
For all my transgressions;  
For my sighs _are_ many,  
And my heart _is_ faint."