- The city sits solitary. Judah is gone into captivity; the city weeps as her lovers have left. For her sin, Jerusalem is afflicted, her filthiness is in her skirts. I am become vile. The Lord has trodden the daughter of Judah as in a winepress. I weep; behold my distress. #Lm1
- In his burning anger, the Lord has wrecked his own domain & wiped out the memory of Zion’s festivals. He has swallowed up Israel. Virgin daughter Zion, your wound is deep as the sea. Let tears run down like a river day & night; let not the apple of thine eye cease. #Lm2
- I am the man that has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath. He has walled me in & left me without help. He has made me drunk with wormwood. It is good that a man bear the yoke in his youth & quietly wait for salvation of the Lord; he gives his cheek to him that slaps it. #Lm3
- The precious sons of Zion now embrace dunghills. Nazarites, once whiter than milk, are as coal. Pitiful women eat their children (cf. #2Kg6:29). The Lord’s fury for Israel’s sins are polluted blind men who shall not sojourn here. Rejoice, daughter of Edom, in the land of Uz. #Lm4
- We orphans, our skin is black from famine. The women are raped, princes hanged, elders dishonored, and the young men cease from music. Our dance has turned into mourning. Woe unto us, for we have sinned! You have rejected us, and are very wroth against us. #Lm5