The city has become like a widow, alone and without protection.

Judah can find no rest even though she lives among the nations.

Yahweh has afflicted Jerusalem because of her many transgressions.

All of her majesty and beauty have left the daughter of Zion.

Jerusalem remembered all of her precious things that she had in former times.

Jerusalem is now regarded as something abhorrent and defiled.

Jerusalem has seen the nations enter her sanctuary.

The people groan as they search for bread.

Yahweh has spread a net for the feet of Jerusalem.

The result is that Jerusalem’s strength has stumbled and they are given into the hands of their enemies.

The Lord has crushed the people of Judah like someone treading on grapes in a winepress.

Jerusalem’s children have become desolate because the enemy has prevailed.

Jerusalem’s young women and young men have gone into captivity.

Jerusalem’s priests and elders died in the city.

Jerusalem is in anguish and their hearts are completely devastated.

The enemies of Jerusalem rejoice.

Jerusalem asks that Yahweh would deal with her enemies just as Yahweh has dealt with her for all her transgressions.

He has taken away the splendor of Israel and has humbled and brought down the cities of Judah.

The Lord removed all of Israel’s power, refused to protect them from their enemies, and he allowed them to be destroyed.

The Lord has become like an enemy; he destroyed the palaces and the temple and has rejected both the king and priest.

They shout triumphantly because the Lord abandoned his own holy place and has given the walls of the palace over to them.

Her gates have come down, and Yahweh has destroyed and smashed the bars that held them shut.

The elders sit on the ground, sprinkle their heads with dust while dressed in sackcloth. The virgins bow their heads down to the ground.

He weeps over the death and destruction of his people and because there is nothing for them to eat or drink.

They rejoice over the destruction by clapping their hands, hissing and shaking their heads with contempt, and grinding their teeth with hatred.

He says they should cry out to the Lord and lift their hands to him continuously for the sake of their children.

They are begging for God’s mercy because they are extremely hungry and because their priests and prophets are being slaughtered.

On the day of Yahweh’s wrath, the enemy killed young and old, no one survived, and they showed no mercy.

Yahweh has turned his hand against the writer all day long.

Yahweh has built a wall around him and trapped him.

The writer describes Yahweh as a bear that is waiting to ambush him.

The writer has become a laughingstock to all his people.

The writer can no longer remember any happiness.

The writer’s mood is one of deep depression within himself as he calls to mind his affliction.

The writer says that Yahweh’s merciful actions occur again every morning.

Yahweh is good to those who wait for him and wait quietly for Yahweh’s salvation.

Yahweh shows compassion even though he brings grief.

Yahweh does not oppress from his heart or enjoy causing grief for the sons of men.

The Most High God is the one who decides what will happen.

The people should lift up their hearts and their hands in prayer to God in the heavens.

They should admit that they have sinned and rebelled against Yahweh.

Yahweh has made them to be garbage and refuse among the peoples.

His tears are streams of water that flow out from his eyes.

He says that he has been cut off and will die.

Yahweh told him not to fear.

He asks Yahweh to judge his case.

He is the object of their mocking song.

He asks Yahweh to pay back to them as much harm as they have done.

He asks Yahweh to pursue his enemies in his anger and destroy them everywhere under the heavens.

The writer compares the people of Jerusalem to gold that has become tarnished and to holy stones that have been scattered at the corner of every street.

The sons of Zion were precious, weighed against fine gold, but now they are regarded as clay jars, the work of a potter’s hands.

He compares her to the ostriches in the wilderness, who are fierce and do not care for their young.

The tongue of the nursing baby sticks to the roof of his mouth with thirst, and the children ask for food, but there is nothing for them.

The ones who used to eat the finest food are now starving in the streets, and the ones who used to wear scarlet clothing now search through piles of garbage looking for something to eat.

The guilt of the daughter of his people is greater than the sin of Sodom.

Her Nazarites were purer than snow, healthy, attractive, and vigorous. Now darkness has darkened their form, they are unrecognizable in the streets, and their skin has shriveled on their bones and become as dry as wood.

The writer says that those killed by the sword were better off than those who slowly wasted away from hunger.

They boiled their own children and the children became their food.

Yahweh brought his wrath to completion by pouring out his fierce anger and kindling a fire in Zion that consumed her foundations.

They did not believe that an adversary and an enemy could enter the gates of Jerusalem.

The prophets sinned greatly and the priests did evil things, and they poured out the blood of the innocent people right in the city.

They stumbled about blind in the streets, defiled with blood, so that no one was able to touch their clothes.

People shouted at them to go away, calling them unclean and telling others not to touch them.

They fled and wandered among the nations, but the nations said they could not stay.

Yahweh scattered them and will no longer watch over them.

The priests are not respected anymore and the elders are not shown any concern.

They watched in vain, and the nation they hoped would rescue them was not able to save them.

The enemy tracked their every step so that they could not walk freely through their own streets.

They said their end was near and the time for their destruction had come.

The writer describes the pursuers as swifter than the eagles of heaven; the pursuers set upon them on the mountains and lay in wait for them in the wilderness.

Yahweh’s anointed was captured in the enemy’s pits.

She is told to rejoice and be glad, but the cup of judgment will also pass to her, and Yahweh will punish and humiliate her, too.

She is told her guilt is ended and Yahweh will no longer keep her in exile.

The daughter of Edom is told Yahweh will punish her guilt and will uncover her sins.

The writer asks Yahweh to remember what has happened to them and to see their disgrace.

The writer tells Yahweh that their inheritance has been turned over to strangers and their houses to foreigners.

He says that their enemies run after them, that they are weary, and they have reached out to the Egyptians and Assyrians for food.

They are saying that their fathers sinned and then died, and they are suffering for what their fathers did wrong.

The people are saying that slaves rule over them and there is no one to rescue them.

They risk their lives to get bread outside the city because violent people in the wilderness will try to kill them.

Their skin grows hot as an oven from the fever of hunger.

Women are raped in Zion and virgins in the cities of Judah.

Princes are hung by their hands and the elders are shown no honor.

The young men grind with millstones, and the boys stagger under heavy loads of wood.

The elders ceased from the gate and the young men from their songs.

Their joy has ceased, their dances have changed into mourning, and they have lost the honor they once had.

Their hearts have become sick, and their eyes have grown dim because of their tears.

Mount Zion is desolate and foxes roam over it.

Yahweh reigns forever and his throne is from generation to generation.

They ask Yahweh whether he is forgetting them for so long, and if he will turn them back to himself.

He fears Yahweh may have utterly rejected them and may be angry with them beyond measure.