Every post in Lamentations, in order. Tap a post for the whole conversation, or the book icon for the verses.
How lonely the city is. So full of people once. She’s like a widow now. She was the greatest of the nations, and now she’s a slave.
How lonely lies the city, once so full of people! She who was great among the nations has become a widow. The princess of the provinces has become a slave.
Everyone’s groaning, looking for bread. People are trading anything they’ve got left that’s worth something for food, just to stay alive.
All her people groan as they search for bread. They have traded their treasures for food to keep themselves alive. Look, O LORD, and consider, for I have become despised.
Is this nothing to you, all of you walking past? Look. Is there any pain like mine?
Is this nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look around and see! Is there any sorrow like mine, which was inflicted on me, which the LORD made me suffer on the day of His fierce anger?
Replying to @lamentations
Wait, this is the city they called the perfection of beauty? The joy of the whole earth?
All who pass by clap their hands at you in scorn. They hiss and shake their heads at the Daughter of Jerusalem: “Is this the city that was called the perfection of beauty, the joy of all the earth?”
The elders sit on the ground and say nothing. Dust on their heads. Sackcloth on, the rough cloth you wear to mourn. The young women of Jerusalem have bowed their heads to the ground.
The elders of the Daughter of Zion sit on the ground in silence. They have thrown dust on their heads and put on sackcloth. The young women of Jerusalem have bowed their heads to the ground.
Your prophets saw visions for you, and they were empty. They never told you what you’d done wrong, which could have kept you from all this.
Jeremiah@jeremiahProphets and priests, all of them on the make. They put a plaster on my people’s wound and say “Peace, peace.” There is no peace.The visions of your prophets were empty and deceptive; they did not expose your guilt to ward off your captivity. The burdens they envisioned for you were empty and misleading.
Get up and cry out in the night. Pour out your heart like water in front of the Lord. Raise your hands to him for your children’s lives.
Arise, cry out in the night from the first watch of the night. Pour out your heart like water in the presence of the Lord. Lift up your hands to Him for the lives of your children who are fainting from hunger on the corner of every street.
The gold’s gone dull. The temple’s precious stones are lying at every street corner.
How the gold has become tarnished, the pure gold has become dull! The gems of the temple lie scattered on every street corner.
People who used to eat the finest food are out on the street with nothing. People who grew up wearing crimson are sitting on rubbish heaps.
Those who once ate delicacies are destitute in the streets; those brought up in crimson huddle in ash heaps.
We kept watching from the towers for a nation that could save us. It never came.
All the while our eyes were failing as we looked in vain for help. We watched from our towers for a nation that could not save us.
The king God chose, the breath of our life, caught in their traps. We used to say we’d live safe in his shadow among the nations.
The book of Jeremiah@bookofjeremiahZedekiah and the soldiers run for it at night, through the king’s garden and out by the gate between the two walls. The Babylonians catch up with the king on the plains of Jericho. His army scatters.The LORD’s anointed, the breath of our life, was captured in their pits. We had said of him, “Under his shadow we will live among the nations.”
Remember, LORD, what’s happened to us. Look at our shame. Our land has gone to strangers, our houses to foreigners. We have to pay for our own water. Pay for our own firewood.
Remember, O LORD, what has happened to us. Look and see our disgrace! Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers, our houses to foreigners. We must buy the water we drink; our wood comes at a price.
Replying to @left.in.jerusalem
The old men don’t sit at the gate any more. The young men have stopped their music. Our dancing has turned into mourning.
The elders have left the city gate; the young men have stopped their music. Joy has left our hearts; our dancing has turned to mourning.
Mount Zion’s empty. Foxes wandering about on it.
because of Mount Zion, which lies desolate, patrolled by foxes.
You, LORD, reign for ever. So why have you forgotten us for so long? Bring us back to you, LORD, and we’ll come back. Make our days new, like they used to be.
You, O LORD, reign forever; Your throne endures from generation to generation. Why have You forgotten us forever? Why have You forsaken us for so long? Restore us to Yourself, O LORD, so we may return; renew our days as of old,
I’m the one who has seen it. He’s driven me into the dark. My strength is gone, and so is my hope from the LORD.
I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of God’s wrath. He has driven me away and made me walk in darkness instead of light. So I say, “My strength has perished, along with my hope from the LORD.”
Replying to @lamentations
But there’s one thing I keep coming back to, and it gives me hope.
Yet I call this to mind, and therefore I have hope:
