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Lamentations 1-3
Living Bible
Lamentations 1-3
Living Bible
1 Jerusalem’s streets, once thronged with people, are silent now. Like a widow broken with grief, she sits alone in her mourning. She, once queen of nations, is now a slave.
2 She sobs through the night; tears run down her cheeks. Among all her lovers,[a] there is none to help her. All her friends are now her enemies.
3 Why is Judah led away, a slave? Because of all the wrong she did to others, making them her slaves. Now she sits in exile far away. There is no rest, for those she persecuted have turned and conquered her.
4 The roads to Zion mourn, no longer filled with joyous throngs who come to celebrate the Temple feasts; the city gates are silent, her priests groan, her virgins have been dragged away. Bitterly she weeps.
5 Her enemies prosper, for the Lord has punished Jerusalem for all her many sins; her young children are captured and taken far away as slaves.
6 All her beauty and her majesty are gone; her princes are like starving deer that search for pasture—helpless game too weak to keep on running from their foes.
7 And now in the midst of all Jerusalem’s sadness she remembers happy bygone days. She thinks of all the precious joys she had before her mocking enemy struck her down—and there was no one to give her aid.
8 For Jerusalem sinned so horribly; therefore, she is tossed away like dirty rags. All who honored her despise her now, for they have seen her stripped naked and humiliated. She groans and hides her face.
9 She indulged herself in immorality and refused to face the fact that punishment was sure to come. Now she lies in the gutter with no one left to lift her out. “O Lord,” she cries, “see my plight. The enemy has triumphed.”
10 Her enemies have plundered her completely, taking everything precious she owns. She has seen foreign nations violate her sacred Temple—foreigners you had forbidden even to enter.
11 Her people groan and cry for bread; they have sold all they have for food to give a little strength. “Look, O Lord,” she prays, “and see how I’m despised.”
12 Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow because of all the Lord has done to me in the day of his fierce wrath.
13 He has sent fire from heaven that burns within my bones; he has placed a pitfall in my path and turned me back. He has left me sick and desolate the whole day through.
14 He wove my sins into ropes to hitch me to a yoke of slavery. He sapped my strength and gave me to my enemies; I am helpless in their hands.
15 The Lord has trampled all my mighty men. A great army has come at his command to crush the noblest youth. The Lord has trampled his beloved city as grapes in a winepress.
16 For all these things I weep; tears flow down my cheeks. My Comforter is far away—he who alone could help me. My children have no future; we are a conquered land.
17 Jerusalem pleads for help, but no one comforts her. For the Lord has spoken: “Let her neighbors be her foes! Let her be thrown out like filthy rags!”
18 And the Lord is right, for we rebelled. And yet, O people everywhere, behold and see my anguish and despair, for my sons and daughters are taken far away as slaves to distant lands.
19 I begged my allies[b] for their help. False hope—they could not help at all. Nor could my priests and elders—they were starving in the streets while searching through the garbage dumps for bread.
20 See, O Lord, my anguish; my heart is broken and my soul despairs, for I have terribly rebelled. In the streets the sword awaits me; at home, disease and death.
21 Hear my groans! And there is no one anywhere to help. All my enemies have heard my troubles, and they are glad to see what you have done. And yet, O Lord, the time will surely come—for you have promised it—when you will do to them as you have done to me.
22 Look also on their sins, O Lord, and punish them as you have punished me, for my sighs are many and my heart is faint.
2 A cloud of anger from the Lord has overcast Jerusalem; the fairest city of Israel lies in the dust of the earth, cast from the heights of heaven at his command. In his day of awesome fury he has shown no mercy even to his Temple.[c]
2 The Lord without mercy has destroyed every home in Israel. In his wrath he has broken every fortress, every wall. He has brought the kingdom to dust, with all its rulers.
3 All the strength of Israel vanishes beneath his wrath. He has withdrawn his protection as the enemy attacks. God burns across the land of Israel like a raging fire.
4 He bends his bow against his people as though he were an enemy. His strength is used against them to kill their finest youth. His fury is poured out like fire upon them.
5 Yes, the Lord has vanquished Israel like an enemy. He has destroyed her forts and palaces. Sorrows and tears are his portion for Jerusalem.
6 He has violently broken down his Temple as though it were a booth of leaves and branches in a garden! No longer can the people celebrate their holy feasts and Sabbaths. Kings and priests together fall before his wrath.
7 The Lord has rejected his own altar, for he despises the false “worship” of his people; he has given their palaces to their enemies, who carouse in the Temple as Israel used to do on days of holy feasts!
8 The Lord determined to destroy Jerusalem. He laid out an unalterable line of destruction. Therefore the ramparts and walls fell down before him.
9 Jerusalem’s gates are useless. All their locks and bars are broken, for he has crushed them. Her kings and princes are enslaved in far-off lands, without a temple, without a divine law to govern them or prophetic vision to guide them.
10 The elders of Jerusalem sit upon the ground in silence, clothed in sackcloth; they throw dust upon their heads in sorrow and despair. The virgins of Jerusalem hang their heads in shame.
11 I have cried until the tears no longer come; my heart is broken, my spirit poured out, as I see what has happened to my people; little children and tiny babies are fainting and dying in the streets.
12 “Mama, Mama, we want food,” they cry, and then collapse upon their mothers’ shrunken breasts. Their lives ebb away like those wounded in battle.
13 In all the world has there ever been such sorrow? O Jerusalem, what can I compare your anguish to? How can I comfort you? For your wound is deep as the sea. Who can heal you?
14 Your “prophets” have said so many foolish things, false to the core. They have not tried to hold you back from slavery by pointing out your sins. They lied and said that all was well.
15 All who pass by scoff and shake their heads and say, “Is this the city called ‘Most Beautiful in All the World,’ and ‘Joy of All the Earth’?”
16 All your enemies deride you. They hiss and grind their teeth and say, “We have destroyed her at last! Long have we waited for this hour, and it is finally here! With our own eyes we’ve seen her fall.”
17 But it is the Lord who did it, just as he had warned. He has fulfilled the promises of doom he made so long ago. He has destroyed Jerusalem without mercy and caused her enemies to rejoice over her and boast of their power.
18 Then the people wept before the Lord. O walls of Jerusalem, let tears fall down upon you like a river; give yourselves no rest from weeping day or night.
19 Rise in the night and cry to your God. Pour out your hearts like water to the Lord; lift up your hands to him; plead for your children as they faint with hunger in the streets.
20 O Lord, think! These are your own people to whom you are doing this. Shall mothers eat their little children, those they bounced upon their knees? Shall priests and prophets die within the Temple of the Lord?
21 See them lying in the streets—old and young, boys and girls, killed by the enemies’ swords. You have killed them, Lord, in your anger; you have killed them without mercy.
22 You have deliberately called for this destruction; in the day of your anger none escaped or remained. All my little children lie dead upon the streets before the enemy.
3 I am the man who has seen the afflictions that come from the rod of God’s wrath. 2 He has brought me into deepest darkness, shutting out all light. 3 He has turned against me. Day and night his hand is heavy on me. 4 He has made me old and has broken my bones.
5 He has built forts against me and surrounded me with anguish and distress. 6 He buried me in dark places, like those long dead. 7 He has walled me in; I cannot escape; he has fastened me with heavy chains. 8 And though I cry and shout, he will not hear my prayers! 9 He has shut me into a place of high, smooth walls;[d] he has filled my path with detours.
10 He lurks like a bear, like a lion, waiting to attack me. 11 He has dragged me into the underbrush and torn me with his claws, leaving me bleeding and desolate.
12 He has bent his bow and aimed it squarely at me, 13 and sent his arrows deep within my heart.
14 My own people laugh at me; all day long they sing their ribald songs.
15 He has filled me with bitterness and given me a cup of deepest sorrows to drink. 16 He has made me eat gravel and broken my teeth; he has rolled me in ashes and dirt. 17 O Lord, all peace and all prosperity have long since gone, for you have taken them away. I have forgotten what enjoyment is. 18 All hope is gone; my strength has turned to water, for the Lord has left me. 19 Oh, remember the bitterness and suffering you have dealt to me! 20 For I can never forget these awful years; always my soul will live in utter shame.
21 Yet there is one ray of hope: 22 his compassion never ends. It is only the Lord’s mercies that have kept us from complete destruction. 23 Great is his faithfulness; his loving-kindness begins afresh each day. 24 My soul claims the Lord as my inheritance; therefore I will hope in him. 25 The Lord is wonderfully good to those who wait for him, to those who seek for him. 26 It is good both to hope and wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.
27 It is good for a young man to be under discipline, 28 for it causes him to sit apart in silence beneath the Lord’s demands, 29 to lie face downward in the dust; then at last there is hope for him. 30 Let him turn the other cheek to those who strike him and accept their awful insults, 31 for the Lord will not abandon him forever. 32 Although God gives him grief, yet he will show compassion too, according to the greatness of his loving-kindness. 33 For he does not enjoy afflicting men and causing sorrow.
34-36 But you have trampled and crushed beneath your feet the lowly of the world, and deprived men of their God-given rights, and refused them justice. No wonder the Lord has had to deal with you! 37 For who can act against you without the Lord’s permission? 38 It is the Lord who helps one and harms another.
39 Why then should we, mere humans as we are, murmur and complain when punished for our sins? 40 Let us examine ourselves instead, and let us repent and turn again to the Lord. 41 Let us lift our hearts and hands to him in heaven, 42 for we have sinned; we have rebelled against the Lord, and he has not forgotten it.
43 You have engulfed us by your anger, Lord, and slain us without mercy. 44 You have veiled yourself as with a cloud so that our prayers do not reach through. 45 You have made us as refuse and garbage among the nations. 46 All our enemies have spoken out against us. 47 We are filled with fear, for we are trapped and desolate, destroyed.
48-49 My eyes flow day and night with never-ending streams of tears because of the destruction of my people. 50 Oh, that the Lord might look down from heaven and respond to my cry! 51 My heart is breaking over what is happening to the young girls of Jerusalem.
52 My enemies, whom I have never harmed, chased me as though I were a bird. 53 They threw me in a well and capped it with a rock. 54 The water flowed above my head. I thought, This is the end! 55 But I called upon your name, O Lord, from deep within the well, 56 and you heard me! You listened to my pleading; you heard my weeping! 57 Yes, you came at my despairing cry and told me not to fear.
58 O Lord, you are my lawyer! Plead my case! For you have redeemed my life. 59 You have seen the wrong they did to me; be my Judge, to prove me right. 60 You have seen the plots my foes have laid against me. 61 You have heard the vile names they have called me, 62 and all they say about me and their whispered plans. 63 See how they laugh and sing with glee, preparing my doom.
64 O Lord, repay them well for all the evil they have done. 65 Harden their hearts and curse them, Lord. 66 Go after them in fierce pursuit and wipe them off the earth, beneath the heavens of the Lord.
Footnotes
- Lamentations 1:2 Among all her lovers refers to Egypt and Israel’s other former allies.
- Lamentations 1:19 allies, literally, “lovers,” which probably refers to Egypt.
- Lamentations 2:1 Temple, literally, “footstool.”
- Lamentations 3:9 He has shut me into a place of high, smooth walls, literally, “He has walled up my ways with hewn stone.”
Lamentations 1-3
New International Version
Lamentations 1-3
New International Version
1 [a]How deserted(A) lies the city,
once so full of people!(B)
How like a widow(C) is she,
who once was great(D) among the nations!
She who was queen among the provinces
has now become a slave.(E)
2 Bitterly she weeps(F) at night,
tears are on her cheeks.
Among all her lovers(G)
there is no one to comfort her.
All her friends have betrayed(H) her;
they have become her enemies.(I)
3 After affliction and harsh labor,
Judah has gone into exile.(J)
She dwells among the nations;
she finds no resting place.(K)
All who pursue her have overtaken her(L)
in the midst of her distress.
4 The roads to Zion mourn,(M)
for no one comes to her appointed festivals.
All her gateways are desolate,(N)
her priests groan,
her young women grieve,
and she is in bitter anguish.(O)
5 Her foes have become her masters;
her enemies are at ease.
The Lord has brought her grief(P)
because of her many sins.(Q)
Her children have gone into exile,(R)
captive before the foe.(S)
6 All the splendor has departed
from Daughter Zion.(T)
Her princes are like deer
that find no pasture;
in weakness they have fled(U)
before the pursuer.
7 In the days of her affliction and wandering
Jerusalem remembers all the treasures
that were hers in days of old.
When her people fell into enemy hands,
there was no one to help her.(V)
Her enemies looked at her
and laughed(W) at her destruction.
8 Jerusalem has sinned(X) greatly
and so has become unclean.(Y)
All who honored her despise her,
for they have all seen her naked;(Z)
she herself groans(AA)
and turns away.
9 Her filthiness clung to her skirts;
she did not consider her future.(AB)
Her fall(AC) was astounding;
there was none to comfort(AD) her.
“Look, Lord, on my affliction,(AE)
for the enemy has triumphed.”
10 The enemy laid hands
on all her treasures;(AF)
she saw pagan nations
enter her sanctuary(AG)—
those you had forbidden(AH)
to enter your assembly.
11 All her people groan(AI)
as they search for bread;(AJ)
they barter their treasures for food
to keep themselves alive.
“Look, Lord, and consider,
for I am despised.”
12 “Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by?(AK)
Look around and see.
Is any suffering like my suffering(AL)
that was inflicted on me,
that the Lord brought on me
in the day of his fierce anger?(AM)
13 “From on high he sent fire,
sent it down into my bones.(AN)
He spread a net(AO) for my feet
and turned me back.
He made me desolate,(AP)
faint(AQ) all the day long.
14 “My sins have been bound into a yoke[b];(AR)
by his hands they were woven together.
They have been hung on my neck,
and the Lord has sapped my strength.
He has given me into the hands(AS)
of those I cannot withstand.
15 “The Lord has rejected
all the warriors in my midst;(AT)
he has summoned an army(AU) against me
to[c] crush my young men.(AV)
In his winepress(AW) the Lord has trampled(AX)
Virgin Daughter(AY) Judah.
16 “This is why I weep
and my eyes overflow with tears.(AZ)
No one is near to comfort(BA) me,
no one to restore my spirit.
My children are destitute
because the enemy has prevailed.”(BB)
17 Zion stretches out her hands,(BC)
but there is no one to comfort her.
The Lord has decreed for Jacob
that his neighbors become his foes;(BD)
Jerusalem has become
an unclean(BE) thing(BF) among them.
18 “The Lord is righteous,(BG)
yet I rebelled(BH) against his command.
Listen, all you peoples;
look on my suffering.(BI)
My young men and young women
have gone into exile.(BJ)
19 “I called to my allies(BK)
but they betrayed me.
My priests and my elders
perished(BL) in the city
while they searched for food
to keep themselves alive.
20 “See, Lord, how distressed(BM) I am!
I am in torment(BN) within,
and in my heart I am disturbed,(BO)
for I have been most rebellious.(BP)
Outside, the sword bereaves;
inside, there is only death.(BQ)
21 “People have heard my groaning,(BR)
but there is no one to comfort me.(BS)
All my enemies have heard of my distress;
they rejoice(BT) at what you have done.
May you bring the day(BU) you have announced
so they may become like me.
22 “Let all their wickedness come before you;
deal with them
as you have dealt with me
because of all my sins.(BV)
My groans(BW) are many
and my heart is faint.”
2 [d]How the Lord has covered Daughter Zion
with the cloud of his anger[e]!(BX)
He has hurled down the splendor of Israel
from heaven to earth;
he has not remembered his footstool(BY)
in the day of his anger.(BZ)
2 Without pity(CA) the Lord has swallowed(CB) up
all the dwellings of Jacob;
in his wrath he has torn down
the strongholds(CC) of Daughter Judah.
He has brought her kingdom and its princes
down to the ground(CD) in dishonor.
3 In fierce anger he has cut off
every horn[f][g](CE) of Israel.
He has withdrawn his right hand(CF)
at the approach of the enemy.
He has burned in Jacob like a flaming fire
that consumes everything around it.(CG)
4 Like an enemy he has strung his bow;(CH)
his right hand is ready.
Like a foe he has slain
all who were pleasing to the eye;(CI)
he has poured out his wrath(CJ) like fire(CK)
on the tent(CL) of Daughter Zion.
5 The Lord is like an enemy;(CM)
he has swallowed up Israel.
He has swallowed up all her palaces
and destroyed her strongholds.(CN)
He has multiplied mourning and lamentation(CO)
for Daughter Judah.(CP)
6 He has laid waste his dwelling like a garden;
he has destroyed(CQ) his place of meeting.(CR)
The Lord has made Zion forget
her appointed festivals and her Sabbaths;(CS)
in his fierce anger he has spurned
both king and priest.(CT)
7 The Lord has rejected his altar
and abandoned his sanctuary.(CU)
He has given the walls of her palaces(CV)
into the hands of the enemy;
they have raised a shout in the house of the Lord
as on the day of an appointed festival.(CW)
8 The Lord determined to tear down
the wall around Daughter Zion.(CX)
He stretched out a measuring line(CY)
and did not withhold his hand from destroying.
He made ramparts(CZ) and walls lament;
together they wasted away.(DA)
9 Her gates(DB) have sunk into the ground;
their bars(DC) he has broken and destroyed.
Her king and her princes are exiled(DD) among the nations,
the law(DE) is no more,
and her prophets(DF) no longer find
visions(DG) from the Lord.
10 The elders of Daughter Zion
sit on the ground in silence;(DH)
they have sprinkled dust(DI) on their heads(DJ)
and put on sackcloth.(DK)
The young women of Jerusalem
have bowed their heads to the ground.(DL)
11 My eyes fail from weeping,(DM)
I am in torment within(DN);
my heart(DO) is poured out(DP) on the ground
because my people are destroyed,(DQ)
because children and infants faint(DR)
in the streets of the city.
12 They say to their mothers,
“Where is bread and wine?”(DS)
as they faint like the wounded
in the streets of the city,
as their lives ebb away(DT)
in their mothers’ arms.(DU)
13 What can I say for you?(DV)
With what can I compare you,
Daughter(DW) Jerusalem?
To what can I liken you,
that I may comfort you,
Virgin Daughter Zion?(DX)
Your wound is as deep as the sea.(DY)
Who can heal you?
14 The visions of your prophets
were false(DZ) and worthless;
they did not expose your sin
to ward off your captivity.(EA)
The prophecies they gave you
were false and misleading.(EB)
15 All who pass your way
clap their hands at you;(EC)
they scoff(ED) and shake their heads(EE)
at Daughter Jerusalem:(EF)
“Is this the city that was called
the perfection of beauty,(EG)
the joy of the whole earth?”(EH)
16 All your enemies open their mouths
wide against you;(EI)
they scoff and gnash their teeth(EJ)
and say, “We have swallowed her up.(EK)
This is the day we have waited for;
we have lived to see it.”(EL)
17 The Lord has done what he planned;
he has fulfilled(EM) his word,
which he decreed long ago.(EN)
He has overthrown you without pity,(EO)
he has let the enemy gloat over you,(EP)
he has exalted the horn[h] of your foes.(EQ)
18 The hearts of the people
cry out to the Lord.(ER)
You walls of Daughter Zion,(ES)
let your tears(ET) flow like a river
day and night;(EU)
give yourself no relief,
your eyes no rest.(EV)
19 Arise, cry out in the night,
as the watches of the night begin;
pour out your heart(EW) like water
in the presence of the Lord.(EX)
Lift up your hands(EY) to him
for the lives of your children,
who faint(EZ) from hunger
at every street corner.
20 “Look, Lord, and consider:
Whom have you ever treated like this?
Should women eat their offspring,(FA)
the children they have cared for?(FB)
Should priest and prophet be killed(FC)
in the sanctuary of the Lord?(FD)
21 “Young and old lie together
in the dust of the streets;
my young men and young women
have fallen by the sword.(FE)
You have slain them in the day of your anger;
you have slaughtered them without pity.(FF)
22 “As you summon to a feast day,
so you summoned against me terrors(FG) on every side.
In the day of the Lord’s anger
no one escaped(FH) or survived;
those I cared for and reared(FI)
my enemy has destroyed.”
3 [i]I am the man who has seen affliction(FJ)
by the rod of the Lord’s wrath.(FK)
2 He has driven me away and made me walk
in darkness(FL) rather than light;
3 indeed, he has turned his hand against me(FM)
again and again, all day long.
4 He has made my skin and my flesh grow old(FN)
and has broken my bones.(FO)
5 He has besieged me and surrounded me
with bitterness(FP) and hardship.(FQ)
6 He has made me dwell in darkness
like those long dead.(FR)
7 He has walled me in so I cannot escape;(FS)
he has weighed me down with chains.(FT)
8 Even when I call out or cry for help,(FU)
he shuts out my prayer.(FV)
9 He has barred(FW) my way with blocks of stone;
he has made my paths crooked.(FX)
10 Like a bear lying in wait,
like a lion(FY) in hiding,(FZ)
11 he dragged me from the path and mangled(GA) me
and left me without help.
12 He drew his bow(GB)
and made me the target(GC) for his arrows.(GD)
13 He pierced(GE) my heart
with arrows from his quiver.(GF)
14 I became the laughingstock(GG) of all my people;(GH)
they mock me in song(GI) all day long.
15 He has filled me with bitter herbs
and given me gall to drink.(GJ)
16 He has broken my teeth with gravel;(GK)
he has trampled me in the dust.(GL)
17 I have been deprived of peace;
I have forgotten what prosperity is.
18 So I say, “My splendor is gone
and all that I had hoped from the Lord.”(GM)
19 I remember my affliction and my wandering,
the bitterness(GN) and the gall.(GO)
20 I well remember them,
and my soul is downcast(GP) within me.(GQ)
21 Yet this I call to mind
and therefore I have hope:
22 Because of the Lord’s great love(GR) we are not consumed,(GS)
for his compassions never fail.(GT)
23 They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.(GU)
24 I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion;(GV)
therefore I will wait for him.”
25 The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him,
to the one who seeks him;(GW)
26 it is good to wait quietly(GX)
for the salvation of the Lord.(GY)
27 It is good for a man to bear the yoke
while he is young.
28 Let him sit alone in silence,(GZ)
for the Lord has laid it on him.
29 Let him bury his face in the dust(HA)—
there may yet be hope.(HB)
30 Let him offer his cheek to one who would strike him,(HC)
and let him be filled with disgrace.(HD)
31 For no one is cast off
by the Lord forever.(HE)
32 Though he brings grief, he will show compassion,
so great is his unfailing love.(HF)
33 For he does not willingly bring affliction
or grief to anyone.(HG)
34 To crush underfoot
all prisoners in the land,
35 to deny people their rights
before the Most High,(HH)
36 to deprive them of justice—
would not the Lord see such things?(HI)
37 Who can speak and have it happen
if the Lord has not decreed it?(HJ)
38 Is it not from the mouth of the Most High
that both calamities and good things come?(HK)
39 Why should the living complain
when punished for their sins?(HL)
40 Let us examine our ways and test them,(HM)
and let us return to the Lord.(HN)
41 Let us lift up our hearts and our hands
to God in heaven,(HO) and say:
42 “We have sinned and rebelled(HP)
and you have not forgiven.(HQ)
43 “You have covered yourself with anger and pursued(HR) us;
you have slain without pity.(HS)
44 You have covered yourself with a cloud(HT)
so that no prayer(HU) can get through.(HV)
45 You have made us scum(HW) and refuse
among the nations.
46 “All our enemies have opened their mouths
wide(HX) against us.(HY)
47 We have suffered terror and pitfalls,(HZ)
ruin and destruction.(IA)”
48 Streams of tears(IB) flow from my eyes(IC)
because my people are destroyed.(ID)
49 My eyes will flow unceasingly,
without relief,(IE)
50 until the Lord looks down
from heaven and sees.(IF)
51 What I see brings grief to my soul
because of all the women of my city.
52 Those who were my enemies without cause
hunted me like a bird.(IG)
53 They tried to end my life in a pit(IH)
and threw stones at me;
54 the waters closed over my head,(II)
and I thought I was about to perish.(IJ)
55 I called on your name, Lord,
from the depths(IK) of the pit.(IL)
56 You heard my plea:(IM) “Do not close your ears
to my cry for relief.”
57 You came near(IN) when I called you,
and you said, “Do not fear.”(IO)
58 You, Lord, took up my case;(IP)
you redeemed my life.(IQ)
59 Lord, you have seen the wrong done to me.(IR)
Uphold my cause!(IS)
60 You have seen the depth of their vengeance,
all their plots against me.(IT)
Footnotes
- Lamentations 1:1 This chapter is an acrostic poem, the verses of which begin with the successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet.
- Lamentations 1:14 Most Hebrew manuscripts; many Hebrew manuscripts and Septuagint He kept watch over my sins
- Lamentations 1:15 Or has set a time for me / when he will
- Lamentations 2:1 This chapter is an acrostic poem, the verses of which begin with the successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet.
- Lamentations 2:1 Or How the Lord in his anger / has treated Daughter Zion with contempt
- Lamentations 2:3 Or off / all the strength; or every king
- Lamentations 2:3 Horn here symbolizes strength.
- Lamentations 2:17 Horn here symbolizes strength.
- Lamentations 3:1 This chapter is an acrostic poem; the verses of each stanza begin with the successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet, and the verses within each stanza begin with the same letter.
Living Bible (TLB)
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
New International Version (NIV) 
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
NIV Reverse Interlinear Bible: English to Hebrew and English to Greek. Copyright © 2019 by Zondervan.