rsv Lamentations:1-2 SEEK
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How lonely sits the city that was full of people !
How like a widow has she become ,
she that was great among the nations !
She that was a princess among the cities has become a vassal .
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She weeps bitterly in the night ,
tears 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 .
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Judah has gone into exile because of affliction and hard servitude ;
she dwells now among the nations ,
but finds no resting place ;
her pursuers have all overtaken her in the midst of her distress .
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The roads to Zion mourn ,
for none come to the appointed feasts ;
all her gates are desolate ,
her priests groan ;
her maidens have been dragged away ,
and she herself suffers bitterly .
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Her foes have become the head ,
her enemies prosper ,
because the LORD has made her suffer for the multitude of her transgressions ;
her children have gone away ,
captives before the foe .
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From the daughter of Zion has departed all her majesty .
Her princes have become like harts that find no pasture ;
they fled without strength before the pursuer .
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Jerusalem remembers in the days of her affliction and bitterness all the precious things that were hers from days of old .
When her people fell into the hand of the foe ,
and there was none to help her ,
the foe gloated over her ,
mocking at her downfall .
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Jerusalem sinned grievously ,
therefore she became filthy ;
all who honored her despise her ,
for they have seen her nakedness ;
yea ,
she herself groans ,
and turns her face away .
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Her uncleanness was in her skirts ;
she took no thought of her doom ;
therefore her fall is terrible ,
she has no comforter . "
O LORD ,
behold my affliction ,
for the enemy has triumphed !"
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The enemy has stretched out his hands over all her precious things ;
yea ,
she has seen the nations invade her sanctuary ,
those whom thou didst forbid to enter thy congregation .
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All her people groan as they search for bread ;
they trade their treasures for food to revive their strength . "
Look ,
O LORD ,
and behold ,
for I am despised ."
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Is it nothing to you ,
all you who pass by ?
Look and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow which was brought upon me ,
which the LORD inflicted on the day of his fierce anger .
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From on high he sent fire ;
into my bones he made it descend ;
he spread a net for my feet ;
he turned me back ;
he has left me stunned ,
faint all the day long .
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My transgressions were bound into a yoke ;
by his hand they were fastened together ;
they were set upon my neck ;
he caused my strength to fail ;
the Lord gave me into the hands of those whom I cannot withstand .
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The LORD flouted all my mighty men in the midst of me ;
he summoned an assembly against me to crush my young men ;
the Lord has trodden as in a wine press the virgin daughter of Judah .
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For these things I weep ;
my eyes flow with tears ;
for a comforter is far from me ,
one to revive my courage ;
my children are desolate ,
for the enemy has prevailed ."
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Zion stretches out her hands ,
but there is none to comfort her ;
the LORD has commanded against Jacob that his neighbors should be his foes ;
Jerusalem has become a filthy thing among them .
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The LORD is in the right ,
for I have rebelled against his word ;
but hear ,
all you peoples ,
and behold my suffering ;
my maidens and my young men have gone into captivity .
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I called to my lovers but they deceived me ;
my priests and elders perished in the city ,
while they sought food to revive their strength .
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Behold ,
O LORD ,
for I am in distress ,
my soul is in tumult ,
my heart is wrung within me ,
because I have been very rebellious .
In the street the sword bereaves ;
in the house it is like death .
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Hear how I groan ;
there is none to comfort me .
All my enemies have heard of my trouble ;
they are glad that thou hast done it .
Bring thou the day thou hast announced ,
and let them be as I am .
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Let all their evil doing come before thee ;
and deal with them as thou hast dealt with me because of all my transgressions ;
for my groans are many and my heart is faint ."
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How the Lord in his anger has set the daughter of Zion under a cloud !
He has cast down from heaven to earth the splendor of Israel ;
he has not remembered his footstool in the day of his anger .
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The Lord has destroyed without mercy all the habitations of Jacob ;
in his wrath he has broken down the strongholds of the daughter of Judah ;
he has brought down to the ground in dishonor the kingdom and its rulers .
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He has cut down in fierce anger all the might of Israel ;
he has withdrawn from them his right hand in the face of the enemy ;
he has burned like a flaming fire in Jacob ,
consuming all around .
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He has bent his bow like an enemy ,
with his right hand set like a foe ;
and he has slain all the pride of our eyes in the tent of the daughter of Zion ;
he has poured out his fury like fire .
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The Lord has become like an enemy ,
he has destroyed Israel ;
he has destroyed all its palaces ,
laid in ruins its strongholds ;
and he has multiplied in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation .
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He has broken down his booth like that of a garden ,
laid in ruins the place of his appointed feasts ;
the LORD has brought to an end in Zion appointed feast and sabbath ,
and in his fierce indignation has spurned king and priest .
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The Lord has scorned his altar ,
disowned his sanctuary ;
he has delivered into the hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces ;
a clamor was raised in the house of the LORD as on the day of an appointed feast .
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The LORD determined to lay in ruins the wall of the daughter of Zion ;
he marked it off by the line ;
he restrained not his hand from destroying ;
he caused rampart and wall to lament ,
they languish together .
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Her gates have sunk into the ground ;
he has ruined and broken her bars ;
her king and princes are among the nations ;
the law is no more ,
and her prophets obtain no vision from the LORD .
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The elders of the daughter of Zion sit on the ground in silence ;
they have cast dust on their heads and put on sackcloth ;
the maidens of Jerusalem have bowed their heads to the ground .
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My eyes are spent with weeping ;
my soul is in tumult ;
my heart is poured out in grief because of the destruction of the daughter of my people ,
because infants and babes faint in the streets of the city .
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They cry to their mothers , "
Where is bread and wine ?"
as they faint like wounded men in the streets of the city ,
as their life is poured out on their mothers '
bosom .
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What can I say for you ,
to what compare you ,
O daughter of Jerusalem ?
What can I liken to you ,
that I may comfort you ,
O virgin daughter of Zion ?
For vast as the sea is your ruin ;
who can restore you ?
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Your prophets have seen for you false and deceptive visions ;
they have not exposed your iniquity to restore your fortunes ,
but have seen for you oracles false and misleading .
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All who pass along the way clap their hands at you ;
they hiss and wag their heads at the daughter of Jerusalem ; "
Is this the city which was called the perfection of beauty ,
the joy of all the earth ?"
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All your enemies rail against you ;
they hiss ,
they gnash their teeth ,
they cry : "
We have destroyed her !
Ah ,
this is the day we longed for ;
now we have it ;
we see it !"
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The LORD has done what he purposed ,
has carried out his threat ;
as he ordained long ago ,
he has demolished without pity ;
he has made the enemy rejoice over you ,
and exalted the might of your foes .
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Cry aloud to the Lord !
O daughter of Zion !
Let tears stream down like a torrent day and night !
Give yourself no rest ,
your eyes no respite !
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Arise ,
cry out in the night ,
at the beginning of the watches !
Pour out your heart like water before the presence of the Lord !
Lift your hands to him for the lives of your children ,
who faint for hunger at the head of every street .
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Look ,
O LORD ,
and see !
With whom hast thou dealt thus ?
Should women eat their offspring ,
the children of their tender care ?
Should priest and prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord ?
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In the dust of the streets lie the young and the old ;
my maidens and my young men have fallen by the sword ;
in the day of thy anger thou hast slain them ,
slaughtering without mercy .
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Thou didst invite as to the day of an appointed feast my terrors on every side ;
and on the day of the anger of the LORD none escaped or survived ;
those whom I dandled and reared my enemy destroyed .
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I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of his wrath ;