Lamentations:1-5
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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 ;
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he has driven and brought me into darkness without any light ;
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surely against me he turns his hand again and again the whole day long .
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He has made my flesh and my skin waste away ,
and broken my bones ;
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he has besieged and enveloped me with bitterness and tribulation ;
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he has made me dwell in darkness like the dead of long ago .
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He has walled me about so that I cannot escape ;
he has put heavy chains on me ;
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though I call and cry for help ,
he shuts out my prayer ;
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he has blocked my ways with hewn stones ,
he has made my paths crooked .
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He is to me like a bear lying in wait ,
like a lion in hiding ;
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he led me off my way and tore me to pieces ;
he has made me desolate ;
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he bent his bow and set me as a mark for his arrow .
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He drove into my heart the arrows of his quiver ;
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I have become the laughingstock of all peoples ,
the burden of their songs all day long .
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He has filled me with bitterness ,
he has sated me with wormwood .
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He has made my teeth grind on gravel ,
and made me cower in ashes ;
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my soul is bereft of peace ,
I have forgotten what happiness is ;
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so I say , "
Gone is my glory ,
and my expectation from the LORD ."
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Remember my affliction and my bitterness ,
the wormwood and the gall !
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My soul continually thinks of it and is bowed down within me .
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But this I call to mind ,
and therefore I have hope :
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The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases ,
his mercies never come to an end ;
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they are new every morning ;
great is thy faithfulness .
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The LORD is my portion ,"
says my soul , "
therefore I will hope in him ."
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The LORD is good to those who wait for him ,
to the soul that seeks him .
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It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD .
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It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth .
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Let him sit alone in silence when he has laid it on him ;
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let him put his mouth in the dust --
there may yet be hope ;
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let him give his cheek to the smiter ,
and be filled with insults .
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For the Lord will not cast off for ever ,
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but ,
though he cause grief ,
he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love ;
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for he does not willingly afflict or grieve the sons of men .
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To crush under foot all the prisoners of the earth ,
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to turn aside the right of a man in the presence of the Most High ,
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to subvert a man in his cause ,
the Lord does not approve .
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Who has commanded and it came to pass ,
unless the Lord has ordained it ?
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Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and evil come ?
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Why should a living man complain ,
a man ,
about the punishment of his sins ?
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Let us test and examine our ways ,
and return to the LORD !
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Let us lift up our hearts and hands to God in heaven :
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We have transgressed and rebelled ,
and thou hast not forgiven .
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Thou hast wrapped thyself with anger and pursued us ,
slaying without pity ;
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thou hast wrapped thyself with a cloud so that no prayer can pass through .
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Thou hast made us offscouring and refuse among the peoples .
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All our enemies rail against us ;
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panic and pitfall have come upon us ,
devastation and destruction ;
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my eyes flow with rivers of tears because of the destruction of the daughter of my people .
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My eyes will flow without ceasing ,
without respite ,
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until the LORD from heaven looks down and sees ;
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my eyes cause me grief at the fate of all the maidens of my city .
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I have been hunted like a bird by those who were my enemies without cause ;
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they flung me alive into the pit and cast stones on me ;
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water closed over my head ;
I said , `
said , "
I am lost .'
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I called on thy name ,
O LORD ,
from the depths of the pit ;
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thou didst hear my plea , `
ot close thine ear to my cry for help !'
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Thou didst come near when I called on thee ;
thou didst say , `
b
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Thou hast taken up my cause ,
O Lord ,
thou hast redeemed my life .
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Thou hast seen the wrong done to me ,
O LORD ;
judge thou my cause .
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Thou hast seen all their vengeance ,
all their devices against me .
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Thou hast heard their taunts ,
O LORD ,
all their devices against me .
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The lips and thoughts of my assailants are against me all the day long .
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Behold their sitting and their rising ;
I am the burden of their songs .
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Thou wilt requite them ,
O LORD ,
according to the work of their hands .
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Thou wilt give them dullness of heart ;
thy curse will be on them .
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Thou wilt pursue them in anger and destroy them from under thy heavens ,
O LORD ."
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How the gold has grown dim ,
how the pure gold is changed !
The holy stones lie scattered at the head of every street .
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The precious sons of Zion ,
worth their weight in fine gold ,
how they are reckoned as earthen pots ,
the work of a potter '
s hands !
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Even the jackals give the breast and suckle their young ,
but the daughter of my people has become cruel ,
like the ostriches in the wilderness .
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The tongue of the nursling cleaves to the roof of its mouth for thirst ;
the children beg for food ,
but no one gives to them .
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Those who feasted on dainties perish in the streets ;
those who were brought up in purple lie on ash heaps .
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For the chastisement of the daughter of my people has been greater than the punishment of Sodom ,
which was overthrown in a moment ,
no hand being laid on it .
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Her princes were purer than snow ,
whiter than milk ;
their bodies were more ruddy than coral ,
the beauty of their form was like sapphire .
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Now their visage is blacker than soot ,
they are not recognized in the streets ;
their skin has shriveled upon their bones ,
it has become as dry as wood .
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Happier were the victims of the sword than the victims of hunger ,
who pined away ,
stricken by want of the fruits of the field .
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The hands of compassionate women have boiled their own children ;
they became their food in the destruction of the daughter of my people .
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The LORD gave full vent to his wrath ,
he poured out his hot anger ;
and he kindled a fire in Zion ,
which consumed its foundations .
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The kings of the earth did not believe ,
or any of the inhabitants of the world ,
that foe or enemy could enter the gates of Jerusalem .
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This was for the sins of her prophets and the iniquities of her priests ,
who shed in the midst of her the blood of the righteous .
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They wandered ,
blind ,
through the streets ,
so defiled with blood that none could touch their garments .
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Away !
Unclean !"
men cried at them ; "
Away !
Away !
Touch not !"
So they became fugitives and wanderers ;
men said among the nations , "
They shall stay with us no longer ."
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The LORD himself has scattered them ,
he will regard them no more ;
no honor was shown to the priests ,
no favor to the elders .
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Our eyes failed ,
ever watching vainly for help ;
in our watching we watched for a nation which could not save .
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Men dogged our steps so that we could not walk in our streets ;
our end drew near ;
our days were numbered ;
for our end had come .
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Our pursuers were swifter than the vultures in the heavens ;
they chased us on the mountains ,
they lay in wait for us in the wilderness .
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The breath of our nostrils ,
the LORD '
s anointed ,
was taken in their pits ,
he of whom we said , "
Under his shadow we shall live among the nations ."
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Rejoice and be glad ,
O daughter of Edom ,
dweller in the land of Uz ;
but to you also the cup shall pass ;
you shall become drunk and strip yourself bare .
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The punishment of your iniquity ,
O daughter of Zion ,
is accomplished ,
he will keep you in exile no longer ;
but your iniquity ,
O daughter of Edom ,
he will punish ,
he will uncover your sins .
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Remember ,
O LORD ,
what has befallen us ;
behold ,
and see our disgrace !
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Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers ,
our homes to aliens .
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We have become orphans ,
fatherless ;
our mothers are like widows .
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We must pay for the water we drink ,
the wood we get must be bought .
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With a yoke on our necks we are hard driven ;
we are weary ,
we are given no rest .
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We have given the hand to Egypt ,
and to Assyria ,
to get bread enough .
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Our fathers sinned ,
and are no more ;
and we bear their iniquities .
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Slaves rule over us ;
there is none to deliver us from their hand .
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We get our bread at the peril of our lives ,
because of the sword in the wilderness .
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Our skin is hot as an oven with the burning heat of famine .
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Women are ravished in Zion ,
virgins in the towns of Judah .
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Princes are hung up by their hands ;
no respect is shown to the elders .
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Young men are compelled to grind at the mill ;
and boys stagger under loads of wood .
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The old men have quit the city gate ,
the young men their music .
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The joy of our hearts has ceased ;
our dancing has been turned to mourning .
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The crown has fallen from our head ;
woe to us ,
for we have sinned !
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For this our heart has become sick ,
for these things our eyes have grown dim ,
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for Mount Zion which lies desolate ;
jackals prowl over it .
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But thou ,
O LORD ,
dost reign for ever ;
thy throne endures to all generations .
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Why dost thou forget us for ever ,
why dost thou so long forsake us ?
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Restore us to thyself ,
O LORD ,
that we may be restored !
Renew our days as of old !
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Or hast thou utterly rejected us ?
Art thou exceedingly angry with us ?
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