Study Desk

Let all their evil come before you; and deal with them just as you have dealt with me because of all my crimes; for my groaning is much and my heart is faint.

What can I say for you? What can I compare to you, O daughter of Jerusalem? To what can I liken you so that I can comfort you, O virgin daughter of Zion? For your destruction is as vast as the sea; who can heal you?

Your prophets had a vision for you, false and worthless; they have not exposed your sin, to restore your fortune; they have seen oracles for you, false and misleading.

They clap hands over you, all who pass along the way; they hiss and they shake their head, at the daughter of Jerusalem. Is this the city of which it is said, "A perfection of beauty, a joy for all the earth?"

They have opened their mouths against you, all your enemies. They hiss and gnash a tooth, and they say, "We have destroyed her! Surely this is the day we have hoped for; we have found it, we have seen it!"

"Arise, cry out in the night, at the beginning of the night watches; pour out your heart like water, before the face of the Lord. Lift to him your hands, for the life of your children, who faint in starvation, at the head of all streets."

You have summoned my horror from all around, as if for a feast day; no one on the day of Yahweh's anger is a fugitive and a survivor; whoever I have cared for and reared, my enemy has destroyed.

Though I cry out for help, he shuts out my prayers.

He has bent his bow and set me as the target for the arrow.

I have become a laughingstock for all the people, their mocking song all day long.

It is good to wait in silence for the salvation of Yahweh.

It is good for a man who carries the yoke of his childhood.

For the Lord will not reject forever.

For even though he causes grief he has compassion according to the greatness of his royal love.

You have heard my cry, "Do not shut your ear to my cry for help, for my relief!"

O Lord, you have pleaded for my cause, you have redeemed my life.

The tongue of the nursling cleaves to its palate in thirst. Children beg for food, no one lays it out before them.

Happier were the victims of the sword than the victims of famine; they have pined away, very hungry for the crops of my field.

Still our eyes failed, looking for our help in vain; in our watchtower, we kept watch for a nation that could not save.

Our pursuers were swifter than the eagles of the heavens; they chased us on the mountains, they have set an ambush for us in the desert.