1Aleph How LORD JEHOVAH has overclouded the daughter of Zion in his wrath! He cast the glory of Israel from Heaven to the Earth, and he has not remembered the footstool of his feet in the day of the heat of his wrath!

2Beth LORD JEHOVAH has drowned and has not pitied the whole sheepfold of Yaqob. He has cast down in his anger the fortress city of the house of Yehuda. He cast on the ground her slain, her Kings and her Princes

3Gimel He has cut off in the heat of his wrath all the horn of Israel. He has turned his right hand to his back from before the enemy and he set fire in Yaqob and a flame consumed his hands

4Daleth He fills his bow like the oppressor. He raised his right hand as an enemy and he killed every lust of eyes in the tent of the house of Zion and he poured out his anger as fire

5He LORD JEHOVAH was as an enemy and he drowned Israel, and he sank all his palaces and destroyed his surroundings and he increased in the daughter of Yehuda a byword and wailings

6Waw And he has uprooted his tabernacle like a garden and has destroyed his feasts. LORD JEHOVAH has made the feast and the Sabbath to be forgotten from Zion, and he despised the King and the Priests in the heat of his wrath

7Zayin LORD JEHOVAH has forgotten his altar. He has despised his holy place. He has delivered the walls of his palaces into the hand of the enemy. They made noise in the house of LORD JEHOVAH like that in the day of a festival

8Kheth LORD JEHOVAH has planned to destroy the walls of the house of Zion. He cast a cord and will not return his hand from sinking her, and he put his army in mourning, and its walls they laid waste together

9Teth Her gates have sunk into the ground, and they destroyed and broke her bars. Her Kings and her Princes are among the Gentiles. There is no Law, also her Prophets have not found a vision from LORD JEHOVAH

10Yodh They have dwelt in the land and the Elders of the house of Zion kept silent. They cast dust on their heads and they put on sackcloth. The virgins of Jerusalem bend their heads to the ground

11Kaph My eyes grew dark with tears and my bowels were troubled. My glory is cast down to the ground because of the ruin of the house of my people, when the children and the babies were afflicted in the streets of the city

12Lamed To their mothers they say: “Where is the grain and the wine and the oil?”, when they were afflicted as the slain in the streets of the city, when their souls are poured out into the bosom of their mothers

13Mem What shall I testify to you, and to whom shall I liken you, daughter of Jerusalem? With whom shall I compare you and comfort you, virgin daughter of Zion, for your breach is great as the sea? Who shall close it up?

14Nun Your Prophets have seen falsehood and deception for you, and they have not laid bare for you concerning your sins that you would return to God and I would turn your captivity, and they saw for you lying and deceptive prophecies

15Samekh All passersby on the road strike their hands over you. They hiss and they shake their heads at the daughter of Jerusalem and they say: “Is this the city which they have been saying is the perfection of beauty, and the joy of all the Earth?”

16Ayin LORD JEHOVAH has done the thing that he planned and he has fulfilled his word, as he commanded from the first days. He has destroyed her and he had no pity, and the enemy rejoiced over you and he lifted up the horn of your oppressors

17Pe All your enemies have opened their mouths against you. They hissed and they gnashed their teeth and they were saying: ‘We have devoured her! Surely this is the day that we waited for! We have found it and we see it!’

18Tsadhe Their heart cried to LORD JEHOVAH of the walls of the daughter of Zion. Make flow as a torrent of tears by day and by night! You shall not be given refreshing for yourselves, and the pupil of your eye shall not cease!

19Qoph Arise, sing in the night at first watch, and pour out your heart like waters before the face of LORD JEHOVAH! Raise to him your hands for the souls of your little children who are suffering with hunger at the top of all the streets!

20Resh See, LORD JEHOVAH, and look to whom you have done thus, as women shall eat their offspring the children who are dashed to pieces! Yes, Priest and Prophet shall be killed in the holy place of LORD JEHOVAH

21Shin Children and Elders sleep on the ground in the street. My virgins and my young men fell by the sword. You have killed in the day of your wrath! You have slaughtered and you showed no pity!

22Tau You called my enemies from around me as in the day of a feast and there was no fugitive or survivor in the day of the wrath of LORD JEHOVAH. Whomever I have carried or raised, my enemies have consumed!