Lamentations 1:1-3:36

Other Translations of Lamentations 1:1-3:36

King James Version

The Sorrows of Captive Zion

1¹ How doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people! how is she become as a widow! she that was great among the nations, and princess among the provinces, how is she become tributary! ² She weepeth sore in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks: among all her lovers she hath none to comfort her: all her friends have dealt treacherously with her, they are become her enemies. ³ Judah is gone into captivity because of affliction, and because of great because of great...: Heb. for the greatness of servitude servitude: she dwelleth among the heathen, she findeth no rest: all her persecutors overtook her between the straits. ⁴ The ways of Zion do mourn, because none come to the solemn feasts: all her gates are desolate: her priests sigh, her virgins are afflicted, and she is in bitterness. ⁵ Her adversaries are the chief, her enemies prosper; for the Lord hath afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions: her children are gone into captivity before the enemy. ⁶ And from the daughter of Zion all her beauty is departed: her princes are become like harts that find no pasture, and they are gone without strength before the pursuer. ⁷ Jerusalem remembered in the days of her affliction and of her miseries all her pleasant things that she had in the days of old, when her people fell into the hand of the enemy, and none did help her: the adversaries saw her, and did mock at her sabbaths. ⁸ Jerusalem hath grievously sinned; therefore she is removed: all that honoured her despise her, because they have seen her nakedness: yea, she sigheth, and turneth backward. ⁹ Her filthiness is in her skirts; she remembereth not her last end; therefore she came down wonderfully: she had no comforter. O Lord, behold my affliction: for the enemy hath magnified himself. ¹⁰ The adversary hath spread out his hand upon all her pleasant things: for she hath seen that the heathen entered into her sanctuary, whom thou didst command that they should not enter into thy congregation. ¹¹ All her people sigh, they seek bread; they have given their pleasant things for meat to relieve the soul: see, O Lord, and consider; for I am become vile.

¹² Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger. ¹³ From above hath he sent fire into my bones, and it prevaileth against them: he hath spread a net for my feet, he hath turned me back: he hath made me desolate and faint all the day. ¹⁴ The yoke of my transgressions is bound by his hand: they are wreathed, and come up upon my neck: he hath made my strength to fall, the Lord hath delivered me into their hands, from whom I am not able to rise up. ¹⁵ The Lord hath trodden under foot all my mighty men in the midst of me: he hath called an assembly against me to crush my young men: the Lord hath trodden the virgin, the virgin...: or, the winepress of the virgin, etc the daughter of Judah, as in a winepress. ¹⁶ For these things I weep; mine eye, mine eye runneth down with water, because the comforter that should relieve relieve: Heb. bring back my soul is far from me: my children are desolate, because the enemy prevailed. ¹⁷ Zion spreadeth forth her hands, and there is none to comfort her: the Lord hath commanded concerning Jacob, that his adversaries should be round about him: Jerusalem is as a menstruous woman among them. ¹⁸ The Lord is righteous; for I have rebelled against his commandment: commandment: Heb. mouth hear, I pray you, all people, and behold my sorrow: my virgins and my young men are gone into captivity. ¹⁹ I called for my lovers, but they deceived me: my priests and mine elders gave up the ghost in the city, while they sought their meat to relieve their souls. ²⁰ Behold, O Lord; for I am in distress: my bowels are troubled; mine heart is turned within me; for I have grievously rebelled: abroad the sword bereaveth, at home there is as death. ²¹ They have heard that I sigh: there is none to comfort me: all mine enemies have heard of my trouble; they are glad that thou hast done it: thou wilt bring the day that thou hast called, called: or, proclaimed and they shall be like unto me. ²² Let all their wickedness come before thee; and do unto them, as thou hast done unto me for all my transgressions: for my sighs are many, and my heart is faint.

Zion's Sorrows Come from the LORD

2¹ How hath the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger, and cast down from heaven unto the earth the beauty of Israel, and remembered not his footstool in the day of his anger! ² The Lord hath swallowed up all the habitations of Jacob, and hath not pitied: he hath thrown down in his wrath the strong holds of the daughter of Judah; he hath brought them down brought...: Heb. made to touch to the ground: he hath polluted the kingdom and the princes thereof. ³ He hath cut off in his fierce anger all the horn of Israel: he hath drawn back his right hand from before the enemy, and he burned against Jacob like a flaming fire, which devoureth round about. ⁴ He hath bent his bow like an enemy: he stood with his right hand as an adversary, and slew all that were pleasant all...: Heb. all the desirable of the eye to the eye in the tabernacle of the daughter of Zion: he poured out his fury like fire. ⁵ The Lord was as an enemy: he hath swallowed up Israel, he hath swallowed up all her palaces: he hath destroyed his strong holds, and hath increased in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation. ⁶ And he hath violently taken away his tabernacle, tabernacle: or, hedge as if it were of a garden: he hath destroyed his places of the assembly: the Lord hath caused the solemn feasts and sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion, and hath despised in the indignation of his anger the king and the priest. ⁷ The Lord hath cast off his altar, he hath abhorred his sanctuary, he hath given up given up: Heb. shut up into the hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces; they have made a noise in the house of the Lord, as in the day of a solemn feast. ⁸ The Lord hath purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion: he hath stretched out a line, he hath not withdrawn his hand from destroying: destroying: Heb. swallowing up therefore he made the rampart and the wall to lament; they languished together. ⁹ Her gates are sunk into the ground; he hath destroyed and broken her bars: her king and her princes are among the Gentiles: the law is no more; her prophets also find no vision from the Lord.

¹⁰ The elders of the daughter of Zion sit upon the ground, and keep silence: they have cast up dust upon their heads; they have girded themselves with sackcloth: the virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground. ¹¹ Mine eyes do fail with tears, my bowels are troubled, my liver is poured upon the earth, for the destruction of the daughter of my people; because the children and the sucklings swoon swoon: or, faint in the streets of the city. ¹² They say to their mothers, Where is corn and wine? when they swooned as the wounded in the streets of the city, when their soul was poured out into their mothers' bosom. ¹³ What thing shall I take to witness for thee? what thing shall I liken to thee, O daughter of Jerusalem? what shall I equal to thee, that I may comfort thee, O virgin daughter of Zion? for thy breach is great like the sea: who can heal thee? ¹⁴ Thy prophets have seen vain and foolish things for thee: and they have not discovered thine iniquity, to turn away thy captivity; but have seen for thee false burdens and causes of banishment. ¹⁵ All that pass by clap their hands at thee; they hiss and wag their head at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying, Is this the city that men call The perfection of beauty, The joy of the whole earth? ¹⁶ All thine enemies have opened their mouth against thee: they hiss and gnash the teeth: they say, We have swallowed her up: certainly this is the day that we looked for; we have found, we have seen it. ¹⁷ The Lord hath done that which he had devised; he hath fulfilled his word that he had commanded in the days of old: he hath thrown down, and hath not pitied: and he hath caused thine enemy to rejoice over thee, he hath set up the horn of thine adversaries. ¹⁸ Their heart cried unto the Lord, O wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears run down like a river day and night: give thyself no rest; let not the apple of thine eye cease. ¹⁹ Arise, cry out in the night: in the beginning of the watches pour out thine heart like water before the face of the Lord: lift up thy hands toward him for the life of thy young children, that faint for hunger in the top of every street. ²⁰ Behold, O Lord, and consider to whom thou hast done this. Shall the women eat their fruit, and children of a span long? shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord? ²¹ The young and the old lie on the ground in the streets: my virgins and my young men are fallen by the sword; thou hast slain them in the day of thine anger; thou hast killed, and not pitied. ²² Thou hast called as in a solemn day my terrors round about, so that in the day of the Lord's anger none escaped nor remained: those that I have swaddled and brought up hath mine enemy consumed.

Hope of Relief through God's Mercy

3¹ I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath. ² He hath led me, and brought me into darkness, but not into light. ³ Surely against me is he turned; he turneth his hand against me all the day. ⁴ My flesh and my skin hath he made old; he hath broken my bones. ⁵ He hath builded against me, and compassed me with gall and travail. ⁶ He hath set me in dark places, as they that be dead of old. ⁷ He hath hedged me about, that I cannot get out: he hath made my chain heavy. ⁸ Also when I cry and shout, he shutteth out my prayer. ⁹ He hath inclosed my ways with hewn stone, he hath made my paths crooked. ¹⁰ He was unto me as a bear lying in wait, and as a lion in secret places. ¹¹ He hath turned aside my ways, and pulled me in pieces: he hath made me desolate. ¹² He hath bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow. ¹³ He hath caused the arrows arrows: Heb. sons of his quiver to enter into my reins. ¹⁴ I was a derision to all my people; and their song all the day. ¹⁵ He hath filled me with bitterness, bitterness: Heb. bitternesses he hath made me drunken with wormwood. ¹⁶ He hath also broken my teeth with gravel stones, he hath covered covered...: or, rolled me in the ashes me with ashes. ¹⁷ And thou hast removed my soul far off from peace: I forgat prosperity. prosperity: Heb. good ¹⁸ And I said, My strength and my hope is perished from the Lord: ¹⁹ Remembering Remembering: or, Remember mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall. ²⁰ My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled humbled: Heb. bowed in me.

²¹ This I recall recall...: Heb. make to return to my heart to my mind, therefore have I hope. ²² It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. ²³ They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. ²⁴ The Lord is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him. ²⁵ The Lord is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. ²⁶ It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord. ²⁷ It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. ²⁸ He sitteth alone and keepeth silence, because he hath borne it upon him. ²⁹ He putteth his mouth in the dust; if so be there may be hope. ³⁰ He giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him: he is filled full with reproach. ³¹ For the Lord will not cast off for ever: ³² But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies. ³³ For he doth not afflict willingly willingly: Heb. from his heart nor grieve the children of men. ³⁴ To crush under his feet all the prisoners of the earth, ³⁵ To turn aside the right of a man before the face of the most High, the most High: or, a superior ³⁶ To subvert a man in his cause, the Lord approveth not. approveth not: or, seeth not

English Standard Version

The Sorrows of Captive Zion

1¹ How lonely sits the city that was full of people! How like a widow has she become, she who was great among the nations! She who was a princess among the provinces has become a slave. ² She weeps bitterly in the night, with 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. ³ 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.Or in the narrow passes ⁴ The roads to Zion mourn, for none come to the festival; all her gates are desolate; her priests groan; her virgins have been afflicted,Septuagint, Old Latin dragged away and she herself suffers bitterly. ⁵ Her foes have become the head; her enemies prosper, because the Lord has afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions; her children have gone away, captives before the foe. ⁶ From the daughter of Zion all her majesty has departed. Her princes have become like deer that find no pasture; they fled without strength before the pursuer. ⁷ Jerusalem remembers in the days of her affliction and wandering 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, her foes gloated over her; they mocked at her downfall. ⁸ Jerusalem sinned grievously; therefore she became filthy; all who honored her despise her, for they have seen her nakedness; she herself groans and turns her face away. ⁹ Her uncleanness was in her skirts; she took no thought of her future;Or end therefore her fall is terrible; she has no comforter. "O Lord, behold my affliction, for the enemy has triumphed!" ¹⁰ The enemy has stretched out his hands over all her precious things; for she has seen the nations enter her sanctuary, those whom you forbade to enter your congregation. ¹¹ All her people groan as they search for bread; they trade their treasures for food to revive their strength. "Look, O Lord, and see, for I am despised."

¹² "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. ¹³ "From on high he sent fire; into my bonesSeptuagint; Hebrew bones and 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. ¹⁴ "My transgressions were boundThe meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain 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. ¹⁵ "The Lord rejected all my mighty men in my midst; he summoned an assembly against me to crush my young men; the Lord has trodden as in a winepress the virgin daughter of Judah. ¹⁶ "For these things I weep; my eyes flow with tears; for a comforter is far from me, one to revive my spirit; my children are desolate, for the enemy has prevailed." ¹⁷ 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. ¹⁸ "The Lord is in the right, for I have rebelled against his word; but hear, all you peoples, and see my suffering; my young women and my young men have gone into captivity. ¹⁹ "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. ²⁰ "Look, O Lord, for I am in distress; my stomach churns; 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. ²¹ "They heardSeptuagint, Syriac Hear my groaning, yet there is no one to comfort me. All my enemies have heard of my trouble; they are glad that you have done it. You have broughtSyriac Bring the day you announced; now let them be as I am. ²² "Let all their evildoing come before you, and deal with them as you have dealt with me because of all my transgressions; for my groans are many, and my heart is faint."

Zion's Sorrows Come from the LORD

2¹ 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. ² The Lord has swallowed up 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. ³ 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. ⁴ He has bent his bow like an enemy, with his right hand set like a foe; and he has killed all who were delightful in our eyes in the tent of the daughter of Zion; he has poured out his fury like fire. ⁵ The Lord has become like an enemy; he has swallowed up Israel; he has swallowed up all its palaces; he has laid in ruins its strongholds, and he has multiplied in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation. ⁶ He has laid waste his booth like a garden, laid in ruins his meeting place; the Lord has made Zion forget festival and Sabbath, and in his fierce indignation has spurned king and priest. ⁷ The Lord has scorned his altar, disowned his sanctuary; he has delivered into the hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces; they raised a clamor in the house of the Lord as on the day of festival. ⁸ The Lord determined to lay in ruins the wall of the daughter of Zion; he stretched out the measuring line; he did not restrain his hand from destroying; he caused rampart and wall to lament; they languished together. ⁹ 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 find no vision from the Lord.

¹⁰ The elders of the daughter of Zion sit on the ground in silence; they have thrown dust on their heads and put on sackcloth; the young women of Jerusalem have bowed their heads to the ground. ¹¹ My eyes are spent with weeping; my stomach churns; my bile is poured out to the ground because of the destruction of the daughter of my people, because infants and babies faint in the streets of the city. ¹² They cry to their mothers, "Where is bread and wine?" as they faint like a wounded man in the streets of the city, as their life is poured out on their mothers' bosom. ¹³ 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 your ruin is vast as the sea; who can heal you? ¹⁴ 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 that are false and misleading. ¹⁵ 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 that was called the perfection of beauty, the joy of all the earth?" ¹⁶ All your enemies rail against you; they hiss, they gnash their teeth, they cry: "We have swallowed her! Ah, this is the day we longed for; now we have it; we see it!" ¹⁷ The Lord has done what he purposed; he has carried out his word, which he commanded long ago; he has thrown down without pity; he has made the enemy rejoice over you and exalted the might of your foes. ¹⁸ Their heart cried to the Lord. O wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears stream down like a torrent day and night! Give yourself no rest, your eyes no respite! ¹⁹ "Arise, cry out in the night, at the beginning of the night 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." ²⁰ Look, O Lord, and see! With whom have you dealt thus? Should women eat the fruit of their womb, the children of their tender care? Should priest and prophet be killed in the sanctuary of the Lord? ²¹ In the dust of the streets lie the young and the old; my young women and my young men have fallen by the sword; you have killed them in the day of your anger, slaughtering without pity. ²² You summoned as if to a festival day my terrors on every side, and on the day of the anger of the Lord no one escaped or survived; those whom I held and raised my enemy destroyed.

Hope of Relief through God's Mercy

3¹ I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of his wrath; ² he has driven and brought me into darkness without any light; ³ surely against me he turns his hand again and again the whole day long. ⁴ He has made my flesh and my skin waste away; he has broken my bones; ⁵ he has besieged and enveloped me with bitterness and tribulation; ⁶ he has made me dwell in darkness like the dead of long ago. ⁷ He has walled me about so that I cannot escape; he has made my chains heavy; ⁸ though I call and cry for help, he shuts out my prayer; ⁹ he has blocked my ways with blocks of stones; he has made my paths crooked. ¹⁰ He is a bear lying in wait for me, a lion in hiding; ¹¹ he turned aside my steps and tore me to pieces; he has made me desolate; ¹² he bent his bow and set me as a target for his arrow. ¹³ He drove into my kidneys the arrows of his quiver; ¹⁴ I have become the laughingstock of all peoples, the object of their taunts all day long. ¹⁵ He has filled me with bitterness; he has sated me with wormwood. ¹⁶ He has made my teeth grind on gravel, and made me cower in ashes; ¹⁷ my soul is bereft of peace; I have forgotten what happinessHebrew good is; ¹⁸ so I say, "My endurance has perished; so has my hope from the Lord." ¹⁹ Remember my affliction and my wanderings, the wormwood and the gall! ²⁰ My soul continually remembers it and is bowed down within me.

²¹ But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: ²² The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;Syriac, Targum; Hebrew Because of the steadfast love of the Lord, we are not cut off his mercies never come to an end; ²³ they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. ²⁴ "The Lord is my portion," says my soul, "therefore I will hope in him." ²⁵ The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. ²⁶ It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. ²⁷ It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. ²⁸ Let him sit alone in silence when it is laid on him; ²⁹ let him put his mouth in the dust-- there may yet be hope; ³⁰ let him give his cheek to the one who strikes, and let him be filled with insults. ³¹ For the Lord will not cast off forever, ³² but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love; ³³ for he does not willingly afflict or grieve the children of men. ³⁴ To crush underfoot all the prisoners of the earth, ³⁵ to deny a man justice in the presence of the Most High, ³⁶ to subvert a man in his lawsuit, the Lord does not approve.

The Message

The Sorrows of Captive Zion

1¹ Oh, oh, oh . . . How empty the city, once teeming with people. A widow, this city, once in the front rank of nations, once queen of the ball, she's now a drudge in the kitchen. ² She cries herself to sleep each night, tears soaking her pillow. No one's left among her lovers to sit and hold her hand. Her friends have all dumped her. ³ After years of pain and hard labor, Judah has gone into exile. She camps out among the nations, never feels at home. Hunted by all, she's stuck between a rock and a hard place. ⁴ Zion's roads weep, empty of pilgrims headed to the feasts. All her city gates are deserted, her priests in despair. Her virgins are sad. How bitter her fate. ⁵ Her enemies have become her masters. Her foes are living it up because God laid her low, punishing her repeated rebellions. Her children, prisoners of the enemy, trudge into exile. ⁶ All beauty has drained from Daughter Zion's face. Her princes are like deer famished for food, chased to exhaustion by hunters. ⁷ Jerusalem remembers the day she lost everything, when her people fell into enemy hands, and not a soul there to help. Enemies looked on and laughed, laughed at her helpless silence. ⁸ Jerusalem, who outsinned the whole world, is an outcast. All who admired her despise her now that they see beneath the surface. Miserable, she groans and turns away in shame. ⁹ She played fast and loose with life, she never considered tomorrow, and now she's crashed royally, with no one to hold her hand: "Look at my pain, O God! And how the enemy cruelly struts." ¹⁰ The enemy reached out to take all her favorite things. She watched as pagans barged into her Sanctuary, those very people for whom you posted orders: keep out: this assembly off-limits. ¹¹ All the people groaned, so desperate for food, so desperate to stay alive that they bartered their favorite things for a bit of breakfast: "O God, look at me! Worthless, cheap, abject!

¹² "And you passersby, look at me! Have you ever seen anything like this? Ever seen pain like my pain, seen what he did to me, what God did to me in his rage? ¹³ "He struck me with lightning, skewered me from head to foot, then he set traps all around so I could hardly move. He left me with nothing - left me sick, and sick of living. ¹⁴ "He wove my sins into a rope and harnessed me to captivity's yoke. I'm goaded by cruel taskmasters. ¹⁵ "The Master piled up my best soldiers in a heap, then called in thugs to break their fine young necks. The Master crushed the life out of fair virgin Judah. ¹⁶ "For all this I weep, weep buckets of tears, and not a soul within miles around cares for my soul. My children are wasted, my enemy got his way." ¹⁷ Zion reached out for help, but no one helped. God ordered Jacob's enemies to surround him, and now no one wants anything to do with Jerusalem. ¹⁸ "God has right on his side. I'm the one who did wrong. Listen everybody! Look at what I'm going through! My fair young women, my fine young men, all herded into exile! ¹⁹ "I called to my friends; they betrayed me. My priests and my leaders only looked after themselves, trying but failing to save their own skins. ²⁰ "O God, look at the trouble I'm in! My stomach in knots, my heart wrecked by a life of rebellion. Massacres in the streets, starvation in the houses. ²¹ "Oh, listen to my groans. No one listens, no one cares. When my enemies heard of the trouble you gave me, they cheered. Bring on Judgment Day! Let them get what I got! ²² "Take a good look at their evil ways and give it to them! Give them what you gave me for my sins. Groaning in pain, body and soul, I've had all I can take."

Zion's Sorrows Come from the LORD

2¹ Oh, oh, oh . . . How the Master has cut down Daughter Zion from the skies, dashed Israel's glorious city to earth, in his anger treated his favorite as throwaway junk. ² The Master, without a second thought, took Israel in one gulp. Raging, he smashed Judah's defenses, made hash of her king and princes. ³ His anger blazing, he knocked Israel flat, broke Israel's arm and turned his back just as the enemy approached, came on Jacob like a wildfire from every direction. ⁴ Like an enemy, he aimed his bow, bared his sword, and killed our young men, our pride and joy. His anger, like fire, burned down the homes in Zion. ⁵ The Master became the enemy. He had Israel for supper. He chewed up and spit out all the defenses. He left Daughter Judah moaning and groaning. ⁶ He plowed up his old trysting place, trashed his favorite rendezvous. God wiped out Zion's memories of feast days and Sabbaths, angrily sacked king and priest alike. ⁷ God abandoned his altar, walked away from his holy Temple and turned the fortifications over to the enemy. As they cheered in God's Temple, you'd have thought it was a feast day! ⁸ God drew up plans to tear down the walls of Daughter Zion. He assembled his crew, set to work and went at it. Total demolition! The stones wept! ⁹ Her city gates, iron bars and all, disappeared in the rubble: her kings and princes off to exile - no one left to instruct or lead; her prophets useless - they neither saw nor heard anything from God.

¹⁰ The elders of Daughter Zion sit silent on the ground. They throw dust on their heads, dress in rough penitential burlap - the young virgins of Jerusalem, their faces creased with the dirt. ¹¹ My eyes are blind with tears, my stomach in a knot. My insides have turned to jelly over my people's fate. Babies and children are fainting all over the place, ¹² Calling to their mothers, "I'm hungry! I'm thirsty!" then fainting like dying soldiers in the streets, breathing their last in their mothers' laps. ¹³ How can I understand your plight, dear Jerusalem? What can I say to give you comfort, dear Zion? Who can put you together again? This bust-up is past understanding. ¹⁴ Your prophets courted you with sweet talk. They didn't face you with your sin so that you could repent. Their sermons were all wishful thinking, deceptive illusions. ¹⁵ Astonished, passersby can't believe what they see. They rub their eyes, they shake their heads over Jerusalem. Is this the city voted "Most Beautiful" and "Best Place to Live"? ¹⁶ But now your enemies gape, slack-jawed. Then they rub their hands in glee: "We've got them! We've been waiting for this! Here it is!" ¹⁷ God did carry out, item by item, exactly what he said he'd do. He always said he'd do this. Now he's done it - torn the place down. He's let your enemies walk all over you, declared them world champions! ¹⁸ Give out heart-cries to the Master, dear repentant Zion. Let the tears roll like a river, day and night, and keep at it - no time-outs. Keep those tears flowing! ¹⁹ As each night watch begins, get up and cry out in prayer. Pour your heart out face to face with the Master. Lift high your hands. Beg for the lives of your children who are starving to death out on the streets. ²⁰ "Look at us, God. Think it over. Have you ever treated anyone like this? Should women eat their own babies, the very children they raised? Should priests and prophets be murdered in the Master's own Sanctuary? ²¹ "Boys and old men lie in the gutters of the streets, my young men and women killed in their prime. Angry, you killed them in cold blood, cut them down without mercy. ²² "You invited, like friends to a party, men to swoop down in attack so that on the big day of God's wrath no one would get away. The children I loved and reared - gone, gone, gone."

Hope of Relief through God's Mercy

3¹ I'm the man who has seen trouble, trouble coming from the lash of God's anger. ² He took me by the hand and walked me into pitch-black darkness. ³ Yes, he's given me the back of his hand over and over and over again. ⁴ He turned me into a scarecrow of skin and bones, then broke the bones. ⁵ He hemmed me in, ganged up on me, poured on the trouble and hard times. ⁶ He locked me up in deep darkness, like a corpse nailed inside a coffin. ⁷ He shuts me in so I'll never get out, manacles my hands, shackles my feet. ⁸ Even when I cry out and plead for help, he locks up my prayers and throws away the key. ⁹ He sets up blockades with quarried limestone. He's got me cornered. ¹⁰ He's a prowling bear tracking me down, a lion in hiding ready to pounce. ¹¹ He knocked me from the path and ripped me to pieces. When he finished, there was nothing left of me. ¹² He took out his bow and arrows and used me for target practice. ¹³ He shot me in the stomach with arrows from his quiver. ¹⁴ Everyone took me for a joke, made me the butt of their mocking ballads. ¹⁵ He forced rotten, stinking food down my throat, bloated me with vile drinks. ¹⁶ He ground my face into the gravel. He pounded me into the mud. ¹⁷ I gave up on life altogether. I've forgotten what the good life is like. ¹⁸ I said to myself, "This is it. I'm finished. God is a lost cause." It's a Good Thing to Hope for Help from God ¹⁹ I'll never forget the trouble, the utter lostness, the taste of ashes, the poison I've swallowed. ²⁰ I remember it all - oh, how well I remember - the feeling of hitting the bottom.

²¹ But there's one other thing I remember, and remembering, I keep a grip on hope: ²² God's loyal love couldn't have run out, his merciful love couldn't have dried up. ²³ They're created new every morning. How great your faithfulness! ²⁴ I'm sticking with God (I say it over and over). He's all I've got left. ²⁵ God proves to be good to the man who passionately waits, to the woman who diligently seeks. ²⁶ It's a good thing to quietly hope, quietly hope for help from God. ²⁷ It's a good thing when you're young to stick it out through the hard times. ²⁸ When life is heavy and hard to take, go off by yourself. Enter the silence. ²⁹ Bow in prayer. Don't ask questions: Wait for hope to appear. ³⁰ Don't run from trouble. Take it full-face. The "worst" is never the worst. ³¹ Why? Because the Master won't ever walk out and fail to return. ³² If he works severely, he also works tenderly. His stockpiles of loyal love are immense. ³³ He takes no pleasure in making life hard, in throwing roadblocks in the way: ³⁴ Stomping down hard on luckless prisoners, ³⁵ Refusing justice to victims in the court of High God, ³⁶ Tampering with evidence - the Master does not approve of such things. God Speaks Both Good Things and Hard Things into Being

New King James Version

The Sorrows of Captive Zion

1¹ How lonely sits the city That was full of people! How like a widow is she, Who was great among the nations! The princess among the provinces Has become a slave! ² She weeps bitterly in the night, Her tears are 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. ³ Judah has gone into captivity, Under affliction and hard servitude; She dwells among the nations, She finds no rest; All her persecutors overtake her in dire straits. ⁴ The roads to Zion mourn Because no one comes to the set feasts. All her gates are desolate; Her priests sigh, Her virgins are afflicted, And she is in bitterness. ⁵ Her adversaries have become the master, Her enemies prosper; For the Lord has afflicted her Because of the multitude of her transgressions. Her children have gone into captivity before the enemy. ⁶ And from the daughter of Zion All her splendor has departed. Her princes have become like deer That find no pasture, That flee without strength Before the pursuer. ⁷ In the days of her affliction and roaming, Jerusalem remembers all her pleasant things That she had in the days of old. When her people fell into the hand of the enemy, With no one to help her, The adversaries saw her And mocked at her downfall. ⁸ Jerusalem has sinned gravely, Therefore she has become vile. All who honored her despise her Because they have seen her nakedness; Yes, she sighs and turns away. ⁹ Her uncleanness is in her skirts; She did not consider her destiny; Therefore her collapse was awesome; She had no comforter. "O Lord, behold my affliction, For the enemy is exalted!" ¹⁰ The adversary has spread his hand Over all her pleasant things; For she has seen the nations enter her sanctuary, Those whom You commanded Not to enter Your assembly. ¹¹ All her people sigh, They seek bread; They have given their valuables for food to restore life. "See, O Lord, and consider, For I am scorned."

¹² "Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Behold and see If there is any sorrow like my sorrow, Which has been brought on me, Which the Lord has inflicted In the day of His fierce anger. ¹³ "From above He has sent fire into my bones, And it overpowered them; He has spread a net for my feet And turned me back; He has made me desolate And faint all the day. ¹⁴ "The yoke of my transgressions was bound; They were woven together by His hands, And thrust upon my neck. He made my strength fail; The Lord delivered me into the hands of those whom I am not able to withstand. ¹⁵ "The Lord has trampled underfoot all my mighty men in my midst; He has called an assembly against me To crush my young men; The Lord trampled as in a winepress The virgin daughter of Judah. ¹⁶ "For these things I weep; My eye, my eye overflows with water; Because the comforter, who should restore my life, Is far from me. My children are desolate Because the enemy prevailed." ¹⁷ Zion spreads out her hands, But no one comforts her; The Lord has commanded concerning Jacob That those around him become his adversaries; Jerusalem has become an unclean thing among them. ¹⁸ "The Lord is righteous, For I rebelled against His commandment. Hear now, all peoples, And behold my sorrow; My virgins and my young men Have gone into captivity. ¹⁹ "I called for my lovers, But they deceived me; My priests and my elders Breathed their last in the city, While they sought food To restore their life. ²⁰ "See, O Lord, that I am in distress; My soul is troubled; My heart is overturned within me, For I have been very rebellious. Outside the sword bereaves, At home it is like death. ²¹ "They have heard that I sigh, But no one comforts me. All my enemies have heard of my trouble; They are glad that You have done it. Bring on the day You have announced, That they may become like me. ²² "Let all their wickedness come before You, And do to them as You have done to me For all my transgressions; For my sighs are many, And my heart is faint."

Zion's Sorrows Come from the LORD

2¹ How the Lord has covered the daughter of Zion With a cloud in His anger! He cast down from heaven to the earth The beauty of Israel, And did not remember His footstool In the day of His anger. ² The Lord has swallowed up and has not pitied All the dwelling places of Jacob. He has thrown down in His wrath The strongholds of the daughter of Judah; He has brought them down to the ground; He has profaned the kingdom and its princes. ³ He has cut off in fierce anger Every horn of Israel; He has drawn back His right hand From before the enemy. He has blazed against Jacob like a flaming fire Devouring all around. ⁴ Standing like an enemy, He has bent His bow; With His right hand, like an adversary, He has slain all who were pleasing to His eye; On the tent of the daughter of Zion, He has poured out His fury like fire. ⁵ The Lord was like an enemy. He has swallowed up Israel, He has swallowed up all her palaces; He has destroyed her strongholds, And has increased mourning and lamentation In the daughter of Judah. ⁶ He has done violence to His tabernacle, As if it were a garden; He has destroyed His place of assembly; The Lord has caused The appointed feasts and Sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion. In His burning indignation He has spurned the king and the priest. ⁷ The Lord has spurned His altar, He has abandoned His sanctuary; He has given up the walls of her palaces Into the hand of the enemy. They have made a noise in the house of the Lord As on the day of a set feast. ⁸ The Lord has purposed to destroy The wall of the daughter of Zion. He has stretched out a line; He has not withdrawn His hand from destroying; Therefore He has caused the rampart and wall to lament; They languished together. ⁹ Her gates have sunk into the ground; He has destroyed and broken her bars. Her king and her princes are among the nations; The Law is no more, And her prophets find no vision from the Lord.

¹⁰ The elders of the daughter of Zion Sit on the ground and keep silence; They throw dust on their heads And gird themselves with sackcloth. The virgins of Jerusalem Bow their heads to the ground. ¹¹ My eyes fail with tears, My heart is troubled; My bile is poured on the ground Because of the destruction of the daughter of my people, Because the children and the infants Faint in the streets of the city. ¹² They say to their mothers, "Where is grain and wine?" As they swoon like the wounded In the streets of the city, As their life is poured out In their mothers' bosom. ¹³ How shall I console you? To what shall I liken you, O daughter of Jerusalem? What shall I compare with you, that I may comfort you, O virgin daughter of Zion? For your ruin is spread wide as the sea; Who can heal you? ¹⁴ Your prophets have seen for you False and deceptive visions; They have not uncovered your iniquity, To bring back your captives, But have envisioned for you false prophecies and delusions. ¹⁵ All who pass by clap their hands at you; They hiss and shake their heads At the daughter of Jerusalem: "Is this the city that is called 'The perfection of beauty, The joy of the whole earth'?" ¹⁶ All your enemies have opened their mouth against you; They hiss and gnash their teeth. They say, "We have swallowed her up! Surely this is the day we have waited for; We have found it, we have seen it!" ¹⁷ The Lord has done what He purposed; He has fulfilled His word Which He commanded in days of old. He has thrown down and has not pitied, And He has caused an enemy to rejoice over you; He has exalted the horn of your adversaries. ¹⁸ Their heart cried out to the Lord, "O wall of the daughter of Zion, Let tears run down like a river day and night; Give yourself no relief; Give your eyes no rest. ¹⁹ "Arise, cry out in the night, At the beginning of the watches; Pour out your heart like water before the face of the Lord. Lift your hands toward Him For the life of your young children, Who faint from hunger at the head of every street." ²⁰ "See, O Lord, and consider! To whom have You done this? Should the women eat their offspring, The children they have cuddled? Should the priest and prophet be slain In the sanctuary of the Lord? ²¹ "Young and old lie On the ground in the streets; My virgins and my young men Have fallen by the sword; You have slain them in the day of Your anger, You have slaughtered and not pitied. ²² "You have invited as to a feast day The terrors that surround me. In the day of the Lord's anger There was no refugee or survivor. Those whom I have borne and brought up My enemies have destroyed."

Hope of Relief through God's Mercy

3¹ I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of His wrath. ² He has led me and made me walk In darkness and not in light. ³ Surely He has turned His hand against me Time and time again throughout the day. ⁴ He has aged my flesh and my skin, And broken my bones. ⁵ He has besieged me And surrounded me with bitterness and woe. ⁶ He has set me in dark places Like the dead of long ago. ⁷ He has hedged me in so that I cannot get out; He has made my chain heavy. ⁸ Even when I cry and shout, He shuts out my prayer. ⁹ He has blocked my ways with hewn stone; He has made my paths crooked. ¹⁰ He has been to me a bear lying in wait, Like a lion in ambush. ¹¹ He has turned aside my ways and torn me in pieces; He has made me desolate. ¹² He has bent His bow And set me up as a target for the arrow. ¹³ He has caused the arrows of His quiver To pierce my loins. ¹⁴ I have become the ridicule of all my people-- Their taunting song all the day. ¹⁵ He has filled me with bitterness, He has made me drink wormwood. ¹⁶ He has also broken my teeth with gravel, And covered me with ashes. ¹⁷ You have moved my soul far from peace; I have forgotten prosperity. ¹⁸ And I said, "My strength and my hope Have perished from the Lord." ¹⁹ Remember my affliction and roaming, The wormwood and the gall. ²⁰ My soul still remembers And sinks within me.

²¹ This I recall to my mind, Therefore I have hope. ²² Through the Lord's mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not. ²³ They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness. ²⁴ "The Lord is my portion," says my soul, "Therefore I hope in Him!" ²⁵ The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, To the soul who seeks Him. ²⁶ It is good that one should hope and wait quietly For the salvation of the Lord. ²⁷ It is good for a man to bear The yoke in his youth. ²⁸ Let him sit alone and keep silent, Because God has laid it on him; ²⁹ Let him put his mouth in the dust-- There may yet be hope. ³⁰ Let him give his cheek to the one who strikes him, And be full of reproach. ³¹ For the Lord will not cast off forever. ³² Though He causes grief, Yet He will show compassion According to the multitude of His mercies. ³³ For He does not afflict willingly, Nor grieve the children of men. ³⁴ To crush under one's feet All the prisoners of the earth, ³⁵ To turn aside the justice due a man Before the face of the Most High, ³⁶ Or subvert a man in his cause-- The Lord does not approve.

New Living Translation

The Sorrows of Captive Zion

1¹ Jerusalem, once so full of people, is now deserted. She who was once great among the nations now sits alone like a widow. Once the queen of all the earth, she is now a slave. ² She sobs through the night; tears stream down her cheeks. Among all her lovers, there is no one left to comfort her. All her friends have betrayed her and become her enemies. ³ Judah has been led away into captivity, oppressed with cruel slavery. She lives among foreign nations and has no place of rest. Her enemies have chased her down, and she has nowhere to turn. ⁴ The roads to Jerusalem are in mourning, for crowds no longer come to celebrate the festivals. The city gates are silent, her priests groan, her young women are crying- how bitter is her fate! ⁵ Her oppressors have become her masters, and her enemies prosper, for the Lord has punished Jerusalem for her many sins. Her children have been captured and taken away to distant lands. ⁶ All the majesty of beautiful Jerusalem has been stripped away. Her princes are like starving deer searching for pasture. They are too weak to run from the pursuing enemy. ⁷ In the midst of her sadness and wandering, Jerusalem remembers her ancient splendor. But now she has fallen to her enemy, and there is no one to help her. Her enemy struck her down and laughed as she fell. ⁸ Jerusalem has sinned greatly, so she has been tossed away like a filthy rag. All who once honored her now despise her, for they have seen her stripped naked and humiliated. All she can do is groan and hide her face. ⁹ She defiled herself with immorality and gave no thought to her future. Now she lies in the gutter with no one to lift her out. " Lord, see my misery," she cries. "The enemy has triumphed." ¹⁰ The enemy has plundered her completely, taking every precious thing she owns. She has seen foreigners violate her sacred Temple, the place the Lord had forbidden them to enter. ¹¹ Her people groan as they search for bread. They have sold their treasures for food to stay alive. "O Lord, look," she mourns, "and see how I am despised.

¹² "Does it mean nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look around and see if there is any suffering like mine, which the Lord brought on me when he erupted in fierce anger. ¹³ "He has sent fire from heaven that burns in my bones. He has placed a trap in my path and turned me back. He has left me devastated, racked with sickness all day long. ¹⁴ "He wove my sins into ropes to hitch me to a yoke of captivity. The Lord sapped my strength and turned me over to my enemies; I am helpless in their hands. ¹⁵ "The Lord has treated my mighty men with contempt. At his command a great army has come to crush my young warriors. The Lord has trampled his beloved city like grapes are trampled in a winepress. ¹⁶ "For all these things I weep; tears flow down my cheeks. No one is here to comfort me; any who might encourage me are far away. My children have no future, for the enemy has conquered us." ¹⁷ Jerusalem reaches out for help, but no one comforts her. Regarding his people Israel, the Lord has said, "Let their neighbors be their enemies! Let them be thrown away like a filthy rag!" ¹⁸ "The Lord is right," Jerusalem says, "for I rebelled against him. Listen, people everywhere; look upon my anguish and despair, for my sons and daughters have been taken captive to distant lands. ¹⁹ "I begged my allies for help, but they betrayed me. My priests and leaders starved to death in the city, even as they searched for food to save their lives. ²⁰ " Lord, see my anguish! My heart is broken and my soul despairs, for I have rebelled against you. In the streets the sword kills, and at home there is only death. ²¹ "Others heard my groans, but no one turned to comfort me. When my enemies heard about my troubles, they were happy to see what you had done. Oh, bring the day you promised, when they will suffer as I have suffered. ²² "Look at all their evil deeds, Lord . Punish them, as you have punished me for all my sins. My groans are many, and I am sick at heart."

Zion's Sorrows Come from the LORD

2¹ The Lord in his anger has cast a dark shadow over beautiful Jerusalem. The fairest of Israel's cities lies in the dust, thrown down from the heights of heaven. In his day of great anger, the Lord has shown no mercy even to his Temple. ² Without mercy the Lord has destroyed every home in Israel. In his anger he has broken down the fortress walls of beautiful Jerusalem. He has brought them to the ground, dishonoring the kingdom and its rulers. ³ All the strength of Israel vanishes beneath his fierce anger. The Lord has withdrawn his protection as the enemy attacks. He consumes the whole land of Israel like a raging fire. ⁴ He bends his bow against his people, as though he were their enemy. His strength is used against them to kill their finest youth. His fury is poured out like fire on beautiful Jerusalem. ⁵ Yes, the Lord has vanquished Israel like an enemy. He has destroyed her palaces and demolished her fortresses. He has brought unending sorrow and tears upon beautiful Jerusalem. ⁶ He has broken down his Temple as though it were merely a garden shelter. The Lord has blotted out all memory of the holy festivals and Sabbath days. Kings and priests fall together before his fierce anger. ⁷ The Lord has rejected his own altar; he despises his own sanctuary. He has given Jerusalem's palaces to her enemies. They shout in the Lord 's Temple as though it were a day of celebration. ⁸ The Lord was determined to destroy the walls of beautiful Jerusalem. He made careful plans for their destruction, then did what he had planned. Therefore, the ramparts and walls have fallen down before him. ⁹ Jerusalem's gates have sunk into the ground. He has smashed their locks and bars. Her kings and princes have been exiled to distant lands; her law has ceased to exist. Her prophets receive no more visions from the Lord .

¹⁰ The leaders of beautiful Jerusalem sit on the ground in silence. They are clothed in burlap and throw dust on their heads. The young women of Jerusalem hang their heads in shame. ¹¹ I have cried until the tears no longer come; my heart is broken. My spirit is poured out in agony as I see the desperate plight of my people. Little children and tiny babies are fainting and dying in the streets. ¹² They cry out to their mothers, "We need food and drink!" Their lives ebb away in the streets like the life of a warrior wounded in battle. They gasp for life as they collapse in their mothers' arms. ¹³ What can I say about you? Who has ever seen such sorrow? O daughter of Jerusalem, to what can I compare your anguish? O virgin daughter of Zion, how can I comfort you? For your wound is as deep as the sea. Who can heal you? ¹⁴ Your prophets have said so many foolish things, false to the core. They did not save you from exile by pointing out your sins. Instead, they painted false pictures, filling you with false hope. ¹⁵ All who pass by jeer at you. They scoff and insult beautiful Jerusalem, saying, "Is this the city called 'Most Beautiful in All the World' and 'Joy of All the Earth'?" ¹⁶ All your enemies mock you. They scoff and snarl and say, "We have destroyed her at last! We have long waited for this day, and it is finally here!" ¹⁷ But it is the Lord who did just as he planned. He has fulfilled the promises of disaster he made long ago. He has destroyed Jerusalem without mercy. He has caused her enemies to gloat over her and has given them power over her. ¹⁸ Cry aloud before the Lord, O walls of beautiful Jerusalem! Let your tears flow like a river day and night. Give yourselves no rest; give your eyes no relief. ¹⁹ Rise during the night and cry out. Pour out your hearts like water to the Lord. Lift up your hands to him in prayer, pleading for your children, for in every street they are faint with hunger. ²⁰ "O Lord, think about this! Should you treat your own people this way? Should mothers eat their own children, those they once bounced on their knees? Should priests and prophets be killed within the Lord's Temple? ²¹ "See them lying in the streets- young and old, boys and girls, killed by the swords of the enemy. You have killed them in your anger, slaughtering them without mercy. ²² "You have invited terrors from all around, as though you were calling them to a day of feasting. In the day of the Lord 's anger, no one has escaped or survived. The enemy has killed all the children whom I carried and raised."

Hope of Relief through God's Mercy

3¹ I am the one who has seen the afflictions that come from the rod of the Lord 's anger. ² He has led me into darkness, shutting out all light. ³ He has turned his hand against me again and again, all day long. ⁴ He has made my skin and flesh grow old. He has broken my bones. ⁵ He has besieged and surrounded me with anguish and distress. ⁶ He has buried me in a dark place, like those long dead. ⁷ He has walled me in, and I cannot escape. He has bound me in heavy chains. ⁸ And though I cry and shout, he has shut out my prayers. ⁹ He has blocked my way with a high stone wall; he has made my road crooked. ¹⁰ He has hidden like a bear or a lion, waiting to attack me. ¹¹ He has dragged me off the path and torn me in pieces, leaving me helpless and devastated. ¹² He has drawn his bow and made me the target for his arrows. ¹³ He shot his arrows deep into my heart. ¹⁴ My own people laugh at me. All day long they sing their mocking songs. ¹⁵ He has filled me with bitterness and given me a bitter cup of sorrow to drink. ¹⁶ He has made me chew on gravel. He has rolled me in the dust. ¹⁷ Peace has been stripped away, and I have forgotten what prosperity is. ¹⁸ I cry out, "My splendor is gone! Everything I had hoped for from the Lord is lost!" ¹⁹ The thought of my suffering and homelessness is bitter beyond words. ²⁰ I will never forget this awful time, as I grieve over my loss.

²¹ Yet I still dare to hope when I remember this: ²² The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease. ²³ Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning. ²⁴ I say to myself, "The Lord is my inheritance; therefore, I will hope in him!" ²⁵ The Lord is good to those who depend on him, to those who search for him. ²⁶ So it is good to wait quietly for salvation from the Lord . ²⁷ And it is good for people to submit at an early age to the yoke of his discipline: ²⁸ Let them sit alone in silence beneath the Lord 's demands. ²⁹ Let them lie face down in the dust, for there may be hope at last. ³⁰ Let them turn the other cheek to those who strike them and accept the insults of their enemies. ³¹ For no one is abandoned by the Lord forever. ³² Though he brings grief, he also shows compassion because of the greatness of his unfailing love. ³³ For he does not enjoy hurting people or causing them sorrow. ³⁴ If people crush underfoot all the prisoners of the land, ³⁵ if they deprive others of their rights in defiance of the Most High, ³⁶ if they twist justice in the courts- doesn't the Lord see all these things?