1 ALEPH. How has the Lord darkened in his fierce anger the daughter of Zion! he has cast down the glory of Israel from heaven to earth, and has not remembered the footstool of his feet in the day of his fierce anger. 2 BETH. The Lord has overwhelmed her as in the sea, and has not spared all the beautiful things of Jacob: he has brought down in his fury the strongholds of the daughter of Judah; he has brought them down to the ground; he has profaned her king and her princes. 3 GIMEL. He has broken in his fierce anger all the horn of Israel: he has turned back his right hand from the face of the enemy, and has kindled a flame in Jacob as a fire, and it has devoured all things all around. 4 DALETH. He has bent his bow as an opposing enemy: he has strengthened his right hand as an adversary, and has destroyed all the desirable things of my eyes in the tabernacle of the daughter of Zion: he has poured forth his anger as fire. 5 HE. The Lord has become as an enemy: he has overwhelmed Israel as in the sea, he has overwhelmed all her palaces: he has destroyed her strongholds, and has multiplied the afflicted and humbled ones to the daughter of Judah. 6 VAU. And he has scattered his tabernacle as a vine, he has marred his feast: the Lord has forgotten the feast and the sabbath which he appointed in Zion, and in the fury of his anger has afflicted the king, and priest, and prince. 7 ZAIN. The Lord has rejected his altar, he has cast off his sanctuary, he has broken by the hand of the enemy the wall of her palaces; they have uttered their voice in the house of the Lord as on a feast day. 8 HETH. And the Lord has turned to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion: he has stretched out the measuring line, he has not turned back his hand from afflicting her: therefore the bulwark mourned, and the wall was weakened with it. 9 TETH. Her gates have sunk into the ground: he has destroyed and broken to pieces her bars, and her king and her princes among the Gentiles: there is no law, yes, her prophets have seen no vision from the Lord. 10 JOD. The elders of the daughter of Zion have sat upon the ground, they have kept silence: they have cast up dust upon their heads; they have clothed themselves with sackcloths: they have brought down to the ground the chief virgins in Jerusalem. 11 CHAPH. My eyes have failed with tears,⁠a my heart is troubled, my glory is cast down to the ground, for the destruction of the daughter of my people; while the infant and suckling swoon in the streets of the city. 12 LAMED. They said to their mothers, Where is grain and wine? while they fainted like wounded men in the streets of the city, while their souls were poured out into their mothers' bosom. 13 MEM. What shall I testify to you, or what shall I compare to you, daughter of Jerusalem? who shall save and comfort you, virgin daughter of Zion? for the cup of your destruction is enlarged: who shall heal you? 14 NUN. Your prophets have seen for you vanities and folly: and they have not revealed your iniquity, to turn back your captivity; but they have seen for you vain burdens, and worthless visions. 15 SAMECH. All that go by the way have clapped their hands at you; they have hissed and shaken their head at the daughter of Jerusalem. Is this the city, they say, the crown of glory, the joy of all the earth? 16 AIN. All your enemies have opened their mouth against you: they have hissed and gnashed their teeth, and said, We have swallowed her up: moreover this is the day which we looked for; we have found it, we have seen it. 17 PHE. The Lord has done that which he purposed; he has accomplished his word, even the things which he commanded from the ancient days: he has thrown down, and has not spared: and he has caused the enemy to rejoice over you, he has exalted the horn of him that afflicted you. 18 TSADE. Their heart cried to the Lord, You walls of Zion, pour down tears like torrents day and night: give yourself no rest; let not the apple of your eyes cease. 19 KOPH. Arise, rejoice in the night at the beginning of your watch: pour out your heart as water before the face of the Lord; lift up your hands to him for the life of your infants, who faint for hunger at the top of all the streets. 20 RHECHS. Look, Lord, and see for whom you have gathered thus. Shall the women eat the fruit of their womb? the cook has made a gathering: shall the infants sucking at the breasts be killed? will you kill the priest and prophet in the sanctuary of the Lord? 21 CHSEN. The child and old man have lain down in the street: my virgins and my young men have gone into captivity: you have killed them with the sword and with famine; in the day of your fierce anger you have mangled them, you have not spared. 22 THAU. He has called my temporary residents all around to a solemn day, and there was not in the day of the fierce anger of the Lord any one that escaped or was left; whereas I have strengthened and multiplied all my enemies.