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Jeremiah 51

1 Thus says the Lord: “Behold, I will raise up, over Babylon and over its inhabitants, who have lifted up their heart against me, something like a pestilent wind.

2 And I will send winnowers into Babylon, and they will winnow her, and they will demolish her land. For they will overwhelm her from every side in the day of her affliction.

3 Let him who draws the bow, not draw his bow. And let him who wears armor, not rise up. Do not spare her young men. Destroy her entire military.

4 And the slain will fall in the land of the Chaldeans, and the wounded in its regions.

5 Yet Israel and Judah have not been widowed by their God, the Lord of hosts, though their land has been filled with transgression against the Holy One of Israel.

6 Flee from the midst of Babylon! And let each one save his own life. Do not be silent about her iniquity. For it is the time of revenge from the Lord. He himself will repay her, in her turn.

7 Babylon is a gold cup in the hand of the Lord, inebriating the entire earth. The nations have drunk from her wine, and therefore they have staggered.

8 Suddenly, Babylon has fallen and been crushed. Wail over her! Take a balm to her pain, if perhaps she may be healed.”

9 “We would have cured Babylon, but there is no cure. Let us abandon her, and let each one of us go to his own land. For her judgment has reached even to the heavens, and has been lifted up even to the clouds.

10 The Lord has brought forth our justices. Come and let us describe in Zion the work of the Lord our God.”

11 Sharpen the arrows, fill the quivers. The Lord has raised up the spirit of the kings of the Medes. And his mind is against Babylon, so that he may destroy her. For this is the vengeance of the Lord, the vengeance of his temple.

12 Upon the walls of Babylon, lift up a sign. Increase the watch! Rouse the watchmen! Prepare ambushes! For the Lord has planned and has accomplished all that he has spoken, against the inhabitants of Babylon.

13 You who live above many waters, rich in treasures: your end has arrived, your measure has been cut short.

14 The Lord of hosts has sworn by himself, saying: “For I will fill you with men as with locusts, and they will sing a rhythmic chant against you.”

15 The One who made the earth by his strength, who prepared the world by his wisdom, and who stretched out the heavens by his prudence:

16 when he utters his voice, the waters will be multiplied in the heavens. The One who lifts up the clouds from the ends of the earth: he has turned lightning into rain, and he has brought forth wind from his storehouses.

17 Each man has become foolish before his own knowledge. Each sculptor has been confounded by his own sculpture. For what he has formed of them is a lie, and there is no spirit in them.

18 They are empty works, deserving of ridicule. In the time of their visitation, they will perish.

19 The portion of Jacob is not like their portion. For the One who made all things is his portion, and Israel is the scepter of his inheritance. The Lord of hosts is his name:

20 “For me, you strike together the instruments of war; and with you, I will strike together nations; and with you, I will scatter the kingdoms.

21 And with you, I will strike together the horse and his rider; and with you, I will strike together the chariot and its rider.

22 And with you, I will strike together man and woman; and with you, I will strike together the old man and the boy; and with you, I will strike together the young man and the virgin.

23 And with you, I will strike together the pastor and his flock; and with you, I will strike together the farmer and his yoke of oxen; and with you, I will strike together military leaders and civil leaders.

24 And I will repay Babylon and all the inhabitants of Chaldea for all their evil that they have done in Zion, before your eyes, says the Lord.

25 Behold, I am against you, you pestilent mountain, says the Lord, for you are corrupting the entire earth. And I will extend my hand over you, and I will roll you down from the rocks, and I will make you into a burning mountain.

26 And they will not take from you a stone for the corner, nor a stone for the foundations. Instead, you will be destroyed unto eternity,” says the Lord.

27 Lift up a sign in the land! Sound the trumpet among the nations! Sanctify the nations against her. Announce against her the kings of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz. Number against her Taphsar. Lead in the horse, like the stinging locust.

28 Sanctify the nations against her: the kings of Media, their military leaders, and all their civil leaders, and the entire land under their authority.

29 And the earth will be shaken and will be disturbed. For the plan of the Lord against Babylon will awaken, so that he may make the land of Babylon desolate and uninhabitable.

30 The strong ones of Babylon have ceased to do battle. They have lived in fortresses. Their health has been devoured, and they have become like women. Her tabernacles have been set ablaze; her bars have been broken.

31 Runner will go forth to meet runner, and messenger will meet messenger, so as to tell the king of Babylon that his city has been captured, from one end to the other,

32 and that the fords were seized in advance, and that the marshes have been burned with fire, and that the men of war have been set in disarray.

33 For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor. This is the time of her threshing. A little while longer, and the time of her harvest will arrive.”

34 “Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, has consumed me, has devoured me. He has made me like an empty vessel. He has swallowed me like a dragon. He has filled his belly with my tender ones, and he has cast me out.

35 This iniquity is against me, and so my flesh is upon Babylon,” says the habitation of Zion. “And my blood is upon the inhabitants of Chaldea,” says Jerusalem.

36 Because of this, thus says the Lord: “Behold, I will judge your case, and I will avenge your vengeance, and I will make her sea into a desert, and I will dry up her spring.

37 And Babylon will become a tumult, the habitation of dragons, an astonishment, and a hissing, because there is no inhabitant.

38 They will roar together, like lions, they will shake their manes, like young lions.

39 In their heat, I will give them a drink, and I will inebriate them, so that they become drowsy, and sleep an everlasting sleep, and do not rise up, says the Lord.

40 I will lead them away, like lambs to the slaughter, and like rams with young goats.

41 How was Sesac captured, and how was the renowned one of all the earth seized? How has Babylon become an astonishment among the nations?

42 The sea has ascended over Babylon; she has been covered by the multitude of its waves.

43 Her cities have become an astonishment, an uninhabited and desolate land, a land in which no one may live, nor may a son of man pass through it.

44 And I will visit against Bel in Babylon, and I will cast from his mouth what he has swallowed. And the nations will no longer flow together before him. For even the wall of Babylon will also fall.

45 Go forth from her midst, my people, so that each one may save his life from the wrath of the fury of the Lord.

46 For otherwise, your heart may faint, and you may be afraid at the news that is heard in the land. And the news will arrive within a year, and after that year more news will arrive. And iniquity will be in the land, and one ruler will be over another ruler.

47 Because of this, behold, the days are approaching, when I will visit against the graven images of Babylon. And her entire land will be confounded, and all her slain will fall in her midst.

48 And the heavens and the earth, and all the things that are in them, will give praise over Babylon. For despoilers will approach her from the north, says the Lord.

49 And in the manner that Babylon has caused the slain to fall in Israel, so the slain of Babylon will fall over the entire earth.

50 You who have fled from the sword, approach, do not stand still. Remember from afar the Lord, and let Jerusalem rise up in your heart.

51 We have been confounded, for we heard reproach. Shame has covered our faces, for strangers have overwhelmed the holiness of the house of the Lord.

52 Because of this, behold, the days are approaching, says the Lord, when I will visit against her graven images, and within all her land the wounded will groan.

53 If Babylon were to ascend to heaven, and establish her strength on high, her despoilers would go forth from me, says the Lord.”

54 A voice of outcry from Babylon, and great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans!

55 For the Lord has despoiled Babylon, and he has perished the great voice from her. And their wave will make a sound like many waters. Their voice has uttered a noise.

56 For the despoiler has overwhelmed her, that is, Babylon, and her strong ones have been apprehended, and their bow has been weakened. For the Lord, the powerful revenger, will certainly repay.

57 “And I will inebriate her leaders, and her wise ones, and her military rulers, and her civil rulers, and her strong ones. And they will sleep an everlasting sleep, and they will not awaken,” says the King: the Lord of hosts is his name.

58 Thus says the Lord of hosts: “That very wide wall of Babylon will be utterly overturned, and her exalted gates will be burned with fire, and the labors of the people will be as nothing, and the labors of the nations will be sent into the fire and will perish.”

59 The word that Jeremiah, the prophet, instructed to Seraiah, the son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, when he traveled with king Zedekiah into Babylon, in the fourth year of his reign. Now Seraiah was the leader of the prophets.

60 And Jeremiah wrote in one book all the evil that was to overwhelm Babylon; all these words were written against Babylon.

61 And Jeremiah said to Seraiah: “When you will enter into Babylon, and you will see and read all these words,

62 you will say: ‘O Lord, you have spoken against this place so that you may destroy it, so that there would not be anyone, from man even to beast, who may live in it, and so that it may be desolate forever.’

63 And when you will have completed reading this book, you will tie a stone to it, and you will cast it into the midst of the Euphrates.

64 And you will say: ‘So shall Babylon be submerged! And she will not rise up before the face of the affliction that I will lead over her. And she will be broken.’ ” The words of Jeremiah thus far.

Jeremiah

Jeremiah 52

1 Zedekiah was a son of twenty-one years when he first began to reign. And he reigned for eleven years in Jerusalem. And the name of his mother was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah from Libnah.

2 And he did what was evil in the eyes of the Lord, in accord with all that Jehoiakim had done.

3 And so the fury of the Lord was toward Jerusalem, and toward Judah, even until he cast them away from his face. And Zedekiah drew away from the king of Babylon.

4 And it happened that, in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth of the month, Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, he and his entire army, came against Jerusalem. And they besieged it, and they built fortifications against it, on every side.

5 And the city was besieged, until the eleventh year of king Zedekiah.

6 Then, in the fourth month, on the ninth of the month, a famine gripped the city. And there was no nourishment for the people of the land.

7 And the city was broken, and all the men of war fled, and they departed from the city at night by way of the gate which is between the two walls, and which leads to the king’s garden, while the Chaldeans were besieging the city all around, and they went away by the road that leads to the wilderness.

8 But the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king. And they overtook Zedekiah in the desert which is near Jericho. And all of his companions fled away from him.

9 And when they had captured the king, they led him away to the king of Babylon at Riblah, which is in the land of Hamath. And he spoke a judgment against him.

10 And the king of Babylon cut the throats of the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and he also killed all the leaders of Judah at Riblah.

11 And he plucked out the eyes of Zedekiah, and he bound him with shackles, and the king of Babylon led him away to Babylon, and he placed him in the prison house, even until the day of his death.

12 Then, in the fifth month, on the tenth of the month, which is the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan, the leader of the military, arrived. And he was standing before the king of Babylon at Jerusalem.

13 And he set fire to the house of the Lord, and to the house of the king, and to all the houses of Jerusalem. And every great house he burned with fire.

14 And the entire army of the Chaldeans, who were with the chief of the military, destroyed the entire wall all around Jerusalem.

15 Then Nebuzaradan, the leader of the military, took away some of the poor people, and some of the rest of the common people, who had remained in the city, and some of the fugitives, who had fled over to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the multitude.

16 Yet truly, some of the poor of the land, Nebuzaradan, the leader of the military, left behind as vinedressers and farmers.

17 The Chaldeans also broke apart the bronze pillars that were in the house of the Lord, and the bases, and the sea of brass that was in the house of the Lord. And they took all the brass of these things to Babylon.

18 And they took the cooking pots, and the hooks, and the psalteries, and the bowls, and the little mortars, and all the bronze vessels that had been used in the ministry.

19 And the chief of the military took the water pots, and the censers, and the pitchers, and the basins, and the lampstands, and the mortars, and the little cups, whatever was gold, for the gold, and whatever was silver, for the silver,

20 as well as the two pillars, and the one brass sea, and the twelve oxen of brass that were under the bases, which king Solomon had made in the house of the Lord. There was no weight of brass left behind out of all these vessels.

21 Now concerning the pillars, one pillar was eighteen cubits high, and a cord of twelve cubits encircled it. Moreover, its thickness was four fingers, and the interior was hollow.

22 And heads of brass were upon both. And the height of one head was five cubits. And little nets with pomegranates were upon the heads all around, all of brass. The second pillar was similar, and the pomegranates.

23 And there were ninety-six pomegranates hanging down; and there were one hundred pomegranates in all, surrounded by the little nets.

24 And the chief of the military took Seraiah, the first priest, and Zephaniah, the second priest, and the three keepers of the vestibule.

25 He also took from the city one eunuch who was in charge of the men of war, and seven men among those who served before the face of the king, who were found in the city, and a scribe, a leader of the military, who tested the new recruits, and sixty men from the people of the land, who were found in the midst of the city.

26 Then Nebuzaradan, the chief of the military, took them, and he led them to the king of Babylon at Riblah.

27 And the king of Babylon struck them and put them to death at Riblah, in the land of Hamath. And Judah was carried away from his land.

28 This is the people whom Nebuchadnezzar carried away: in the seventh year, three thousand and twenty-three Jews;

29 in the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar, eight hundred thirty-two souls from Jerusalem;

30 in the twenty-third year of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuzaradan, the chief of the military, carried away of the Jews seven hundred forty-five souls. Therefore, all the souls were four thousand six hundred.

31 And it happened that, in the thirty-seventh year of the transmigration of Jehoiachin, the king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-fifth of the month, Evilmerodach, the king of Babylon, in the very first year of his reign, lifted up the head of Jehoiachin, the king of Judah, and he brought him out of the prison house.

32 And he spoke with him for good, and he set his throne above the thrones of the kings who were after him in Babylon.

33 And he changed his prison garments, and he ate bread in his sight always, all the days of his life.

34 And for his meals, a continual provision was allotted to him by the king of Babylon, a measure for every single day, until the day of his death, all the days of his life.

Lamentations

Lamentations 1

1 ALEPH. O how a city once filled with people now sits alone! The Governess of the Gentiles has become like a widow. The Prince of the provinces has been placed under tribute.

2 BETH. Weeping, she has wept through the night, and her tears are on her cheeks. There is no one to be a comfort to her and to all her beloved. All her friends have spurned her, and they have become her enemies.

3 GHIMEL. Judah has migrated because of affliction and great servitude. She has lived among the nations and not found rest. All of her persecutors have apprehended her, amid torments.

4 DALETH. The pathways of Zion mourn, because there are none who approach for the solemnity. All her gates are destroyed. Her priests groan. Her virgins are filthy. And she is overwhelmed with bitterness.

5 HE. Her enemies have been made her leaders; her adversaries have been enriched. For the Lord has spoken against her, because of the multitude of her iniquities. Her little ones have been led into captivity before the face of the tribulator.

6 VAU. And all her elegance has departed, from the daughter of Zion. Her leaders have become like rams that cannot find pasture, and they have gone away without strength before the face of the pursuer.

7 ZAIN. Jerusalem has remembered the days of her affliction and the betrayal of all her desirable ones, whom she held from the days of antiquity, when her people fell into the hand of the enemy, and there was no one to be a helper. The enemies have looked upon her and mocked her Sabbaths.

8 HETH. Jerusalem has sinned a grievous sin. Because of this, she has become unstable. All who glorified her have spurned her, because they have looked upon her disgrace. Then she groaned and turned away again.

9 TETH. Her filth is on her feet, and her end has not been remembered. She has been vehemently put down, having no consolation. O Lord, look upon my affliction, for the adversary has been lifted up.

10 JOD. The enemy has sent his hand against all her desirable ones. For she has watched the Gentiles enter her sanctuary, even though you instructed that they should not enter into your church.

11 CAPH. All her people are groaning and seeking bread. They have given up whatever was precious in exchange for food, so as to remain alive. See, O Lord, and consider, for I have become vile.

12 LAMED. O all you who pass by the way, attend, and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow. For he has made me a vintage, just as the Lord has spoken in the day of his furious anger.

13 MEM. From on high, he has sent fire into my bones, and he has educated me. He has spread a net for my feet; he has turned me back. He has placed me in desolation, consumed by grief, all day long.

14 NUN. Vigilant is the yoke of my iniquities. They have been folded together in his hand and imposed on my neck. My virtue has been weakened. The Lord has given me into a hand, out of which I am not able to rise.

15 SAMECH. The Lord has taken away all of my great ones from my midst. He has called forth time against me, so as to crush my elect ones. The Lord has trampled the winepress, which was for the virgin daughter of Judah.

16 AIN. For this I weep, and my eyes bring forth water. For the consoler has been far away from me, changing my soul. My sons have become lost, because the enemy has prevailed.

17 PHE. Zion has reached out her hands; there is no one to console her. The Lord has given orders against Jacob; his enemies are all around him. Jerusalem among them is like a woman made unclean by menstruation.

18 SADE. The Lord is just, for it is I who has provoked his mouth to wrath. I beg all people to listen and to see my sorrow. My virgins and my youths have gone into captivity.

19 COPH. I called for my friends, but they deceived me. My priests and my elders have been consumed in the city. For they were seeking their food, so as to revive their life.

20 RES. See, O Lord, that I am in tribulation. My bowels have been disturbed, my heart has been subverted within me, for I am filled with bitterness. Outside, the sword puts to death, and at home there is a similar death.

21 SIN. They have heard that I groan and that there is no one to console me. All my enemies have heard of my misfortune; they have rejoiced that you caused it. You have brought in a day of consolation, and so they shall become like me.

22 THAU. Let all their evil enter before you. And make vintage of them, just as you made vintage of me, because of all my iniquities. For my sighs are many, and my heart is grieving.

Lamentations

Lamentations 2

1 ALEPH. O how the Lord has covered the daughter of Zion with gloom in his fury! O how he has thrown down from heaven to earth the famous one of Israel, and he has not remembered his footstool in the day of his fury.

2 BETH. The Lord has cast down, and he has not been lenient, with all the beauties of Jacob. In his fury, he has destroyed the fortifications of the virgin of Judah, and he has thrown them down to the ground. He has polluted the kingdom and its leaders.

3 GHIMEL. In the anger of his fury, he has broken the entire horn of Israel. He has drawn back his right hand before the face of the enemy. And he has kindled within Jacob a flaming fire, devouring all around.

4 DALETH. He has bent his bow like an enemy. He has fixed his right hand like an adversary. And he has cut down all that was beautiful to behold in the tabernacle of the daughter of Zion. He has poured out his indignation like fire.

5 HE. The Lord has become like an enemy. He has thrown down Israel. He has thrown down all of his defenses. He has torn apart his fortifications. And he has filled the daughter of Judah with humbled men and humbled women.

6 VAU. And he has torn apart her tent like a garden. He has demolished her tabernacle. In Zion, the Lord has delivered feast and Sabbath into oblivion, and king and priest into disgrace, and into the indignation of his fury.

7 ZAIN. The Lord has pushed away his own altar. He has cursed his own sanctuary. He has delivered the walls of its towers into the hand of the enemy. They have made a noise in the house of the Lord, as if on the day of a solemnity.

8 HETH. The Lord has decided to tear down the wall of the daughter of Zion. He has stretched out his measuring line, and he has not turn away his hand from perdition. And the rampart has mourned, and with the wall it has been torn apart.

9 TETH. Her gates have been buried in the ground. He has ruined and crushed its bars. Her king and her princes are with the Gentiles. There is no law, and her prophets have found no vision from the Lord.

10 JOD. The elders of the daughter of Zion have become idle; they sit on the ground. They have sprinkled their heads with ashes. They have been wrapped with haircloth. The virgins of Jerusalem have cast their heads down to the ground.

11 CAPH. My eyes have exhausted their tears. My internal organs have become disturbed. My liver has been poured out on the earth, over the grief of the daughter of my people, when the little ones and the infants passed away in the streets of the town.

12 LAMED. They said to their mothers, “Where is the wheat and the wine?” when they fell like the wounded in the streets of the city, when they breathed out their lives into the bosoms of their mothers.

13 MEM. To what shall I compare you, or to what shall I liken you, O daughter of Jerusalem? To what shall I equate you, so as to console you, O virgin daughter of Zion? For your destruction is as great as the sea. Who will cure you?

14 NUN. Your prophets have seen false and foolish things for you. And they have not laid open your iniquity, so as to provoke you to repentance. Yet they have seen for you false revelations and banishments.

15 SAMECH. All those who passed by the way have clapped their hands over you. They have hissed and shook their heads over the daughter of Jerusalem, saying, “Is this the city of perfect dignity, the joy of all the earth?”

16 PHE. All your enemies have opened their mouth over you. They have hissed and gnashed their teeth, and they said: “We will devour her. Yes, this is the day we waited for. We have found it, we have seen it.”

17 AIN. The Lord has done what he decided to do. He has fulfilled his word, which he instructed since the days of antiquity. He has destroyed, and he has not been lenient, and he has caused the enemy to rejoice over you, and he has exalted the horn of your adversaries.

18 SADE. Their heart cried out to the Lord from the walls of the daughter of Zion. Let tears run down like a torrent throughout the day and the night. Do not give rest to yourself, and do not allow the pupil of your eye to cease.

19 COPH. Rise up. Give praise in the night, in the first of the watches. Pour out your heart like water before the sight of the Lord. Lift up your hands to him on behalf of the souls of your little ones, who have passed away from famine at the head of all the crossroads.

20 RES. O Lord, see and consider those whom you have made into a such vintage. So then, shall women eat their own fruit, little ones measured by the palm of the hand? Shall priest and prophet be killed in the sanctuary of the Lord?

21 SIN. The boy and the old man lie down on the ground outside. My virgins and my youths have fallen by the sword. You have slain them in the day of your fury. You have struck down, and you have not shown pity.

22 THAU. You have called, as if to a day of solemnity, those who would terrify me all around. And there was no one, in the day of the fury of the Lord, who escaped or was left behind. Those whom I educated and nourished, my enemy has consumed.

Lamentations

Lamentations 3

1 ALEPH. I am a man watching my own poverty by the rod of his indignation.

2 ALEPH. He has driven me and led me into darkness, and not into light.

3 ALEPH. Against me only, he has turned and turned again his hand, all day long.

4 BETH. My skin and my flesh, he has made old; he has crushed my bones.

5 BETH. He has built all around me, and he has encircled me with gall and hardship.

6 BETH. He has gathered me into darkness, like those who are forever dead.

7 GHIMEL. He has built against me all around, so that I may not depart. He has increased the burden of my confinement.

8 GHIMEL. Yet even when I cry out and beg, he excludes my prayer.

9 GHIMEL. He has enclosed my ways with square stones; he has subverted my paths.

10 DALETH. He has become to me like a bear lying in ambush, like a lion in hiding.

11 DALETH. He has subverted my paths, and he has broken me. He has placed me in desolation.

12 DALETH. He has bent his bow, and he has positioned me like a target for his arrows.

13 HE. He has shot into my kidneys the daughters of his quiver.

14 HE. I have become a derision to all my people, their song throughout the day.

15 HE. He has filled me with bitterness; he has inebriated me with wormwood.

16 VAU. And he has broken each one of my teeth; he has fed me with ashes.

17 VAU. And my soul has been driven away from peace; I have forgotten what is good.

18 VAU. And I said, “My end and my hope from the Lord has perished.”

19 ZAIN. Remember my poverty and my transgression, the wormwood and the gall.

20 ZAIN. I will call to mind the past, and my soul shall languish within me.

21 ZAIN. These recollections are in my heart; therefore, I shall hope.

22 HETH. By the mercies of the Lord, we are not consumed. For his compassion has not passed away.

23 HETH. I know it at first light; great is your faithfulness.

24 HETH. “The Lord is my portion,” said my soul. Because of this, I will wait for him.

25 TETH. The Lord is good to those who hope in him, to the soul that seeks him.

26 TETH. It is good to stand ready in silence for the salvation of God.

27 TETH. It is good for a man, when he has carried the yoke from his youth.

28 JOD. He shall sit solitary and silent. For he has lifted it upon himself.

29 JOD. He shall place his mouth in the dirt, if perhaps there may be hope.

30 JOD. He shall give his cheek to those who strike him; he shall be saturated with reproaches.

31 CAPH. For the Lord will not rebuke forever.

32 CAPH. For, if he has cast down, he will also have compassion, according to the multitude of his mercies.

33 CAPH. For he has not humiliated from his heart, nor has he thrown aside the sons of men,

34 LAMED. as if to crush under his feet all the prisoners of the land,

35 LAMED. as if to turn aside the judgment of a man in the sight of the presence of the Most High,

36 LAMED. as if to pervert a man in his judgment: the Lord does not do this.

37 MEM. Who is this, who said to do what the Lord did not command?

38 MEM. Does not both misfortune and good proceed from the mouth of the Most High?

39 MEM. Why has a living man murmured, a man suffering for his sins?

40 NUN. Let us examine our ways, and seek out, and return to the Lord.

41 NUN. Let us lift up our hearts, with our hands, toward the Lord in the heavens.

42 NUN. We have acted sinfully, and we have provoked to wrath. About this, you are relentless.

43 SAMECH. You have covered us in your fury, and you have struck us. You have killed, and have not spared.

44 SAMECH. You have set a cloud opposite you, lest our prayer pass through.

45 SAMECH. In the midst of the peoples, you have uprooted me and cast me out.

46 PHE. All our enemies have opened their mouths over us.

47 PHE. Prediction has become for us a dread, and a snare, and a grief.

48 PHE. My eye has brought forth streams of water at the contrition of the daughter of my people.

49 AIN. My eye has been afflicted, and it has not been quieted, because there would be no rest

50 AIN. until the Lord looked down and saw from the heavens.

51 AIN. My eye has exhausted my soul over every one of the daughters of my city.

52 SADE. My enemies have chased me, and they have caught me like a bird, without reason.

53 SADE. My life has fallen into a pit, and they have placed a stone over me.

54 SADE. The waters have flooded over my head. I said, “I am lost.”

55 COPH. I called upon your name, O Lord, from the furthest pit.

56 COPH. You have heard my voice. Do not turn away your ear from my sobbing and my cries.

57 COPH. You drew near in the daytime, when I called upon you. You said, “Fear not.”

58 RES. You have judged, O Lord, the case of my soul. You are the Redeemer of my life.

59 RES. You have seen, O Lord, their iniquity against me. Judge my case.

60 RES. You have seen all their fury, every one of their thoughts is against me.

61 SIN. You have heard their reproach, O Lord, all their thoughts are against me.

62 SIN. The lips of those who rise up against me, and their meditations, are against me all day long.

63 SIN. Watch their sitting down and their rising up: I am their psalm.

64 THAU. You shall pay a recompense to them, O Lord, according to the works of their hands.

65 THAU. You shall give them a heavy shield of the heart: your hardship.

66 THAU. You shall pursue them in fury, and you shall destroy them under the heavens, O Lord.

Lamentations

Lamentations 4

1 ALEPH. O how the gold has become dulled, the finest color has been altered, the stones of the sanctuary have been scattered at the head of every street.

2 BETH. The famous sons of Zion, and those clothed with the foremost gold: how they have become like earthen vessels, the work of the hands of a potter.

3 GHIMEL. Yet even savages expose their breast and give milk to their young. But the daughter of my people is cruel, like the ostrich in the desert.

4 DALETH. The tongue of the infant adheres to his palate out of thirst. The little ones have asked for bread, and there was no one to break it for them.

5 HE. Those who were fed indulgently have passed away in the roads. Those who were nourished with saffron have welcomed filth.

6 VAU. And the iniquity of the daughter of my people has been made greater than the sin of Sodom, which was overthrown in a moment, and yet hands did not take captives in her.

7 ZAIN. Her Nazirites were whiter than snow, shinier than milk, more ruddy than ancient ivory, more beautiful than sapphire.

8 HETH. Their face has been blacked more than coals, and they are not recognized in the streets. Their skin has adhered to their bones; it dried out and became like wood.

9 TETH. It was better for those slain by the sword, than for those put to death by famine. For these waste away, being consumed by the sterility of the land.

10 JOD. The hands of pitiable women have boiled their sons. They became their food in the grief of the daughter of my people.

11 CAPH. The Lord has completed his fury; he has poured out the wrath of his indignation. And he has kindled a fire in Zion, and it has devoured its foundations.

12 LAMED. The kings of the earth, and all the inhabitants of the world, did not believe that the adversary and the enemy would enter through the gates of Jerusalem.

13 MEM. It is because of the sins of her prophets, and the iniquities of her priests, who have shed the blood of the just in her midst.

14 NUN. They have wandered in the streets like the blind; they have been defiled with blood. And when they were not able, they held their garments.

15 SAMECH. “Go back, you polluted ones!” they cried out to them. “Go back, go away, do not touch!” Of course, they argued, and being removed, they said among the Gentiles, “He will no longer dwell among them.”

16 PHE. The face of the Lord has divided them. He will no longer respect them. They were not ashamed before the faces of the priests, nor did they take pity on the elderly.

17 AIN. While we were still standing, our eyes failed, expecting help for us in vain, when we looked attentively toward a nation that was not able to save.

18 SADE. Our footsteps have slipped on the paths of our own streets. Our end draws near. Our days have been completed, for our end has arrived.

19 COPH. Our persecutors have been swifter than the eagles of the sky. They have been pursuing us above the mountains; they have lain in wait for us in the desert.

20 RES. The spirit of our mouth, Christ the Lord, has been captured by our sins; to him, we said, “In your shadow, we will live among the Gentiles.”

21 SIN. Be glad and rejoice, O daughter of Edom, who dwells in the Land of Uz. The cup will also pass to you; you will be inebriated as well as naked.

22 THAU. Your iniquity has been completed, O daughter of Zion. He will no longer send you away to captivity. He has visited your iniquity, O daughter of Edom; he has uncovered your sins.

Lamentations

Lamentations 5

1 Remember, O Lord, what has befallen us. Consider and look kindly upon our disgrace.

2 Our inheritance has been turned over to foreigners; our houses to outsiders.

3 We have become orphans without a father; our mothers are like widows.

4 We paid for our drinking water. We acquired our wood for a price.

5 We were dragged by our necks. Being weary, no rest was given to us.

6 We have given our hand to Egypt and to the Assyrians, so that we may be satisfied with bread.

7 Our fathers have sinned, and are not. And we have carried their iniquities.

8 Servants have become rulers over us. There was no one to redeem us from their hand.

9 We obtained our bread at the risk of our lives, before the face of the sword, in the wilderness.

10 Our skin was burned, as if by an oven, before the face of the tempest of the famine.

11 They humiliated the women in Zion and the virgins in the cities of Judah.

12 The leaders were suspended by their hand. They were not ashamed before the faces of the elders.

13 They have sexually abused the adolescents, and the children were corrupted in the wood.

14 The elders have ceased from the gates, the youths from the choir of the psalms.

15 The gladness of our heart has failed, our singing has been turned into mourning.

16 The crown has fallen from our head. Woe to us, for we have sinned.

17 Because of this, our heart became gloomy; for this reason, our eyes have been darkened:

18 because of mount Zion, because it was ruined. Foxes have wandered upon it.

19 But you, O Lord, shall remain for eternity, your throne from generation to generation.

20 Why would you forget us forever? Why would you forsake us for a long time?

21 Convert us, O Lord, to you, and we shall be converted. Renew our days, as from the beginning.

22 But you have utterly rejected us; you are vehemently angry against us.

Baruch

Baruch 1

1 And these are the words of the book, which Baruch the son of Neraiah, the son of Mahseiah, the son of Zedekiah, the son of Hasadiah, the son Hilkiah, wrote in Babylon,

2 in the fifth year, on the seventh day of the month, since the time when the Chaldeans captured Jerusalem and set it on fire.

3 And Baruch read the words of this book to the ears of Jeconiah, the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, and to the ears of the entire people, who came to the book:

4 even to the ears of the powerful sons of kings, and to the ears of the elders, and to the ears of the people, from the least to the greatest of them, of all those living in Babylon, near the river Sud.

5 And upon hearing it, they wept and fasted and prayed in the sight of the Lord.

6 And they collected money in accordance with whatever each one was able to handover.

7 And they sent it to Jerusalem to Jehoiakim, the son of Hilkiah, the son of Shalum the priest, and to the priests, and to all the people, who were found with him in Jerusalem.

8 At that time, he received the vessels of the temple of the Lord (which had been carried away from the temple) so as to return them to the land of Judah, on the tenth day of the month Sivan. These were the silver vessels, which Zedekiah, the son of Josiah king of Judah, had made.

9 After this, Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, captured Jeconiah, and the leaders, and all the powerful, and the people of the land, and led them captive from Jerusalem to Babylon.

10 And they said, “Behold we have sent you money with which to buy holocausts and frankincense. Therefore, make manna and offer it for sin at the altar of the Lord our God.

11 And pray for the life of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, and for the life of Belshazzar his son, so that their days may be just like the days of the heaven above the earth,

12 and so that the Lord may give virtue to us, and enlighten our eyes, so that we may live under the shadow of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, and under the shadow of Belshazzar his son, and so that we may serve them for many days and may find favor in their sight.

13 And pray for us also to the Lord our God, for we have sinned against the Lord our God, and the madness of our sin has not been driven away from us even to this day.

14 And read this book, which we have sent to you to be recited in the temple of the Lord, on solemn days and on other suitable days.

15 And you will say, ‘To the Lord our God is justice, but to us is confusion of our face, just as it is this day for all of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem,

16 even for our kings, and our leaders, and our priests, and our prophets, and our fathers.

17 We have sinned before the Lord our God and we have not believed, lacking confidence in him.

18 And we have not been submissive to him, and we have not listened to the voice of the Lord our God, so as to walk in his commandments, which he has given to us.

19 From the day that he led our fathers out of the land of Egypt, even to this day, we were unfaithful to the Lord our God, and, having been scattered, we fell away. We did not listen to his voice.

20 And we joined ourselves to many evils and to the curses which the Lord established through Moses, his servant, who led our fathers out of the land of Egypt, to give us a land flowing with milk and honey, just as it is in the present day.

21 And we have not listened to the voice of the Lord our God, according to all the words of the prophets whom he sent to us.

22 And we have gone astray, each one after the inclinations of his own malignant heart, serving strange gods and doing evil before the eyes of the Lord our God.

Baruch

Baruch 2

1 ” ‘For this reason, the Lord our God has fulfilled his word, which he has spoken to us, and to our judges, who have judged Israel, and to our kings, and to our leaders, and to all Israel and Judah.

2 And so the Lord has brought upon us great evils, such as never before happened under heaven, (but which have come to pass in Jerusalem according to what was written in the law of Moses)

3 even that a man would eat the flesh of his son and the flesh of his daughter.

4 And so he placed them under the hand of all the kings who surround us, in disgrace and desolation among all the people where the Lord has scattered us.

5 And we were brought down low and were not raised up, because we sinned against the Lord our God, by not obeying his voice.

6 To the Lord our God is justice, but to us and to our fathers is confusion of face, just as on this day.

7 For the Lord has pronounced against us all these evils, which have overcome us.

8 And we have not beseeched the face of the Lord our God, so that we might return, each one of us from our most sinful ways.

9 And the Lord has watched over us for evil and has brought it upon us, because the Lord is just in all his works that he has commanded us,

10 and we have not listened to his own voice, so as to walk according to the teachings of the Lord, which he has set before our face.

11 And now, O Lord God of Israel, who has led your people out of the land of Egypt with a strong hand, and with signs, and with wonders, and with your great power, and with an exalted arm, and has made a name for yourself, just as on this day,

12 we have sinned, we become impious, we have acted unjustly, O Lord our God, against all your principles.

13 May your wrath be turned away from us because, having been forsaken, we are few among the irreligious where you have scattered us.

14 Heed, O Lord, our petitions and our prayers, and deliver us for your own sake, and grant that we may find favor before the face of those who have led us away,

15 so that all the earth may know that you are the Lord our God, and because your name has been invoked over Israel and over his posterity.

16 Gaze upon us, O Lord, from your holy home, and incline your ear, and heed us.

17 Open your eyes and see, because the dead, who are in the underworld, whose spirit has been taken away from their vital organs, will not give honor and justification to the Lord.

18 But the soul that is sorrowful for the greatness of evil, approaches bowed down and weak, and the failing eyes and the hungering soul give glory and justice to you, the Lord.

19 For it is not according to the righteousness of our fathers that we pour out our petitions and beg mercy in your sight, O Lord our God,

20 but because you have sent your wrath and your fury upon us, just as you have spoken by the hand of your children the prophets, saying:

21 “Thus says the Lord, ‘Bow down your shoulder and your neck, and do work for the king of Babylon, and settle in the land which I gave to your fathers,

22 because, if you will not listen to the voice of the Lord your God, to serve the king of Babylon, I will cause you to depart from the cities of Judah and from the gates of Jerusalem.

23 And I will take away from you the voice of cheerfulness and the voice of joy, and the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, and all the land will be without any trace of its inhabitants.’ ”

24 And they did not listen to your voice, that they should serve the king of Babylon, and so you have fulfilled your words, which you spoke by the hands of your children the prophets, so that the bones of our kings and the bones of our fathers would be carried away from their place.

25 And, behold, they have been cast out into the heat of the sun and the frost of the night, and they have died by means of grievous evils, by famine, and by the sword, and by banishment.

26 And you have set up the temple, in which your name itself was called upon, just as it is on this day, because of the iniquity of the house of Israel and the house of Judah.

27 And you have accomplished in us, O Lord our God, according to all your goodness and according to all your great mercy,

28 just as you spoke by the hand of your child Moses, in the day when you commanded him to write your law before the sons of Israel,

29 saying: “If you will not listen to my voice, this great multitude will be changed into the least among the peoples, where I will scatter them.

30 For I know that the people will not listen to me, for the people are stiff necked. But they will have a change of their heart in the land of their captivity,

31 and they will know that I am the Lord their God. And I will give them a heart, and they will understand, ears, and they will hear.

32 And they will praise me in the land of their captivity, and will remember my name.

33 And they will turn themselves away from their stiff back, and from their wicked deeds, for they will call to mind the way of their fathers, who sinned against me.

34 And I will restore them to the land which I pledged to their fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and they will rule over it, and I will multiply them, and they will not be diminished.

35 And I will establish for them a new and everlasting covenant, so that I will be their God and they will be my people. And I will no longer move my people, the sons of Israel, out of the land which I have given them.”

Baruch

Baruch 3

1 ” ‘And now, O Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, the soul in anguish and the troubled spirit cry out to you.

2 Listen, O Lord, and be merciful, for you are a merciful God, and so be merciful to us, for we have sinned before you.

3 For you are enthroned in eternity, but we will pass away in time.

4 O Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, listen now to the prayer of the dead of Israel and of their sons, who have sinned before you and have not listened to the voice of the Lord their God, and have joined themselves to evil.

5 Remember not the iniquities of our fathers, but remember your hand and your name at this time.

6 For you are the Lord our God, and we will praise you, O Lord.

7 And for this reason, you have imparted your fear into our hearts, and also, so that we may call upon your name and may praise you in our captivity, for we are converted from the iniquity of our fathers, who sinned before you.

8 And, behold, we are still in our captivity on this day, where you have scattered us into disgrace, and into slander, and into sin, according to all the iniquities of our fathers, who withdrew from you, O Lord our God.

9 Listen, O Israel, to the commandments of life! Pay attention, so that you may learn prudence!

10 How is it, O Israel, that you are in the land of your enemies,

11 that you have grown old in a foreign land, that you are defiled with the dead, that you are regarded as among those who are descending into hell?

12 You have forsaken the fountain of wisdom.

13 For if you had walked in the way of God, you would certainly have lived in everlasting peace.

14 Learn where prudence is, where virtue is, where understanding is, so that you may know at the same time where long life and prosperity are, where the light of the eyes and peace are.

15 Who has discovered its place? And who has entered its treasure chamber?

16 Where are the leaders of the peoples, and those who rule over the beasts that are upon the earth,

17 who play among the birds of the air,

18 who store up treasures of silver and gold, in which men trust, and with whom there is no end to their acquiring, who work with silver and are anxious about it, and whose works are inexplicable?

19 They have been banished and have descended to hell, and others are risen up in their place.

20 The youth have seen the light and have dwelt upon the earth, yet they are ignorant of the way of instruction.

21 They have neither understood the paths of it, nor have their sons accepted it. It is far from their face.

22 It has not been heard of in the land of Canaan, nor has it been seen in Teman.

23 It is likewise with the sons of Hagar, who search for the practicality that is of the earth, the negotiators of Merran and Teman, and the storytellers, and the searchers of discretion and intelligence. Yet the way of wisdom they have not known, nor have they called to mind its paths.

24 O Israel, how great is the house of God, and how vast is the place of his possession!

25 It is great and has no end! It is exalted and immense!

26 There were those who were called giants, who existed from the beginning, of great stature, expert in war.

27 The Lord did not choose them, nor did they discover the way of instruction; for this reason they perished,

28 and, because they did not have wisdom, they passed away as a result of their foolishness.

29 Who has gone up into heaven, and taken her, and brought her down from the clouds?

30 Who has crossed the sea, and found her, and brought her, chosen instead of gold?

31 There is no one who is able to know her ways, nor any who can search out her paths.

32 Yet he who knows the universe is familiar with her, and in his foresight he invented her, he who prepared the earth for time without end, and filled it with cattle and four-footed beasts,

33 who sends out the light, and it goes, and who summoned it, and it obeyed him in fear.

34 Yet the stars have given light from their posts, and they rejoiced.

35 They were called, and so they said, “Here we are,” and they shined with cheerfulness to him who made them.

36 This is our God, and no other can compare to him.

37 He invented the way of all instruction, and delivered it to Jacob his child, and to Israel his beloved.

38 After this, he was seen on earth, and he conversed with men.