Lamentations 1:16-18

New International Reader's Version

¹⁶ “That’s why I am weeping.
    Tears are flowing from my eyes.
No one is near to comfort me.
    No one can heal my spirit.
My children don’t have anything.
    My enemies are much too strong for me.”

¹⁷ Zion reaches out her hands.
    But no one is there to comfort her people.
The Lord has ordered that
    the neighbors of Jacob’s people would become their enemies.
    Jerusalem has become impure among them.

¹⁸ Jerusalem says, “The Lord always does what is right.
    But I refused to obey his commands.
Listen, all you nations.
    Pay attention to how much I’m suffering.
My young men and women
    have been taken away as prisoners.