Lamentations 1:16-18

The Voice

¹⁶     Pity, my eyes won’t stop their crying; I can’t stop.
        There is no one nearby to comfort me or revive my spirit,
    No one to pull me up.
        My children know it—they’re left empty,
    The enemy has won.

¹⁷ Quietly, Zion spreads out her hands, pleading for comfort.
    But no one comes. The Lord forbids it.
God has commanded Jacob’s enemies
    to surround her.
Jerusalem has become their foe;
    she is an impurity among them.

¹⁸ Lady Jerusalem: Right and true is the Eternal One.
        I am the one in the wrong: I have rebelled against His law.
    Listen all of you peoples.
        See how much I have suffered;
    My handsome men and my gentle women, unmarried and unprotected,
        have marched away into captivity.