Dalet
4 Like an enemy He has bent His bow; His right hand is positioned like an adversary. He has killed everyone who was loved, pouring out His wrath like fire on the tent of Daughter Zion.
He
5 The Lord is like an enemy; He has swallowed up Israel. He swallowed up all its palaces and destroyed its fortified cities. He has multiplied mourning and lamentation within Daughter Judah.
Vav
6 He has done violence to His temple as if [it were] a garden [booth], destroying His place of meeting. The Lord has abolished appointed festivals and Sabbaths in Zion. He has despised king and priest in His fierce anger.
Zayin
7 The Lord has rejected His altar, repudiated His sanctuary; He has handed the walls of her palaces over to the enemy. They have raised a shout in the house of the Lord as on the day of an appointed festival.
Khet
8 The Lord determined to destroy the wall of Daughter Zion. He stretched out a measuring line and did not restrain Himself from destroying. He made the ramparts and walls grieve; together they waste away.
Tet
9 Zion's gates have fallen to the ground; He has destroyed and shattered the bars on her [gates]. Her king and her leaders [live] among the nations, instruction is no more, and even her prophets receive no vision from the Lord.
Yod
10 The elders of Daughter 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.
Kaf
11 My eyes are worn out from weeping; I am churning within. My heart is poured out in grief because of the destruction of my dear people, because children and infants faint in the streets of the city.
Lamed
12 They cry out to their mothers: Where is the grain and wine? as they faint like the wounded in the streets of the city, as their lives fade away in the arms of their mothers.
Mem
13 What can I say on your behalf? To what can I compare you, Daughter Jerusalem? What can I liken you to, so that I may console you, Virgin Daughter Zion? For your ruin is as vast as the sea. Who can heal you?
Nun
14 Your prophets saw visions for you that were empty and deceptive; they did not reveal your guilt and so restore your fortunes. They saw oracles for you that were empty and misleading.