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The First Chapter
Aleph
Alas, how sits the city so desolate, that once was so full of
people? Now she has become like a widow! she was the lady of all
nations; Now is she brought under tribute, that ruled all lands.
Beth
She weepeth sore in the night, so that the tears run down her
cheeks: for among all her lovers, there is none that give her any
comfort: yea her next friends abhor her, and are become her enemies.
Gimel
Judah is taken prisoner, because she was defiled: and for
serving so many strange gods, she dwelleth now among the heathen.
She findeth no rest: all that persecute her, took her, and so she
dwelleth among her enemies.
Daleth
The streets of Zion mourn, because no man comes to the solemn
feasts. All her gates are desolate, her priests make lamentations,
her maidens are careful , and she herself is in great heaviness.
He
Her enemies are fallen upon her head, and have put her to
shame: because the Lord has chastened her for her great wickedness:
her children are lead away captive before their enemy.
Uau
All the beauty of the daughter of Zion is away, her princes
have become like *wethers that find no pasture. They are driven away
before their enemy, for they have no power.
Zain
Now does Jerusalem remember the time of her misery and
disobedience, yes the joy and pleasure that she had in the times
past: seeing her people brought down through the power of their
enemy, and their is no man for to help her: her enemies staid
looking at her and laughing her Sabbath days to scorn.
Heth
Jerusalem sinned ever more and more, therefore she has come
into decay. All they that had her in honor, despise her: for they
have seen her filthiness. Yes she sigheth, and is shamed of herself.
Teth
Her skirts are defiled, she remembereth not what would follow:
therefore is her fall so great, and there is no man to comfort her.
O' Lord, consider my trouble, for my enemy has the upper hand.
Fod
The enemy hath put his hand to all the precious things that
she had, Yes even before her eyes came the heathen in and out of the
sanctuary: whom thou never the less hast forbidden to come within
your congregation.
Caph
All her people seek their bread with heavens, and look what
precious things every man hath, that he gives for meat, to save his
life. Consider, O' Lord, and see, how vile I am became.
Lamed
O you all that go by, behold and see, if there be any sorrow
like unto mine.
where with the Lord hath troubled me, in the day of his fearful
wrath.
Mem
From above hath he sent down a fire into my bones, and
chastened me, he hath laid a net for my feet, and thrown me wide
open: he hath made me desolate, for I must be ever mourning.
Nun
The pock of my transgressions is come at last, with his hand
he hath taken it up and put it about my neck. My strength is gone:
the Lord hath delivered me into those hands, where from I can not
quite my self.
Samech
The Lord hath destroyed all the mighty men, that were in me.
He hath declared a feast , to slaughter all my best men. The Lord
hath trod down the daughter of Juda, like as it were a wine press.
Ain
Therefore do I weep, mine eyes gush out of water: for the
comforter that should quicken, me is far from me. My children are
driven away, for why ?the enemy has gotten the upper hand.
Phe
Zion casteth out her hands, and there is no man to comfort
her. The Lord hath laid the enemies round about Jacob, and Jerusalem
is as a menstruous woman in the middle of them.
Zade
The Lord is righteous; for I provoked his countenance into
anger. O take heed all you people, and consider my heaviness: My
maidens and my young men are lead away to captivity.
Koph
I called for my lovers (but they beguiled me) for my Priests
and counselors, but they perished: even while they sought for meat,
to have their lives.
Res
Consider (O' Lord) how I am troubled, my womb is disquieted,
my heart turneth about in me, and I am full of heaviness. The sword
hurteth me without, and within I am like unto death.
Sin
They hear my mourning, but there is none that will comfort me.
All my enemies have heard of my trouble, and are glad thereof,
because thou hast done it. But thou shalt bring forth the time, when
they also shall be like unto me.
Thau
From thee shall come all their adversity: thou shalt pluck
them away even as thou has plucked me because of all my wickedness.
For my sorrow is very great, and my heart is heavy.
*wethers (a castrated male sheep)
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Chapter 2
Aleph
Alas, how hath the Lord darkened the daughter of Sion so sore
in his wrath? As for the honor of Israel, he hath cast it down from
heaven: Now happeneth it, that he remembered not his own foot stool
when he was angry?
Beth
The Lord hath cast down all the glory of Jacob without any
favor: all the storage places of the daughter Juda hath he broken in
his wrath, and thrown them down to the ground: her kingdom and her
Princes hath he suspended.
Gimel
In the wrath of his indignation he hath broken all the horn of
Israel: he hath with drawn his right hand from the enemy: Yes a
flame of fire is kindled in Jacob, and hath consumed up all round
about.
Daleth
He hath bent his bow like an enemy, he fastened his right hand
as an adversary: and everything that was pleasant to see, he hath
smitten it down. He poured out his wrath like fire, into the
tabernacle of the daughter of Sion.
He
The Lord is become as it were an enemy, he hath cast down
Israel and all his places: Yes all his strongholds he hath
destroyed, and filled the daughter of Juda with much sorrow and
heaviness.
Uau
Her tabernacle (which was like a garden of pleasure) hath he
destroyed: her high solemn feasts hath he put down. The Lord hath
brought it so to pass, that the high solemn feasts and Sabbaths in
Sion, are clean forgotten. In his heavy displeasure hath he made the
king and priests to be defiled.
Zain
The Lord hath forsaken his own alter, and is wroth with his
own sanctuary, and hath given the walls of their towns into the
hands of the enemy. Their enemies made a noise in the house of the
Lord, as it had been in a solemn feast day.
Neth
The Lord thought to break down the walls of the daughter of
Sion, he spread out his line, and drew not in his hand, till he had
destroyed them. Therefore mourn the turrets and the broken walls
together.
Teth
Her ports are cast down to the ground, her bars are broken and
smitten in sunder: her king and princes are carried away to the
gentiles. They have nether law nor Prophets, nor yet any vision from
the Lord.
Fod
The Senators of the daughter Sion sit upon the ground in
silence: they have strewed ashes upon their heads, and girded
themselves with sack cloth. The maidens of Jerusalem hang their
heads down to the ground.
Caph
Mine eyes begin to fail me through weeping, my body is
disquieted, my *lever is poured upon the earth, for the great hurt
of my people, saying the children and the babes did swoon in the
streets of the city.
Lamed
Even when they speak to their mothers: where is meat and
drink; for while they were speaking, they fell down in the streets
of the city, like as they had been wounded, and some died in their
mothers bosom.
Mem
What shall I say of the, O thou daughter of Jerusalem, to whom
shall I liken thee? To whom shall I compare the, O thou daughter of
Sion, to comfort thee withal; Thy hurt is like a mean sea, who may
heal thee?
Nun
Thy prophets have looked for vain and foolish things for thee,
they have not showed thee of thy wickedness, to keep thee from
captivity; and through falsehood scattered thee abroad.
Samech
All they that go by thee, clap their hands at thee: hissing
and wagging their heads upon the daughter Jerusalem, and say: is
this the city that men call so fair, where in the whole land
rejoices.
Ain
All thee enemies gape upon thee, whispering and biting their
teeth, saying: let us devour, for the time that we looked for, is
come: we have found and seen it.
Phe
The Lord hath fulfilled the thing, that he was purposed to do:
and performed that he had devised long ago: he hath destroyed, and
not spared. He hath caused thine adversaries to triumph over thee,
and set up the horn of thine enemy.
Zade
Let thine heart cry unto the Lord, O thou city of the daughter
of Zion: let tears run down like a river day and night: rest not,
and let not the apple of thine eye leave off.
Koph
Stand up and make thy prayer in the first watch of the night,
pour out thine heart before the Lord: lift up thine hands for the
lives of thy young children, that die of hunger in the streets.
Res
Behold, O' Lord, and consider, why hast thou gathered me up so
clean: Shall the women eat their own fruit, even children of a
spanne long: Shall the priests and the prophets be slain thus in the
Sanctuary of the Lord?
Sin
Young and old lie behind the streets upon the ground in, my
maidens and young men are fallen with the sword: whom thou in the
day of thy wrathful indignation hath put to death: yes even thou
hast put them to death, and not spared them.
Thau
My neighbors that are round about me, hast thou called, as it
were to a feast day: so that in the day of the Lords wrath none
escaped, neither was any left behind. Those that I had brought up
and nourished, hath my enemy destroyed.
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Chapter 3
Aleph
I am the man, that (through the rod of his wrath) have
experience of misery.
He drove me forth, and led me: yes into the darkness, but not
into the light. Against me only he turned his hand, and layeth ever
upon me.
Beth
My flesh and my skin hath he made old, my bones hath he
bruised.
He hath builded round about me, and closed me in with gall and
travail.
He hath set me in darkness, as they that be dead for ever.
Gimel
He hath so hedged me in, that I cannot get out, and hath laid
heavy *linches upon me.
Though I cry and call piteously, yet heareth he not my prayer.
He hath stopped up my ways with four square stones, and made
my paths crooked.
Daleth
He lieth wait for me as a bear, and as a lion in a hole.
He hath marred my ways, and broken me in pieces: he hath laid
me waste altogether. He hath bent his bow, and made me as it were a
mark to shot at.
Ne
The arrows of his quiver hath he shot, even into my reins.
I am laughed to scorn of all my people, they make songs upon
me all the day long.
He hath filled me with bitterness, and given me wormwood to
drink.
Uau
He hath smitten my teeth in pieces, and rolled me in the dust.
He hath put my soul out of rest, I forget all good things.
I thought in myself: I am undone, there is no hope for me in
the Lord.
Zain
O remember my misery and my trouble, the wormwood and the
gall.
Yes thou shalt remember them, for my soul melteth away in me.
While I consider these things in my heart, I get a hope again
Neth
Namely, that the mercies of the Lord are not clean gone, and
that his loving kindness ceases not.
His faithfulness is great and reneweth it self in the morning.
The Lord is my portion saith my soul, therefore will I hope in
him.
Teth
O how good is the Lord unto them that put their trust in him,
and the soul that seeketh after him:
O how good is it with stillness to wait and tarry, for the
health of the Lord.
O how good is it for a man, to take the yoke upon him from his
youth up.
Fod
He sitteth alone, he holdeth him still, and dwelleth quietly
by himself.
He layeth his face upon the earth, if (percase) there happen
to be any hope.
He offereth his cheek to the smiter, he will be content with
reproves.
Caph
For the Lord will not forsake for ever.
But though he do cast off, yet according to the multitude of
his mercies, he receiveth to grace again.
For he doth not plague, and cast out the children of men from
his heart.
Lamed
To tread all the prisoners of the earth under his feet ,
To move the judgement of man before the most highest.
To condemn a man in his cause; The Lord hath no pleasure in
such things.
Mem
What is he then that saith: there should something be done
without the Lords commandment: Out of the mouth of the most Highest
goeth not evil and good?
Wherefore then murmureth the living man: let him murmur at his
own sin.
Nun
Let us look well upon our own ways, and remember ourselves,
and turn again to the Lord.
Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto the Lord that is
in heaven.
We have been dissemblers, and have offended, will thou
therefore not be entreated?
Samech
Thou hast covered us in thy wrath, and persecuted us, thou
hast slain us, without any favor.
Thou hast hidden thyself in a cloud, that our prayer should go
through.
Thou hast made us outcasts, and to be despised among the
heathen.
Ain
All our enemies gape upon us.
Fear and a snare is come upon us, despite and destruction.
Whole rivers of water gush out of mine eyes, for the great
hurt of my people.
Phe
Mine eyes run, and cannot cease, for there is no rest.
O' Lord, when will thou look down from heaven, and consider.
Mine eye breaketh my heart, because of all the daughters of my
city.
Zade
Mine enemies hunted me out sharply, like a bird, yes and that
without cause.
They have put down my life into a pit, and laid a stone upon
me.
They poured water upon my head, then thought I: now I am
undone.
Koph
I called upon thy name, O' Lord, out of the deep pit.
Thou hast heard my voice, and hast not turned away thine ears
from my sighing and crying.
Thou hast inclined thy self unto me, when I called upon thee,
and hast said: fear not.
Res
Thou (O' Lord), hast maintained the cause of my soul, and hast
redeemed my life.
O' Lord, thou hast seen my blasphemers, take thou my cause
upon thee.
Thou hast well considered how they go about to do me harm, and
that all their councils are against me.
Sin
Thou hast heard their despiteful words (O' Lord), yes and all
their imaginations against me.
The lips of mine enemies, and their devices that they take
against me, all the day long.
Thou seest also their sitting down and their rising up, they
make their songs of nothing but me.
Thau
Reward them, (O' Lord), according to the work of their hands.
Give them the thing, that their own heart is afraid of: even
thy curse.
Persecute them (O' Lord) with thine indignation, and root them
out from under heaven.
*linches (chains).
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Chapter 4
Aleph
O How is the gold become so dim? How is the goodly color of it
so fore changed? and the stones of the sanctuary thus scattered in
the corner of the streets ?
Beth
The children of Zion that were always in honor, and clothed
with the most precious gold: how are they now become like the
earthen vessels which be made with the potters hand.
Gimel
The Lamies give their young ones suck with bare breasts: but
the daughter of my people is evil, and dwelleth in the wilderness:
like the Ostriches.
Daleth
The tongue of the sucking children, cleaveth to the roof of
their mouths for very thirst. The young children ask bread, but
there is no man, that giveth it them.
He
They that were want to fair delicately, perish in the streets:
they that were brought up in purple, make now much of dung.
Uau
The sin of the daughter of my people is become greater than
the wickedness of Sodom, that suddenly was destroyed, and not taken
with hands.
Zain
Her abstainers (or Nazarees) were whiter than the snow or
milk: their color was fresh red as the Corall, their beauty like the
sapphire.
Beth
But now their faces are very black: In so much, that thou
shouldest not know them in the streets. Their skin cleaveth to their
bones, It is withered, and become like dry stock.
Teth
They that be slain with the sword, are happier than such as
die of hunger, and perish away famishing for the fruits of the
field.
Fod
The women ( which of nature are pitiful ) have sodden their
own children with their hands that they might be their meat, in the
miserable destruction of the daughter of my people.
Caph
The Lord hath performed his terrible wrath: he hath poured out
the furiousness of his displeasure. He hath kindled a fire in Sion,
which hath consumed the foundations thereof.
Lamed
Neither kings of the earth, ner all the inhabitors of the
world, would have believed that the enemy and adversary should have
come at the gates of the city of *Hierusalem.
Mem
Which nevertheless is come to pass for the sins of her
prophets, and for the wickedness of her Priests that have shed
innocents blood within her.
Nun
So that these blind men went stumbling in the streets, and
stained themselves with blood, which else would touch no bloody
cloth.
Samech
But they cried unto every man: flee the staining, away, get
you hence, touch it not. Yee ( say they ) ye must be burnt, ye must
dwell among the Gentiles, and bide no longer her.
Ain
The countenance of the Lord hath banished them, and shall
never look more upon them: For they themselves neither regarded the
priests, not pitied the elders.
Phe
Wherefore yet our eyes fail us, while we look for vain help:
seeing we be ever waiting upon a people, that can do us no good.
Zade
They lay so sharp wait for us, that we can not go safe upon
the streets: for our end is come, our days are fulfilled, our end is
here.
Koph
Our persecutors are swifter then the *Aeges of the air, they
followed upon us over the mountains, and layed wait for us in the
wilderness.
Res
The very breath of our mouth: even the anointed Lord himself
shall be taken in our sins, of whom we say: Under his shadow we
shall be preserved among the Heathen.
Sin
And thou (O daughter Edom ) that dwellest in the land of Huz,
be glad and rejoice: for the cup shall come unto thee also, which
when thou suppest of it thou shall be drunk.
Thau
Thy sin is well punished ( O thou daughter Sion ) he shall not
suffer thee to be carried away any more. But thy wickedness ( O
daughter Edom ) shall he visit, and for thy sins sake, he shall lead
thee in to captivity.
*Hierusalem. *( this spelling is exact, possibly Jerusalem )
*Aeges (eagles)
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Chapter 5
Call to remembrance, ( O' Lord )
what we have suffered, consider and see our confusion. Our
inheritance is turned to the strangers, and our houses to the
aliens. We are become careful and fatherless, and our mothers are as
the widows. We have *faine to drink our own water for money, and our
own wood must we buy with money. Our necks are under persecution, we
are weary, and have no rest.
Afore time we yielded to the Egyptians, and to the Assyrians,
only that we might have enough bread. Our fathers ( which are now
gone ) have sinned, and we must bear their wickedness. Servants have
rule over us, and no man delivereth us out of their hands. We must
get our living with the peril of our lives because of the *drouth of
the wilderness.
Our skin is as it had been burnt in an oven, for very sore
hunger. The wives are ravished in Sion, and the maidens in the
cities of Judah. The princes are hanged up with the hand of the
enemies, they have not spared the old *sage men, they have taken
young mens lives from them, and the boys are hanged up upon trees.
The elders sit no more under the gates, and the young men use no
more the playing of Music. The joy of our heart is gone, our merry
*query is turned into mourning. The garland of our head is fallen:
alas, that ever we sinned so sore.
Therefore our heart is full of heaviness, and our eyes dim:
because of the hill of Sion that is destroyed. In so much that the
foxes run upon it. But thou, O' Lord, that remainest for evermore,
and thy seat world without end: Wherefore wilt thou still forget us,
and forsake us so long? O' Lord, turn thou us unto thee, and so
shall we be turned. Renew our days as in the old times, for thou
hast banished us now long enough, and hast been sore displeased at
us.
*faine (obliged / willing, happy) *drouth (drought) *sage (wise)
*query (seeking)
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