Lamentations 1:5-6

ה (He)

1:5 Her foes subjugated her;

her enemies are at ease.

For the Lord afflicted her

because of her many acts of rebellion.

Her children went away

captive before the enemy.

ו (Vav)

1:6 All of Daughter Zion’s splendor

has departed.

Her leaders became like deer;

they found no pasture,

so they were too exhausted to escape

from the hunter.

Lamentations 2:20-22

Jerusalem Speaks:

ר (Resh)

2:20 Look, O Lord! Consider!

Whom have you ever afflicted like this?

Should women eat their offspring,

their healthy infants?

Should priest and prophet

be killed in the Lord’s sanctuary?

ש (Sin/Shin)

2:21 The young boys and old men

lie dead on the ground in the streets.

My young women and my young men

have fallen by the sword.

You killed them when you were angry;

you slaughtered them without mercy.

ת (Tav)

2:22 As if it were a feast day, you call

enemies to terrify me on every side.

On the day of the Lord’s anger

no one escaped or survived.

My enemy has finished off

those healthy infants whom I bore and raised.

Lamentations 4:2-10

ב (Bet)

4:2 The precious sons of Zion

were worth their weight in gold –

Alas! – but now they are treated like broken clay pots,

made by a potter.

ג (Gimel)

4:3 Even the jackals nurse their young

at their breast,

but my people are cruel,

like ostriches in the desert.

ד (Dalet)

4:4 The infant’s tongue sticks

to the roof of its mouth due to thirst;

little children beg for bread,

but no one gives them even a morsel.

ה (He)

4:5 Those who once feasted on delicacies

are now starving to death in the streets.

Those who grew up wearing expensive clothes

are now dying amid garbage.

ו (Vav)

4:6 The punishment of my people

exceeded that of of Sodom,

which was overthrown in a moment

with no one to help her.

ז (Zayin)

4:7 Her consecrated ones were brighter than snow,

whiter than milk;

their bodies more ruddy than corals,

their hair like lapis lazuli.

ח (Khet)

4:8 Now their appearance is darker than soot;

they are not recognized in the streets.

Their skin has shriveled on their bones;

it is dried up, like tree bark.

ט (Tet)

4:9 Those who died by the sword are better off

than those who die of hunger,

those who waste away,

struck down from lack of food.

י (Yod)

4:10 The hands of tenderhearted women

cooked their own children,

who became their food,

when my people were destroyed.

Jeremiah 9:21

9:21 ‘Death has climbed in through our windows.

It has entered into our fortified houses.

It has taken away our children who play in the streets.

It has taken away our young men who gather in the city squares.’