ת (Tav) Pay them back what they deserve, O Lord, according to what they have done.

For wild animals are prowling over Mount Zion, which lies desolate.

ח (Khet) 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.

I have become the laughingstock of all people, their mocking song all day long.

ע (Ayin) I weep because of these things; my eyes flow with tears. For there is no one in sight who can comfort me or encourage me. My children are desolated because an enemy has prevailed.

ח (Khet) The Lord was determined to tear down Daughter Zion’s wall. He prepared to knock it down; he did not withdraw his hand from destroying. He made the ramparts and fortified walls lament; together they mourned their ruin.

כ (Kaf) For the Lord will not reject us forever.

We have become fatherless orphans; our mothers have become widows.

We are pursued – they are breathing down our necks; we are weary and have no rest.

We have submitted to Egypt and Assyria in order to buy food to eat.

ח (Khet) Jerusalem committed terrible sin; therefore she became an object of scorn. All who admired her have despised her because they have seen her nakedness. She groans aloud and turns away in shame.

He has besieged and surrounded me with bitter hardship.

Also, when I cry out desperately for help, he has shut out my prayer.

He has given me my fill of bitter herbs and made me drunk with bitterness.

ל (Lamed) To crush underfoot all the earth’s prisoners,

Why do you keep on forgetting us? Why do you forsake us so long?

ג (Gimel) Judah has departed into exile under affliction and harsh oppression. She lives among the nations; she has found no resting place. All who pursued her overtook her in narrow straits.

ס (Samek) All who passed by on the road clapped their hands to mock you. They sneered and shook their heads at Daughter Jerusalem. “Ha! Is this the city they called ‘The perfection of beauty, the source of joy of the whole earth!’?”

ר (Resh) 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?

ג (Gimel) He has walled me in so that I cannot get out; he has weighted me down with heavy prison chains.