₁How lonely lies Jerusalem, once so full of people!

Once honoured by the world, she is now like a widow;

The noblest of cities has fallen into slavery.

₂All night long she cries; tears run down her cheeks.

Of all her former friends, not one is left to comfort her.

Her allies have betrayed her and all are now against her.

₃Judah's people are helpless slaves, forced away from home.

They live in other lands, with no place to call their own —

Surrounded by enemies, with no way to escape.

₄No one comes to the Temple now to worship on the holy days.

The young women who sang there suffer, and the priests can only groan.

The city gates stand empty, and Zion is in agony.

₅Her enemies succeeded; they hold her in their power.

The LORD has made her suffer for all her many sins;

Her children have been captured and taken away.

₆The splendour of Jerusalem is a thing of the past.

Her leaders are like deer that are weak from hunger,

Whose strength is almost gone as they flee from the hunters.

₁₉The thought of my pain, my homelessness, is bitter poison;

₂₀I think of it constantly and my spirit is depressed.

₂₁Yet hope returns when I remember this one thing:

₂₂The LORD's unfailing love and mercy still continue,

₂₃Fresh as the morning, as sure as the sunrise.

₂₄The LORD is all I have, and so I put my hope in him.

₂₅The LORD is good to everyone who trusts in him,

₂₆So it is best for us to wait in patience — to wait for him to save us —

₁By the rivers of Babylon we sat down;

there we wept when we remembered Zion.

₂On the willows near by

we hung up our harps.

₃Those who captured us told us to sing;

they told us to entertain them:

“Sing us a song about Zion.”

₄How can we sing a song to the LORD

in a foreign land?

₅May I never be able to play the harp again

if I forget you, Jerusalem!

₆May I never be able to sing again

if I do not remember you,

if I do not think of you as my greatest joy!

₇Remember, LORD, what the Edomites did

the day Jerusalem was captured.

Remember how they kept saying,

“Tear it down to the ground!”

₈Babylon, you will be destroyed.

Happy are those who pay you back

for what you have done to us —

₉who take your babies

and smash them against a rock.