1. How desolate the city sits that was full of people! She has become like a widow, once great among the nations! Like a woman of nobility in the provinces, she has become a forced laborer.
2. She weeps bitterly in the night, her tears are on her cheeks; she has no comforter among all her lovers. All her friends have been unfaithful to her; they have become her enemies.
3. Judah has gone into exile with misery and under hard servitude; she lives among the nations, she has not found a resting place; all her pursuers have overtaken her amidst her distress.
4. The roads of Zion are mourning because no one comes to the festival. All her gates are desolate, her priests groan; her young women are worried, and she herself suffers bitterly.
5. Her foes have become her master, her enemies are at ease; Yahweh has made her suffer because of the greatness of her transgressions. Her children have gone away, captive before the foe.
6. All her majesty has gone away from the daughter of Zion; her princes have become like young stags that have not found pasture; they have gone away without strength, before the pursuer.