Behold, O LORD, for I am in distress. My heart is troubled. My heart is turned within me. For I have grievously rebelled. Abroad the sword bereaves; at home there is as death.
My eyes fail with tears, my heart is troubled, my liver is poured upon the earth, because of the destruction of the daughter of my people, because the young sons and the sucklings faint in the streets of the city.
The sword is outside, and the pestilence and the famine inside. He who is in the field shall die with the sword, and he who is in the city, famine and pestilence shall devour him.
My anguish, my anguish! I am pained at my very heart. My heart is disquieted in me. I cannot hold my peace, because thou have heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war.
I heard, and my body trembled. My lips quivered at the voice. Rottenness enters into my bones, and I tremble in my place, because I must wait quietly for the day of trouble, for the coming up of the people who invade us.
How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? [How] shall I cast thee off, Israel? How shall I make thee as Admah? [How] shall I set thee as Zeboiim? My heart is turned within me. My compassions are kindled together.
LORD is righteous, for I have rebelled against his commandment. Hear, I pray you, all ye peoples, and behold my sorrow. My virgins and my young men have gone into captivity.
All her people sigh. They seek bread. They have given their pleasant things for food to refresh the soul. See, O LORD, and, behold, for I have become abject.
Her filthiness was in her skirts. She did not think of her latter end. Therefore she has come down astonishingly. She has no comforter. Behold, O LORD, my affliction, for the enemy has magnified himself.
Therefore my heart sounds for Moab like pipes, and my heart sounds like pipes for the men of Kir-heres. Therefore the abundance that he has gotten is perished.
Is Ephraim my dear son? Is he a darling child? For as often as I speak against him, I do earnestly remember him still. Therefore my heart yearns for him. I will surely have mercy upon him, says LORD.
If I go forth into the field, then, behold, the slain with the sword! And if I enter into the city, then, behold, those who are sick with famine! For both the prophet and the priest go about in the land, and have no knowledge.
Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou have transgressed against LORD thy God, and have scattered thy ways to the strangers under every green tree, and ye have not obeyed my voice, says LORD.
Yet thou said, I am innocent. Surely his anger is turned away from me. Behold, I will enter into judgment with thee because thou say, I have not sinned.
Jerusalem has grievously sinned, therefore she has become as an unclean thing. All who honored her despise her, because they have seen her nakedness. Yea, she sighs, and turns backward.