All who pass your way applaud in mockery. They wag their heads with contempt, saying over beloved Jerusalem, “Is this really the city called The Perfection of Beauty, The Joy of All the Earth?”
Then I said, “Yahweh, you understand everything perfectly. Remember me and act on my behalf. Pay back all those who persecute me. Do not be so patient with my enemies; take revenge on them before they kill me. It is for your sake that I suffer insult after insult.
“Look, Yahweh, and please consider. Whom have you ever treated this way? Should women eat their offspring, the little ones they have nursed? Should priests and prophets be slaughtered in the Lord’s sanctuary?
“Yahweh, can’t you see I’m in deep trouble? My gut is churning and my heart is burning— how rebellious I have been! The sword rules on the street; plague rules within the houses.
Her filth stains her skirts— she never pictured this outcome. Therefore, her fall is terrible with no one to comfort her. Jerusalem groans, “Yahweh, look how miserable I am; all the while my enemy gloats!”
Everyone is groaning, longing for anything to eat; they have traded their treasures for food in order to keep themselves alive. “Look, Yahweh, and consider how pathetic I have become!