With all my heart I call to you; answer me, LORD, and I will obey your commands!

You punished your people, LORD, and in anguish they prayed to you.

You, LORD, have made us cry out, as a woman in labor cries out in pain.

They have not prayed to me sincerely, but instead they throw themselves down and wail as the heathen do. When they pray for grain and wine, they gash themselves like pagans. What rebels they are!

The LORD was determined that the walls of Zion should fall; He measured them off to make sure of total destruction. The towers and walls now lie in ruins together.

Even the stones of the walls cry out against you, and the rafters echo the cry.

All 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 are all against her now.

"That is why my eyes are overflowing with tears. No one can comfort me; no one can give me courage. The enemy has conquered me; my people have nothing left.

My eyes flow with rivers of tears at the destruction of my people.

"My tears will pour out in a ceaseless stream

My tears pour down like a river, because people do not obey your law.

I heard a cry, like a woman in labor, a scream like a woman bearing her first child. It was the cry of Jerusalem gasping for breath, stretching out her hand and saying, "I am doomed! They are coming to kill me!"

I wish my head were a well of water, and my eyes a fountain of tears, so that I could cry day and night for my people who have been killed.

The LORD Almighty said, "Think about what is happening! Call for the mourners to come, for the women who sing funeral songs."

The people said, "Tell them to hurry and sing a funeral song for us, until our eyes fill with tears, and our eyelids are wet from crying."

If you will not listen, I will cry in secret because of your pride; I will cry bitterly, and my tears will flow because the LORD's people have been taken away as captives.

The LORD commanded me to tell the people about my sorrow and to say: "May my eyes flow with tears day and night, may I never stop weeping, for my people are deeply wounded and are badly hurt.