For grape gatherers have come, who shall not leave to you a remnant; as thieves by night, they shall lay their hand upon [your possessions].

Set up a pillar, O Israel, for the slain that died upon your high places; how the mighty have fallen!

How has Lucifer, that rose of the morning, fallen from heaven! He that sent [orders] to all the nations is crushed to the earth.

How has the hammer of the whole earth been broken and crushed! How has Babylon become a desolation among the nations!

And it came to pass, after Israel was taken captive, and Jerusalem made desolate, [that] Jeremiah sat weeping, and lamented with this lamentation over Jerusalem, and said: ALEPH. How does the city that was filled with people sit solitary! She has become as a widow: she that was magnified among the nations, and princess among the provinces, has become tributary.

[ 3:1] This is the scornful city that dwells securely, that says in her heart, I am, and there is no longer any [to be] after me: how has she become desolate, and a habitation of wild beasts! Everyone that passes through her shall hiss, and shake their hands [in contempt].

standing from afar on account of the fear of her torment, saying, 'Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! Because in one hour your judgment came.'

And whenever you shall gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not glean what you have left; it shall be for the stranger, and the orphan, and the widow;

and [as if] there should be left stubble therein, or the berries of an olive tree, two or three on the topmost bough, or [as if] four or five should be left on their branches; thus says the Lord, the God of Israel.

All this shall be in the land in the midst of the nations, as if one should strip an olive tree, so shall they strip them; but when the vintage is done,

Alas for me! For I have become as one gathering straw in harvest, and as [one gathering] grape-gleanings in the vintage, when there is no cluster for me to eat the first-ripe fruit: alas my soul!