My stomach, my stomach! I am convulsed to my heart! My heart groans within me; I cannot be silent because you have heard, O my soul, the sound of the shofar, the alarm of war.

Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!

Therefore you shall speak this word to them: Let my eyes run down with tears night and day, and do not let them cease. For the virgin daughter of my people is broken with a great break, with a sickening blow.

As for me, I have not hurried away from being a shepherd who follows You; nor have I desired the woeful day; You surely know the going forth of my lips before Your face.

and said to the king, May the king live forever! Why should my face not be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers' tombs, lies waste, and its gates have been consumed with fire?

For there those who took us captive asked of us a song, and those who plundered us requested mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion!

If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill.

And as He drew near, He saw the city and wept over it,

I tell the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience also bearing witness with me in the Holy Spirit,

For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ on behalf of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh,

I am black, but lovely, O daughters of Jerusalem, like the tents of Kedar, like the curtains of Solomon.

Do not look upon me, because I am black, because the sun has looked upon me. My mother's sons were angry with me; they made me the keeper of the vineyards, but my own vineyard I have not kept.

Before their face the people writhe in pain; all faces gather heat.

She is empty, desolate, and waste. And the heart is melted, and the knees knocking; and trembling is in all the loins; and all of their faces are flushed.