Lamentations 1:5 - Prayer Tents



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Lamentations 1
The Message Help

Worthless, Cheap, Abject!

1Oh, oh, oh . . . How empty the city, once teeming with people. A widow, this city, once in the front rank of nations, once queen of the ball, she's now a drudge in the kitchen.H5892H3427H910H7227H5971H490H7227H1471H8282H4082H4522 2She cries herself to sleep each night, tears soaking her pillow. No one's left among her lovers to sit and hold her hand. Her friends have all dumped her.H1058H1058H3915H1832H3895H157H5162H7453H898H341 3After years of pain and hard labor, Judah has gone into exile. She camps out among the nations, never feels at home. Hunted by all, she's stuck between a rock and a hard place.H3063H1540H6040H7230H5656H3427H1471H4672H4494H7291H5381H4712 4Zion's roads weep, empty of pilgrims headed to the feasts. All her city gates are deserted, her priests in despair. Her virgins are sad. How bitter her fate.H1870H6726H57H935H4150H8179H8074H3548H584H1330H3013H4843 5Her enemies have become her masters. Her foes are living it up because GOD laid her low, punishing her repeated rebellions. Her children, prisoners of the enemy, trudge into exile.H6862H7218H341H7951H3068H3013H7230H6588H5768H1980H7628H6440H6862 6All beauty has drained from Daughter Zion's face. Her princes are like deer famished for food, chased to exhaustion by hunters.H1323H6726H1926H3318H8269H354H4672H4829H3212H3581H6440H7291 7Jerusalem remembers the day she lost everything, when her people fell into enemy hands, and not a soul there to help. Enemies looked on and laughed, laughed at her helpless silence.H3389H2142H3117H6040H4788H4262H3117H6924H5971H5307H3027H6862H5826H6862H7200H7832H4868 8Jerusalem, who outsinned the whole world, is an outcast. All who admired her despise her now that they see beneath the surface. Miserable, she groans and turns away in shame.H3389H2399H2398H5206H3513H2107H7200H6172H584H7725H268 9She played fast and loose with life, she never considered tomorrow, and now she's crashed royally, with no one to hold her hand: "Look at my pain, O GOD! And how the enemy cruelly struts."H2932H7757H2142H319H3381H6382H5162H3068H7200H6040H341H1431 10The enemy reached out to take all her favorite things. She watched as pagans barged into her Sanctuary, those very people for whom you posted orders: KEEP OUT: THIS ASSEMBLY OFF-LIMITS.H6862H6566H3027H4261H7200H1471H935H4720H6680H935H6951 11All the people groaned, so desperate for food, so desperate to stay alive that they bartered their favorite things for a bit of breakfast: "O GOD, look at me! Worthless, cheap, abject!H5971H584H1245H3899H5414H4261H4262H400H7725H5315H7200H3068H5027H2151 12"And you passersby, look at me! Have you ever seen anything like this? Ever seen pain like my pain, seen what he did to me, what GOD did to me in his rage?H5674H1870H5027H7200H3426H4341H4341H5953H3068H3013H3117H2740H639 13"He struck me with lightning, skewered me from head to foot, then he set traps all around so I could hardly move. He left me with nothing—left me sick, and sick of living.H4791H7971H784H6106H7287H6566H7568H7272H7725H268H5414H8074H1739H3117 14"He wove my sins into a rope and harnessed me to captivity's yoke. I'm goaded by cruel taskmasters.H5923H6588H8244H3027H8276H5927H6677H3581H3782H136H5414H3027H3201H6965 15"The Master piled up my best soldiers in a heap, then called in thugs to break their fine young necks. The Master crushed the life out of fair virgin Judah.H136H5541H47H7130H7121H4150H7665H970H136H1869H1330H1323H3063H1660 16"For all this I weep, weep buckets of tears, and not a soul within miles around cares for my soul. My children are wasted, my enemy got his way."H1058H5869H5869H3381H4325H5162H7725H5315H7368H1121H8074H341H1396 17Zion reached out for help, but no one helped. GOD ordered Jacob's enemies to surround him, and now no one wants anything to do with Jerusalem.H6726H6566H3027H5162H3068H6680H3290H6862H5439H3389H5079 18"GOD has right on his side. I'm the one who did wrong. Listen everybody! Look at what I'm going through! My fair young women, my fine young men, all herded into exile!H3068H6662H4784H6310H8085H5971H7200H4341H1330H970H1980H7628 19"I called to my friends; they betrayed me. My priests and my leaders only looked after themselves, trying but failing to save their own skins.H7121H157H7411H3548H2205H1478H5892H1245H400H7725H5315 20"O GOD, look at the trouble I'm in! My stomach in knots, my heart wrecked by a life of rebellion. Massacres in the streets, starvation in the houses.H7200H3068H6887H4578H2560H3820H2015H7130H4784H4784H2351H2719H7921H1004H4194 21"Oh, listen to my groans. No one listens, no one cares. When my enemies heard of the trouble you gave me, they cheered. Bring on Judgment Day! Let them get what I got!H8085H584H5162H341H8085H7451H7797H6213H935H3117H7121H3644 22"Take a good look at their evil ways and give it to them! Give them what you gave me for my sins. Groaning in pain, body and soul, I've had all I can take."H7451H935H6440H5953H5953H6588H585H7227H3820H1742


The Message (MSG). All Scripture quotations are taken from THE MESSAGE, copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress. All rights reserved. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers, a Division of Tyndale House Ministries. More details.
Old Testament
  • 25. Lamentations (5)
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  • 29. Joel (3)
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  • 31. Obadiah (1)
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  • 36. Zephaniah (3)
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  • 37. Haggai (2)
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New Testament
  • 50. Philippians (4)
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  • 52. 1 Thessalonians (5)
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  • 65. Jude (1)
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