1.
Aleph.
HOW
Punishment permitted by God is truly ascribed to him as his fact.
hath our Lord in his furie couered the daughter of Sion with darknes: cast forth the noble
one of Israel from heauen to the earth, and hath not remembred the footestoole of his feete in the day of
his furie.
2.
Beth.
Our Lord hath cast downe headlong, and hath not spared, al the beautiful thinges of Iacob: he
hath destroyed in his furie the munitions of the virgin of Iuda, and hast it downe to the ground: he hath
polluted the kingdom, and the princes therof.
3.
Ghimel.
He hath broken
Streingth and forces are called hornes, so euerie horne signifieth al their strength.
euerie horne of Israel in the wrath of furie: he hath turned away his right hand backward
from the face of the enemie: and he hath kindled in Iacob as it were the fyre of a flame deuouring round
about.
4.
Daleth.
He hath bent his bow as an enemie, he hath fastned his right hand as an aduersarie: and he hath
killed al, that was fayre to behold in the tabernacle of the daughter of Sion, he hath powred out his
indignation as fyre.
5.
He.
Our Lord is become as an enemie: he hath cast downe Israel headlong, he hath cast downe headlong
al her walles: he hath destroyed the munitions therof, and hath replenished in the daughter of Iuda the humbled
man and humbled woman.
6.
Vau.
And he hath destroyed his tent as a garden, he hath throwen downe his tabernacle: our Lord hath
brought festiuitie and sabbath in Sion to obliuion: and king and priest into reproch, and into the indignation
of his furie.
7.
Zain.
Our Lord hath reiected, he
Suffered his Sanctuarie to be polluted.
hath cursed his sanctification: he hath deliuered the walles of the towers therof into
the hand of the enemie: they haue made a noyse in the house of our Lord, as in a solemne day.
8.
Heth.
Our Lord hath meant to destroy the wal of the daughter of Sion: he hath streched out his corde,
and hath not turned away his hand from destruction: and the forewal hath mourned, and the wal is destroyed
together.
9.
Teth.
Her gates are fastned in the ground: he hath destroyed, and broken her barres: her king and her
princes in the Gentiles: there is no law, and her prophets haue not found vision from our Lord.
10.
Iod.
The ancients of the daughter of Sion haue sitten on the ground, the haue held their peace: they
haue sprinkled their heades with dust, they are girded with heare clothes, the virgins of Ierusalem haue cast
downe their heades to the ground.
11.
Caph.
Myne eies haue fayled for teares, my bowels are trubled: my liuer is powred out on the earth,
for the destruction of the daughter of my people, when the litle one, and the sucking faynted in the streetes
of the towne.
12.
Lamed.
They sayd to their mothers: Where is wheate and wyne? when they faynted as the wounded in the
streets of the citie: when they yelded vp the ghostes in the bosome of their mothers.
13.
Mem.
Wherto shal I compare thee? or wherto shal I liken thee ô daughter of Ierusalem: wherto shal
I make thee equal, and comfort thee ô virgin daughter of Sion? For great is thy destruction
As the sea exceedeth al other waters, so the affliction of Ierusalem surpasseth other afflictions,
which is spoken by hyperbole, to signifie the grenousnes therof.
as the sea: who shal heale thee?
14.
Nun.
Thy prophetes haue sene false and foolish thinges for thee: neither haue they opened thyne
iniquitie, to prouoke thee to penance, but they haue sene false burdens and banishments for thee.
15.
Samech.
Al that passed by the way haue clapped their handes vpon thee: they haue hisse, and moued
their head vpon the daughter of Ierusalem, saying: Is this the citie of perfect beautie, the ioy of al the
earth?
16.
Phe.
Al thyne enemies haue opened their mouth vpon thee: they have hissed, and gnashed with the
teeth, and haue sayd: We wil deuour: Loe this is the day, which we expected: we haue found it, we have sene it.
17.
Ain.
Our Lord hath done the thinges that he meant, he hath accomplished his word, which he commanded
from the dayes of old: he hath destroyed, and hath not spared, and he hath made the enemie ioyful ouer thee,
and hath exalted the horne of thine aduersaries.
18.
Sade.
Their hart hath cryed to our Lord vpon the walles of the daughter of Sion: Shede teares as a
torrent by day, and night: geue no rest to thyself, neither let the aple of thyne eye cease.
19.
Coph:
Arise, prayse in the night in the beginning of the watches: powre out thy hart as waters
before the sight of our Lord: lift vp thy handes to him for the life of thy litle ones, which haue fainted for
famine in the head of al high wayes.
20.
Res.
See ô Lord, and consider whom thou hast vintaged thus:
This happened before in Samaria. 4. Reg. 6. and in the siege of Ierusalem, by Titus and
Vespasian. Ioseph. lib. 7. & 8. debello Iudiaico.
shal wemen then eate their owne fruite, litle ones of the measure of a spanne? is the
priest, and the prophet slaine in the sanctuarie of our Lord?
21.
Sin.
The childe and the old man lay on the ground without: my virgins and my yongmen are fallen
by the sword: thou hast killed in the day of thy furie: thou hast strooken,
More seuerely then thou art accustomed.
neither hast thou had mercie.
22.
Thau.
Thou hast called as it were to a solemne day, those that should terrifie me round about, and
there was none in the day of the furie of our Lord, that escaped and was left: whom I brought vp, & nourished,
mine enemie hath consumed them.