Quis dabit capiti meo aquam, et oculis meis fontem lacrimarum, et plorabo die ac nocte interfectos filiæ populi mei?

Who will give water to my head, and a fountain of tears to my eyes? and I will weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people.

Well-head were this head of mine, eyes of a fountain these eyes, day nor night should serve me to weep enough for my country’s dead.

Quis dabit me in solitudine diversorium viatorum, et derelinquam populum meum, et recedam ab eis? quia omnes adulteri sunt, cœtus prævaricatorum.

Who will give me in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men, and I will leave my people, and depart from them? because they are all adulterers, an assembly of transgressors.

Oh that some lodging-place in the wilderness for me were dwelling-place, far from the haunts of my own people, that are faithless lovers, rebel subjects all!

Et extenderunt linguam suam quasi arcum mendacii et non veritatis: confortati sunt in terra, quia de malo ad malum egressi sunt, et me non cognoverunt, dicit Dominus.

And they have bent their tongue, as a bow, for lies, and not for truth: they have strengthened themselves upon the earth, for they have proceeded from evil to evil, and me they have not known, saith the Lord.

Deceitful tongues, treacherous as the hidden archer’s bow, hearts that lord it over their fellow-countrymen, wrong leading to wrong, and my claims forgotten! the Lord says.

Unusquisque se a proximo suo custodiat, et in omni fratre suo non habeat fiduciam: quia omnis frater supplantans supplantabit, et omnis amicus fraudulenter incedet.

Let every man take heed of his neighbour, and let him not trust in any brother of his: for every brother will utterly supplant, and every friend will walk deceitfully.

Neighbour of neighbour beware, kinsman let kinsman never trust; none goes about to overthrow thee more craftily than brother of thine or friend.

Et vir fratrem suum deridebit, et veritatem non loquentur: docuerunt enim linguam suam loqui mendacium; ut inique agerent laboraverunt.

And a man shall mock his brother, and they will not speak the truth: for they have taught their tongue to speak lies: they have laboured to commit iniquity.

None but will overreach his fellow with lies; all their schooling is in falsehood, all their striving for ill-gotten gain.

Habitatio tua in medio doli: in dolo renuerunt scire me, dicit Dominus.

Thy habitation is in the midst of deceit: through deceit they have refused to know me, saith the Lord.

In what a nest of treason thou dwellest! And such treason, the Lord says, as will acknowledge no claim of mine.

Propterea hæc dicit Dominus exercituum: Ecce ego conflabo, et probabo eos: quid enim aliud faciam a facie filiæ populi mei?

Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts: Behold I will melt, and try them: for what else shall I do before the daughter of my people?

This warning, then, he utters, the Lord of hosts: The fire for them! They must be tried in the crucible; what other choice has my faithless people left me?

Sagitta vulnerans lingua eorum, dolum locuta est. In ore suo pacem cum amico suo loquitur, et occulte ponit ei insidias.

Their tongue is a piercing arrow, it hath spoken deceit: with his mouth one speaketh peace with his friend, and secretly he lieth in wait for him.

Tongues that wound like an arrow, with deceit for poison, ever the smooth word of friend laying snare for friend;

Numquid super his non visitabo, dicit Dominus, aut in gente hujusmodi non ulciscetur anima mea?

Shall I not visit them for these things, saith the Lord? or shall not my soul be revenged on such a nation?

what, shall I let all this pass me by, the Lord says; shall I not take my fill of vengeance against such a nation as this?

Super montes assumam fletum ac lamentum, et super speciosa deserti planctum, quoniam incensa sunt, eo quod non sit vir pertransiens, et non audierunt vocem possidentis: a volucre cæli usque ad pecora transmigraverunt et recesserunt.

For the mountains I will take up weeping and lamentation, and for the beautiful places of the desert, mourning: because they are burnt up, for that there is not a man that passeth through them: and they have not heard the voice of the owner: from the fowl of the air to the beasts they are gone away and departed.

Sad dirge be made for the hills, lament for all the wide pasture-lands, that are scorched bare, and left untravelled; silent the herdsman’s call; birds that nested there, cattle that grazed there, fled and gone.

Et dabo Jerusalem in acervos arenæ, et cubilia draconum: et civitates Juda dabo in desolationem, eo quod non sit habitator.

And I will make Jerusalem to be heaps of sand, and dens of dragons: and I will make the cities of Juda desolate, for want of an inhabitant.

I mean to turn Jerusalem into a heap of dust, the lair of serpents; the cities of Juda shall stand desolate, with none to inhabit them.

Quis est vir sapiens qui intelligat hoc, et ad quem verbum oris Domini fiat, ut annuntiet istud, quare perierit terra, et exusta sit quasi desertum, eo quod non sit qui pertranseat?

Who is the wise man, that may understand this, and to whom the word of the mouth of the Lord may come that he may declare this, why the land hath perished, and is burnt up like a wilderness, which none passeth through?

Come now, who is wise enough to read the riddle, to what spokesman shall the Lord’s proclamation be entrusted, when he tells us why the land lies ruined, burnt up like the wilderness, and never a passer-by?

Et dixit Dominus: Quia dereliquerunt legem meam quam dedi eis, et non audierunt vocem meam, et non ambulaverunt in ea,

And the Lord said: Because they have forsaken my law, which I gave them, and have not heard my voice, and have not walked in it.

It is because they forsook the commandment I gave them, the Lord says, would not heed my call or follow it;

et abierunt post pravitatem cordis sui, et post Baalim, quod didicerunt a patribus suis:

But they have gone after the perverseness of their own heart, and after Baalim, which their fathers taught them.

because they had recourse to ill devices of their own, and to the gods of the country-side, whose worship their fathers taught them.

idcirco hæc dicit Dominus exercituum, Deus Israël: Ecce ego cibabo populum istum absinthio, et potum dabo eis aquam fellis.

Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel: Behold I will feed this people with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink.

This doom, then, the Lord of hosts pronounces, the God of Israel: On wormwood I will feed this people of mine, gall shall be the drink I give them;

Et dispergam eos in gentibus quas non noverunt ipsi et patres eorum, et mittam post eos gladium, donec consumantur.

And I will scatter them among the nations, which they and their fathers have not known: and I will send the sword after them till they be consumed.

far away I will scatter them, in countries never they, never their fathers knew; and the sword shall follow close behind, to exterminate them.

Hæc dicit Dominus exercituum, Deus Israël: Contemplamini, et vocate lamentatrices, et veniant: et ad eas quæ sapientes sunt mittite, et properent:

Thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel: Consider ye, and call for the mourning women, and let them come: and send to them that are wise women, and let them make haste:

This too the Lord of hosts says, the God of Israel: Search all about, and find mourners, mistresses of their craft, and such as will answer your summons with all haste;

festinent, et assumant super nos lamentum: deducant oculi nostri lacrimas, et palpebræ nostræ defluant aquis.

Let them hasten and take up a lamentation for us: let our eyes shed tears, and our eyelids run down with waters.

no time let them lose in making dole for us; weep every eye, be every eye-lid blubbered with tears.

Quia vox lamentationis audita est de Sion: Quomodo vastati sumus, et confusi vehementer? quia dereliquimus terram; quoniam dejecta sunt tabernacula nostra.

For a voice of wailing is heard out of Sion: How are we wasted and greatly confounded? because we have left the land, because our dwellings are cast down.

Listen to Sion’s lament: Alas, what scathe, alas, what shame! Our land lies deserted, our homes in ruins!

Audite ergo, mulieres, verbum Domini, et assumant aures vestræ sermonem oris ejus, et docete filias vestras lamentum, et unaquæque proximam suam planctum:

Hear therefore, ye women, the word of the Lord: and let your ears receive the word of his mouth: and teach your daughters wailing: and every one her neighbour mourning.

To you, women, the Lord’s word comes; this is matter for your hearing. To daughters of yours, neighbours of yours, teach the sad melody of yonder lament;

quia ascendit mors per fenestras nostras; ingressa est domos nostras, disperdere parvulos deforis, juvenes de plateis.

For death is come up through our windows, it is entered into our houses to destroy the children from without, the young men from the streets.

here is death looking in at our windows, finding its way into our palaces, and soon there will be no children playing out of doors, nor grown men passing to and fro in the streets.

Loquere: Hæc dicit Dominus: Et cadet morticinum hominis quasi stercus super faciem regionis, et quasi fœnum post tergum metentis, et non est qui colligat.

Speak: Thus saith the Lord: Even the carcass of man shall fall as dung upon the face of the country, and as grass behind the back of the mower, and there is none to gather it.

A message from the Lord: Like dung they shall lie on the ground, the corpses of the dead, like the sheaf left after reaping is done, that none is at pains to gather.

Hæc dicit Dominus: Non glorietur sapiens in sapientia sua, et non glorietur fortis in fortitudine sua, et non glorietur dives in divitiis suis:

Thus saith the Lord: Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, and let not the strong man glory in his strength, and let not the rich man glory in his riches:

This, too, is the Lord’s message: Never boast, if thou art wise, of thy wisdom, if thou art strong, of thy strength, if thou art rich, of thy riches;

sed in hoc glorietur, qui gloriatur, scire et nosse me, quia ego sum Dominus qui facio misericordiam, et judicium, et justitiam in terra: hæc enim placent mihi, ait Dominus.

But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, for I am the Lord that exercise mercy, and judgment, and justice in the earth: for these things please me, saith the Lord.

boast is none worth having, save that insight which gives knowledge of me; in all my dealings with mankind so merciful a Lord, the Lord says, so just, so faithful, and a lover of such dealings where they are found.

Ecce dies veniunt, dicit Dominus, et visitabo super omnem qui circumcisum habet præputium,

Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, and I will visit upon every one that hath the foreskin circumcised.

A time of reckoning there shall be, the Lord says, for all the nations that practice circumcision,

super Ægyptum, et super Juda, et super Edom, et super filios Ammon, et super Moab; et super omnes qui attonsi sunt in comam, habitantes in deserto: quia omnes gentes habent præputium, omnis autem domus Israël incircumcisi sunt corde.

Upon Egypt, and upon Juda, and upon Edom, and upon the children of Ammon, and upon Moab, and upon all that have their hair polled round, that dwell in the desert: for all the nations are uncircumcised in the flesh, but all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in the heart.

Egypt, Juda, Edom, Ammon, Moab; ay, and the desert folk that clip their foreheads bare. The whole world is uncircumcised; all have hearts uncircumcised, and Israel with the rest.