Woe is me, for I am become as one that gleaneth in autumn the grapes of the vintage: there is no cluster to eat, my soul desired the firstripe figs.

Væ mihi, quia factus sum sicut qui colligit in autumno racemos vindemiæ! non est botrus ad comedendum, præcoquas ficus desideravit anima mea.

Your tears for Sion! Not more pitiful work is gleaning when the vintage is done; never a cluster to eat; for the ripe figs belly craves in vain.

The holy man is perished out of the earth, and there is none upright among men: they all lie in wait for blood, every one hunteth his brother to death.

Periit sanctus de terra, et rectus in hominibus non est: omnes in sanguine insidiantur; vir fratrem suum ad mortem venatur.

Fled is piety, vanished honesty, from human kind; murderous plots afoot; the hunt is up everywhere, man spreading his nets for man.

The evil of their hands they call good: the prince requireth, and the judge is for giving: and the great man hath uttered the desire of his soul, and they have troubled it.

Malum manuum suarum dicunt bonum: princeps postulat, et judex in reddendo est; et magnus locutus est desiderium animæ suæ, et conturbaverunt eam.

Ever the wrong done, and fair names devised for it; ruler must have his benevolence, and judge his gratuity, and tyrant makes known what is his earnest wish; they know well how to wrap it up.

He that is best among them, is as a brier: and he that is righteous, as the thorn of the hedge. The day of thy inspection, thy visitation cometh: now shall be their destruction.

Qui optimus in eis est, quasi paliurus, et qui rectus, quasi spina de sepe. Dies speculationis tuæ, visitatio tua venit: nunc erit vastitas eorum.

Cruel as thorns they be, that are kindliest of them, close as thorn-hedge, that are honest above the rest. Surely this is the day thy watchmen foretold, surely thou wilt call them to account; not long delayed their last extremity!

Believe not a friend, and trust not in a prince: keep the doors of thy mouth from her that sleepeth in thy bosom.

Nolite credere amico, et nolite confidere in duce: ab ea quæ dormit in sinu tuo custodi claustra oris tui.

Trust no man, give thy heart to no man, though he be friend and counsellor of thine; against the wife that lies on thy bosom, guard the entry of thy lips;

For the son dishonoureth the father, and the daughter riseth up against her mother, the daughter in law against her mother in law: and a man’s enemies are they of his own household.

Quia filius contumeliam facit patri, et filia consurgit adversus matrem suam: nurus adversus socrum suam, et inimici hominis domestici ejus.

here, where son fools father, and daughter her mother, and son’s wife her mother-in-law, where a man’s own household are his enemies!

But I will look towards the Lord, I will wait for God my Saviour: my God will hear me.

Ego autem ad Dominum aspiciam; exspectabo Deum, salvatorem meum: audiet me Deus meus.

On the Lord my eyes are set; it is to God I look for my protection; my own God, and will he deny me audience?

Rejoice not, thou, my enemy, over me, because I am fallen: I shall arise, when I sit in darkness, the Lord is my light.

Ne læteris, inimica mea, super me, quia cecidi: consurgam cum sedero in tenebris: Dominus lux mea est.

City that Sion hatest, never triumph over her fall; fall I, it is but to rise again, sit I in darkness, the Lord will be my light.

I will bear the wrath of the Lord, because I have sinned against him; until he judge my cause and execute judgment for me: he will bring me forth into the light, I shall behold his justice.

Iram Domini portabo, quoniam peccavi ei, donec causam meam judicet, et faciat judicium meum. Educet me in lucem: videbo justitiam ejus.

The Lord’s displeasure I must bear, I that have sinned against him, till at last he admits my plea, and grants redress. Out into the light he will bring me, to find him faithful still.

And my enemy shall behold, and she shall be covered with shame, who saith to me: Where is the Lord thy God? my eyes shall look down upon her: now shall she be trodden under foot as the mire of the streets.

Et aspiciet inimica mea, et operietur confusione, quæ dicit ad me: Ubi est Dominus Deus tuus? Oculi mei videbunt in eam: nunc erit in conculcationem ut lutum platearum.

Sore abashed that enemy of mine shall behold it; only yesterday she was crying, What is become of thy God now? Welcome the sight, when she is trampled down like mire in the streets!

The day shall come, that thy walls may be built up: in that day shall the law be far removed.

Dies, ut ædificentur maceriæ tuæ; in die illa longe fiet lex.

Day of pell-mell disorder it shall be, the day of thy walls’ rebuilding;

In that day they shall come even from Assyria to thee, and to the fortified cities: and from the fortified cities even to the river, and from sea to sea, and from mountain to mountain.

In die illa et usque ad te veniet de Assur, et usque ad civitates munitas, et a civitatibus munitis usque ad flumen, et ad mare de mari, et ad montem de monte.

a day when folk shall resort to thee from all the lands that lie between Assyria and the towns of Egypt, between Egypt and … Euphrates, between sea and sea, mountain-range and mountain-range.

And the land shall be made desolate, because of the inhabitants thereof, and for the fruit of their devices.

Et terra erit in desolationem propter habitatores suos, et propter fructum cogitationum eorum.

By then, the whole country-side will be lying desolate, such reward the inhabitants of it have earned by their ill-doing.

Feed thy people with thy rod, the flock of thy inheritance, them that dwell alone in the forest, in the midst of Carmel: they shall feed in Basan and Galaad according to the days of old.

Pasce populum tuum in virga tua, gregem hæreditatis tuæ, habitantes solos, in saltu, in medio Carmeli. Pascentur Basan et Galaad juxta dies antiquos.

With that staff of thine gather thy people in, the flock that is thy very own, scattered now in the forest glades, with rich plenty all around them; Basan and Galaad for their pasture-grounds, as in the days of old.

According to the days of thy coming out of the land of Egypt I will shew him wonders.

Secundum dies egressionis tuæ de terra Ægypti, ostendam ei mirabilia.

Now for such wondrous evidences of power as marked thy rescuing of them from Egypt!

The nations shall see, and shall be confounded at all their strength: they shall put the hand upon the mouth, their ears shall be deaf.

Videbunt gentes, et confundentur super omni fortitudine sua. Ponent manum super os, aures eorum surdæ erunt.

Here is a sight to make the Gentiles hold their valour cheap, stand there dumb; ay, and why not deaf too?

They shall lick the dust like serpents, as the creeping things of the earth, they shall be disturbed in their houses: they shall dread the Lord our God, and shall fear thee.

Lingent pulverem sicut serpentes; velut reptilia terræ perturbabuntur in ædibus suis. Dominum Deum nostrum formidabunt, et timebunt te.

Let them lick the dust, serpent-fashion, crawl out from their homes, like scared reptiles, in terror of the Lord our God; much cause they shall have to fear him.

Who is a God like to thee, who takest away iniquity, and passest by the sin of the remnant of thy inheritance? he will send his fury in no more, because he delighteth in mercy.

Quis, Deus, similis tui, qui aufers iniquitatem, et transis peccatum reliquiarum hæreditatis tuæ? Non immittet ultra furorem suum, quoniam volens misericordiam est.

Was there ever such a God, so ready to forgive sins, to overlook faults, among the scattered remnant of his chosen race? He will exact vengeance no more; he loves to pardon.

He will turn again, and have mercy on us: he will put away our iniquities: and he will cast all our sins into the bottom of the sea.

Revertetur, et miserebitur nostri; deponet iniquitates nostras, et projiciet in profundum maris omnia peccata nostra.

He will relent, and have mercy on us, quashing our guilt, burying our sins away sea-deep.

Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, the mercy to Abraham: which thou hast sworn to our fathers from the days of old.

Dabis veritatem Jacob, misericordiam Abraham, quæ jurasti patribus nostris a diebus antiquis.

Thou wilt keep thy promise to Jacob, shew mercy to Abraham, thy promised mercies of long ago.