1 In the insolence of the sinful man, he cast down with battering rams the strong walls and Thou didst not restrain him.

2 And the Gentile foreigners went up on Thy altar, and were trampling on it with their shoes in their insolence.

3 For the children of Jerusalem had polluted the Holy House of the Lord: and they were profaning the offerings to GOD with wickedness.

4 Wherefore He said, "Remove them, cast them away from Me." And He did not establish with them the beauty of His glory:

5 it was rejected before the Lord: and they were utterly torn in pieces.

6 Her sons and her daughters were in bitter captivity: and on their neck was put the sealed yoke of the Gentiles:

7 according to their sins, so He dealt with them: for He suffered them to pass into the hand of him that was stronger than they:

8 for He turned away His face from His mercy: young men and old men and their children together:

9 because they also had worked evil together, that they might not hearken unto me:

10 and the heaven was mightily angered, and the earth rejected them:

11 because none in the earth had done therein like their doings:

12 and that the earth may know all Thy righteous judgments, O GOD.

13 They set up the sons of Jerusalem for mockery within her, in the place of harlots; and every one that transgressed was transgressing as if before the sun: while they made sport in their villainies, as they were used to do.

14 In the face of the sun they made a show of their villainies. And the daughters of Jerusalem were polluted according to Thy judgments;

15 for they had polluted themselves in lustful intercourse. My belly and my bowels are pained over these things.

16 But I will justify Thee, O Lord, in the uprightness of my heart; because in Thy judgments is Thy righteousness, O GOD.

17 For Thou dost reward sinful men according to their deeds: and according to their wicked and bitter sins.

18 Thou didst disclose their sins, in order that Thy judgment might be known:

19 and Thou didst blot out their remembrance from the earth. GOD is a judge and righteous, and accepteth no man's person.

20 For the Gentiles reproached Jerusalem, in their wickedness, and her beauty was cut off from the throne of His glory.

21 And she was covered with sackcloth instead of beauteous raiment: and there was a rope on her head instead of a crown.

22 She cast off from her the dazzling glory which GOD had put upon her:

23 and in contempt her beauty was cast away on the ground.

24 And I beheld and I besought the face of the Lord, and I said: Enough! Thou hast made Thy hand heavy, O Lord, upon Israel, by the bringing in of the Gentiles:

25 for they have mocked and not pitied, in anger;

26 and in reproach they are consumed, unless Thou, O Lord, shalt restrain them in Thy wrath.

27 For it is not in zeal that they did this, but in the lust of the soul:

28 that they might pour out their wrath upon us in plundering us. But Thou, O Lord, delay not to recompense them upon their own heads:

29 to cast down the pride of the dragon to contempt.

30 And I delayed not until the Lord showed me his insolence smitten on the mountains of Egypt: and despised more than him that is least on land and on sea:

31 and his body coming on the waves in much contempt, and none to bury him

32 because He had rejected him with scorn, for he did not consider that he is a man. And the end he did not regard.

33 For he said: I will be lord of land and sea: and he knew not that the Lord is GOD, great and mighty and powerful,

34 and He is King over Heaven and over Earth: and He judges kingdoms and princes,

35 He who raiseth me up in glory and layeth low the proud in contempt, not temporal but eternal; because they knew Him not.

36 And now, behold, ye great ones of the earth, the judgment of the Lord, for He is a righteous King, and judges what is under the whole heaven.

37 Bless ye the Lord, ye who fear the Lord reverently: for the mercies of the Lord are on them that fear Him with judgment,

38 to separate between the righteous and the sinful, and to reward the sinful for ever according to their deeds:

39 and to be gracious to the righteous after their oppression by sinners: and to reward the sinful for what he has done that is right:

40 because the Lord is kind to those that call upon Him in patience, to do according to His mercy to His saints: so as to stand before Him at all times in strength.

41 Blessed is the Lord for ever by His servants.