Lamentations 1:12-16

12‘Come and really look at me! All you people who pass me do not show any interest in me. But you have never seen anything as sad as I am. The Lord was very angry with me. So it was the Lord who did this to me.

13It is like God has sent fire down into our bones to hurt us. He wants us to turn towards him again, so he has caused things to be very difficult for us. All day he causes us to feel lonely and weak.

14He has caused our sins to seem like something very heavy that lies on our necks. It makes us weak. He has let the enemy be very strong. He let them win against us. So we cannot beat them.

15The Lord has let the enemy beat all our strong men. He brought a big army to fight our young men, and the enemy won that fight. The Lord God has punished us, like people walk on grapes to break them. He has let the enemy destroy the people of Judah.

16We weep because of these things. Tears run down our faces because God is not with us. Nobody will help us. We are the children of this city and we have nothing now. The enemy has won.’