¹⁸ Oh that I could comfort myself against sorrow! my heart is faint within me.

⁴ Therefore said I, Look away from me, I will weep bitterly; labor not to comfort me for the destruction of the daughter of my people.

¹⁶ For these things I weep; mine eye, mine eye runneth down with water; Because the comforter that should refresh my soul is far from me: My children are desolate, because the enemy hath prevailed.

¹⁷ Zion spreadeth forth her hands; there is none to comfort her; Jehovah hath commanded concerning Jacob, that they that are round about him should be his adversaries: Jerusalem is among them as an unclean thing.

¹⁷ For this our heart is faint; For these things our eyes are dim;

¹³ When I say, My bed shall comfort me, My couch shall ease my complaint;

¹⁴ Then thou scarest me with dreams, And terrifiest me through visions:

²⁴ We have heard the report thereof; our hands wax feeble: anguish hath taken hold of us, `and' pangs as of a woman in travail.

¹⁹ Woe is me because of my hurt! my wound is grievous: but I said, Truly this is `my' grief, and I must bear it.

²⁰ My tent is destroyed, and all my cords are broken: my children are gone forth from me, and they are not: there is none to spread my tent any more, and to set up my curtains.

²¹ For the shepherds are become brutish, and have not inquired of Jehovah: therefore they have not prospered, and all their flocks are scattered.

²² The voice of tidings, behold, it cometh, and a great commotion out of the north country, to make the cities of Judah a desolation, a dwelling-place of jackals.

¹⁶ And, behold, one in the likeness of the sons of men touched my lips: then I opened my mouth, and spake and said unto him that stood before me, O my lord, by reason of the vision my sorrows are turned upon me, and I retain no strength.

¹⁷ For how can the servant of this my lord talk with this my lord? for as for me, straightway there remained no strength in me, neither was there breath left in me.

¹⁶ I heard, and my body trembled, My lips quivered at the voice; Rottenness entereth into my bones, and I tremble in my place; Because I must wait quietly for the day of trouble, For the coming up of the people that invadeth us.