The first two units are a continuation of the poet’s description of Jerusalem as a woman and are closely connected with verse 8.

Her uncleanness represents the sins she has committed, and these are perhaps symbolized by referring to menstrual blood which has stained her clothing. The consequence is that all can see it. Jerusalem’s sins render her unclean just as menstruation renders a woman ritually unclean (Lev 12.2). The poet uses such language as this to emphasize the full horror of Jerusalem’s sinfulness. In many languages there are specific terms referring to uncleanness, or “taboo” as some cultures call it, resulting from menstruation. However, caution must be taken that the expression is not offensive or objectionable for public reading. Skirts refers to the lower part of a woman’s dress, not to a number of different dresses called “skirts.”

Took no thought of her doom: in her unfaithfulness to the LORD, Jerusalem had overlooked the possibility of punishment. Isaiah 47.7 uses similar language with regard to Babylon, also pictured as a woman. The expression no thought of her doom or “fate” may in some languages require saying, for example, “she did not think about where she would finally end,” or idiomatically, “she closed her eyes and did not see where she could come out.”

Therefore her fall is terrible is the consequence of failure to take thought for her future in the previous half-line. Fall refers to Jerusalem’s downfall or defeat.

She has no comforter: comforter translates the same verb used for “comfort” in verse 2. See there for comments.

O LORD, behold my affliction is a cry to the LORD for mercy as voiced by suffering Jerusalem.

Revised Standard Version has placed its final two lines in quotes, while Good News Translation keeps the third person. Here Good News Translation and others have accepted an alternative wording of the Hebrew as “her affliction.” But Hebrew Old Testament Text Project supports Revised Standard Version with my affliction. In translation it will often be clearer to show, as in Revised Standard Version, that the final unit of verse 9 is an utterance of Jerusalem itself; for example “Jerusalem says, ‘Help me, LORD, see how I am suffering because my enemies have defeated me,’ ” or “Jerusalem says, ‘My enemies have beaten me; see how I am suffering. Help me, LORD.’ ”

For the enemy has triumphed: triumphed means “won the battle,” “been victorious,” or, in this context, “defeated me.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. A Handbook on Lamentations. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1992. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .

The first three units of this verse are parallel in that each is a command to the people to pray to the Lord for mercy. The fourth unit is exceptional, as explained in the following paragraph.

The Hebrew commands in this verse are in the feminine singular form. They are addressed, therefore, not to women or people in general, but collectively to Jerusalem pictured as the mother of its inhabitants, as in the latter part of chapter 1. The verse is exceptional in having, like 1.7, four units instead of three. Some translations omit the fourth unit, which they believe may have been added under the influence of 4.1 and Isaiah 51.20. The unit contributes nothing new to what is stated in verses 11 and 12. However, it is present in all Hebrew manuscripts and should be translated.

Arise, cry out in the night: Arise in this context probably refers to getting up from sleeping or getting out of bed, although the word often simply introduces another action verb. As is made clear in verse 18, it is to the Lord that she (Jerusalem) cries out. In translation it may be necessary to say, for example, “Get up and cry out to the Lord for help!”

At the beginning of the watches is expressed by AB as “as each watch begins.” This means at regular intervals during the night. The mention of the middle watch in Judges 7.19 suggests that there were three roughly equal divisions or watches in the night in Old Testament times. Many languages have terms to divide the periods of both day and night. If the use of particular time words centers too narrowly on the time involved, it is best to follow something more general such as Good News Translation “again and again.”

Pour out your heart like water is an idiom that occurs only here and in Psalm 62.8. Compare also 1 Samuel 1.15. The sense of this expression is “Tell what is on your heart,” “Express the feelings inside you,” “Tell how you feel.” Before the presence of the Lord means simply “to the Lord.” The whole unit may be translated into English as “Pour out your heart to the Lord.” However, in languages which do not use this idiom, it may be possible to say, for example, “Tell the Lord what you feel inside you” or “Show your heart to the Lord.”

Lift your hands to him is a common prayer gesture in the Old Testament. For example, Psalm 28.2 says “… as I lift up my hands toward thy most holy sanctuary.” See also Psalm 63.4; 134.2; 1 Kings 8.22. Good News Translation does not retain this gesture but says “beg him for mercy.” If the translator keeps the Hebrew expression, it may be necessary to make clear that the purpose is for prayer; for example, “Lift your hands to him in prayer.” The purpose of the prayer is to plead for the lives of your children.

Who faint for hunger means “who are dying from starvation,” “who are weak from having nothing to eat.” See 2.12 for comments on faint.

At the head of every street is literally “at the head of every open place.” This expression is similar to that in verses 11 and 12. The word translated street is different from that used in verses 11 and 12 but has the general meaning of “in the open” and the more precise sense of street. Good News Translation “on every street corner” is well stated. In language areas where there are no street corners, it may be best to say, for example, “on the roads,” “along the paths,” or “outside the houses.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. A Handbook on Lamentations. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1992. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .

The second command is put his mouth in the dust, an expression found nowhere else in the Old Testament. Good News Translation understands this expression to refer to submission, which agrees with many others. Expressions like “grovel” and “kiss the dirt” are found in this same sense in many languages; but in other languages the metaphor alone may not convey the idea without making clear its nonfigurative sense. For example, Biblia Dios Habla Hoy says “In humiliation he should kiss the ground….” Bible en français courant has “Let him bow down with his mouth in the dust.” In some languages “bow in submission” is translated, for example, “to make yourself low,” “to place the heart at the feet of,” or “to open one’s insides to another.”

There may yet be hope is similar to Job 11.18. Although many translate like Revised Standard Version, hope may refer to God’s helping his people, or to something similar to the “salvation of the LORD” in verse 26. Translators may make this general, as in Revised Standard Version, or as in Bible en français courant, express what it is that he hopes for: “in the hope that the LORD will intervene.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. A Handbook on Lamentations. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1992. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .

Verse 61 is closely parallel in meaning to verse 60. In verse 60 God has seen what the enemies of the sufferer have done, and in verse 61 he has heard their insults. The second half of each verse is almost identical in its reference to the plots which they are making against him.

What the LORD has heard are the taunts of the poet’s enemies. Taunts translates a word meaning “insults, mockery, ridicule.” These are words or expressions shouted out to insult the poet.

All their devices repeats the second half of verse 60. Here the LORD has heard these harmful schemes that are planned in secret.

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. A Handbook on Lamentations. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1992. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .

As the Revised Standard Version footnote shows, the words With a yoke are not found in the Hebrew text, which says literally “Upon our necks we are pursued….” The poet probably communicated clearly by sound and context that he was speaking of a yoke. The word translated “upon” is similar in form to the Hebrew word meaning yoke, and scholars believe that one of these two words, “upon” or “yoke,” may have been accidentally dropped. One ancient Greek translation has a word meaning yoke, and so Revised Standard Version, New English Bible, and others translate With a yoke on our necks …. Good News Translation also has assumed that the original sentence included the Hebrew word for yoke, and has therefore translated “Driven hard like donkeys or camels.”

Some translations take on our necks to mean “follow in hot pursuit,” and so New Jerusalem Bible has “We are hotly pursued.” New International Version has “Those who pursue us are at our heels.” Bible en français courant says “Our pursuers are on our backs.” It is also possible that the expression may refer to the ancient practice of a victor placing his foot on the neck of an enemy to symbolize complete submission (see Joshua 10.24 for instance). Translators may follow this suggestion or any of the above models of New International Version, New Jerusalem Bible, Bible en français courant, or Revised Standard Version. For translation suggestions regarding yoke see 1.14.

The phrase translated we are weary may also mean “We work hard” or, as Moffatt says, “We toil.” In some languages it may be necessary to make clear that the enemy is the one causing these conditions; for example, “The enemy is hotly pursuing us; we are tired, but they do not let us rest.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. A Handbook on Lamentations. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1992. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .

In verse 20 the first two half-lines are parallel in meaning. The second pair are related logically, and the final pair are again parallel in meaning.

Behold, O LORD, for I am in distress: Behold translates the Hebrew for “see” and is a plea for God to look, as Good News Translation translates. Distress translates a different word than the one used in verse 3, but the sense is the same: “agony, anguish, suffering, trouble.” In some languages distress is expressed idiomatically; for example, “trouble has seized me” or “bad has fallen on me.”

My soul is in tumult translates the Hebrew, which is literally “my intestines ferment.” A literal translation of the Hebrew into English would only suggest an upset bowel. This is a clear case in which the second half-line in Hebrew says in figurative language what the first half-line says literally. The literary effect is to increase the vividness of the unit. Translators may be able to follow the Hebrew pattern and employ a vivid metaphor in the second half-line. If not, the translator should not sacrifice meaning in an attempt to imitate the Hebrew.

My heart is wrung within me is literally “My heart is turned over within me.” A similar expression is found in Hosea 11.8. The sense is that the speaker experiences troubling sadness, or as Good News Translation says, “My heart is broken.”

Because I have been very rebellious gives the reason for the condition in the previous half-line. Rebellious translates the same root used in verse 18. See there for comments. In some languages the reason may have to be placed before the consequence; for example, “I have rebelled against God, and therefore my heart does not rest well within me.”

In the street the sword bereaves: In the street is literally “outdoors” as contrasted with “indoors.” The places are expressed as singular, but the sense is collective, that is, “everywhere outside,” and “inside the houses.” Bereaves translates a word in Hebrew that gives the sense that the sword takes someone away from loved ones by killing that person. Many translations take the loss to refer to the death of children. If the symbol of the sword is used in translation, we may sometimes say, for example, “Outside the enemy kills my children with the sword.” If the translator feels it is better to be general, as in Good News Translation “murder,” it may be possible to say, for example, “In the streets of Jerusalem the enemy is killing people” or “The enemy slaughters people out in the streets.” Translators should probably use a term for “killing” which is used for the killing of human beings during war.

In the house it is like death: in the house gives a particular location, whereas the contrasting “outside” can be almost anywhere. Like death suggests that indoors there is not really the experience of death, but only something like it. Various comments have been made by interpreters regarding this expression. AB alters the text to mean “inside, it was famine,” and so implies a similar situation to the one described in the first part of Jeremiah 14.18. Some scholars point out that in Hebrew a preposition is sometimes left out if it is preceded by the word meaning “like.” The word translated death can sometimes mean “the world of the dead,” namely “Sheol,” as in Psalm 6.5. Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, for example, treats the expression as a person by saying “Inside it is like in the house of Death.” New Jerusalem Bible, Moffatt (Moffatt), and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch interpret the expression to refer to the plague.

In translation it will often be necessary to reword like death as something which is more precise. Good News Translation “there is death” may have to be rendered, for example, “people are dying.” If it is necessary to give a reason for the dying in the houses, it may be possible to say “because they have no food to eat” or “because disease (or, the plague) has struck them down.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. A Handbook on Lamentations. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1992. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .

Not only is the prisoner unable to escape from prison, but even his cry for help fails to reach God’s ears. The most usual Hebrew word for prayer only occurs twice in Lamentations, here and again in verse 44. In both places the poet complains that God is deaf to prayer. The expression cry for help must often be rendered in the form of two verb phrases, the second being subordinate to the first; for example, “I cry asking God to help me.”

He shuts out my prayer may be translated as in Good News Translation, or, for example, “He pays no attention to my prayers,” or sometimes idiomatically, “His ears are like stones for my prayers.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. A Handbook on Lamentations. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1992. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .