10 JOD. The elders of the daughter of Zion have become idle; they sit on the ground. They have sprinkled their heads with ashes. They have been wrapped with haircloth. The virgins of Jerusalem have cast their heads down to the ground.
11 CAPH. My eyes have exhausted their tears. My internal organs have become disturbed. My liver has been poured out on the earth, over the grief of the daughter of my people, when the little ones and the infants passed away in the streets of the town.
12 LAMED. They said to their mothers, "Where is the wheat and the wine?" when they fell like the wounded in the streets of the city, when they breathed out their lives into the bosoms of their mothers.
13 MEM. To what shall I compare you, or to what shall I liken you, O daughter of Jerusalem? To what shall I equate you, so as to console you, O virgin daughter of Zion? For your destruction is as great as the sea. Who will cure you?
14 NUN. Your prophets have seen false and foolish things for you. And they have not laid open your iniquity, so as to provoke you to repentance. Yet they have seen for you false revelations and banishments.
15 SAMECH. All those who passed by the way have clapped their hands over you. They have hissed and shook their heads over the daughter of Jerusalem, saying, "Is this the city of perfect dignity, the joy of all the earth?"
16 PHE. All your enemies have opened their mouth over you. They have hissed and gnashed their teeth, and they said: "We will devour her. Yes, this is the day we waited for. We have found it, we have seen it."