[Instrumental] [Verse] Take courage, my people! Remember, O Israel, You were sold to the nations not for destruction; It was because you angered God that you were handed over to your foes. For you provoked your Maker with sacrifices to demons and not to God; [Chorus] You forgot the eternal God who nourished you, and you grieved Jerusalem who nurtured you. She indeed saw coming upon you the wrath of God; [Instrumental] [Verse] and she said: Hear, you neighbors of Zion! God has brought great mourning upon me, For I have seen the captivity that the Eternal One has brought upon my sons and daughters. With joy I nurtured them; but with mourning and lament I sent them away. Let no one gloat over me, a widow, bereft of many; For the sins of my children I am left desolate, because they turned from the law of God, and did not acknowledge his statutes; In the ways of God’s commandments they did not walk, nor did they tread the disciplined paths of his justice. [Chorus] You forgot the eternal God who nourished you, and you grieved Jerusalem who nurtured you. She indeed saw coming upon you the wrath of God; [Instrumental] [Verse] Let Zion’s neighbors come— Remember the captivity of my sons and daughters, brought upon them by the Eternal One. He has brought against them a nation from afar, a nation ruthless and of alien speech, That has neither reverence for old age nor pity for the child; They have led away this widow’s beloved sons, have left me solitary, without daughters. What can I do to help you? The one who has brought this evil upon you must himself deliver you from your enemies’ hands. Farewell, my children, farewell; I am left desolate. [Chorus] You forgot the eternal God who nourished you, and you grieved Jerusalem who nurtured you. She indeed saw coming upon you the wrath of God; [Instrumental] [Verse] I have taken off the garment of peace, have put on sackcloth for my prayer of supplication; while I live I will cry out to the Eternal One. Take courage, my children; call upon God; he will deliver you from oppression, from enemy hands. I have put my hope for your deliverance in the Eternal One, and joy has come to me from the Holy One Because of the mercy that will swiftly reach you from your eternal Savior. With mourning and lament I sent you away, but God will give you back to me with gladness and joy forever. As Zion’s neighbors lately saw you taken captive, so shall they soon see God’s salvation come to you, with great glory and the splendor of the Eternal One. “My children, bear patiently the wrath that has come upon you from God; Your enemies have persecuted you, but you will soon see their destruction and trample upon their necks. My pampered children have trodden rough roads, carried off by their enemies like sheep in a raid. [Chorus] You forgot the eternal God who nourished you, and you grieved Jerusalem who nurtured you. She indeed saw coming upon you the wrath of God; [Instrumental] [End]
