year of Nebuchadnezzar Nebuzar-adan the captain of the guard carried away seven hundred forty and five souls out of Judah. All the souls were four thousand and six hundred.

And in the thirty and seventh year after that Jehoiachin king of Judah was carried away, in the five and twentieth day of the twelfth month, Evil-merodach king of Babylon, in the year that he reigned, took up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah, and brought him out of prison.

And he spake kindly unto him, and set his throne over the kings’ throne that were with him at Babylon.

And he changed his prison garments for him, that he might eat before him all the days of his life.

And he was always given his entertainment by the king of Babylon, as he was commanded, all the days of his life, even unto the end of his days.
Text of the unrevised Luther Bible 1545:
DeepL English Translation
[Processed by BackToLuther. German text published here.]
The Lamentations of Jeremiah (Lamentations) ^
Chapter 1
The Jewish people’s state of misery.

How desolate is that city, which was full of people! She is like a widow. She that was a princess among the nations, and a queen in the countries, is now a servant.

She weepeth at night, and tears run down her cheeks. There is none among all her friends to comfort her: all her neighbours despise her, and are become her enemies.

Judah is in bondage, and in hard service; she dwelleth among the heathen, and findeth no rest; all her persecutors. hold her iniquitously.

The highways of Zion are desolate, because no man cometh to any feast; all her gates stand desolate; her priests groan, and her virgins look desolate, and she is afflicted.

Their adversaries are lifted up, their enemies prosper: for the LORD hath made them full of grief for their great sins; and their children are carried captive before the enemy.

All the glory is gone out of the daughter of Zion. Her princes are like the rams that find no pasture, and go dimly before the beater.
7: Jerusalem thinketh at this time how wretched and desolate she is, and how much good she hath had of old, because all her people lie low under the enemy, and no man helpeth her: her enemies see their pleasure in her, and mock at her sabbaths.

Jerusalem hath sinned; therefore she is as an unclean woman. All that honoured her spurned her, because they saw her shame: but she sighed, and returned.

Her filthiness is upon her hem. She would not have thought that this would be her last fate.
She is cast down too grievously, and hath no one to comfort her. O Lord, behold my affliction: for the enemy is very great.

The enemy hath laid his hand upon all her treasures: for she hath suffered the heathen to enter into her sanctuary, whereof thou commandedst that they should not enter into thy congregation.

All her people groan, and go for bread: they give their small things for meat, that they may refresh the soul. O Lord, behold, and see how vile I am become!

I say unto you all that pass by, Look ye, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is fallen upon me. For the LORD hath made me full of grief in the day of his fierce anger.

He hath sent a fire from on high into my legs, and hath made it to work; he hath put a net upon my feet, and hath turned me back; he hath made me a desolation, that I should mourn daily.

My grievous sins are awake by his punishment, and are heaped upon my neck, that all my strength is gone out of me. The LORD hath brought me to the point that I cannot arise.

The LORD hath trodden down all my mighty men that I had; he hath proclaimed a feast upon me, to destroy my young men. The LORD hath trampled the winepress of the virgin daughter of Judah.

Therefore I weep, and both mine eyes run with water, because the Comforter that should have refreshed my soul is far from me. My children are gone, for the enemy hath prevailed.

Zion stretcheth out her hands, and there is none to comfort her: for the LORD hath commanded his enemies round about Jacob, that Jerusalem should be as an unclean woman among them.

The LORD is righteous: for I have disobeyed his mouth. Hear, all ye nations, and see my grief. My virgins and my young men are gone into prison.

I called upon my friends, but they deceived me. My priests and my elders in the city are famished, for they go after bread, that they may feed their souls; 20. O Lord, behold, I am afraid, because it grieveth me in my belly. My heart walleth in my flesh: for I am greatly distressed. Outside the sword hath made me, and in the house death hath made me a widow.

It is heard that I groan, and have no comforter: all mine enemies hear my calamities, and rejoice: this doest thou. Let the day come, then, which thou hast proclaimed, that they may be like me.

Let all their wickedness come before thee, and judge them, as thou hast judged me for all mine iniquity: for my sighing is much, and my heart is grieved.
(Lamentations)
Chapter 2
Mourning song about the utter defeat of the daughter of Zion.

How hath the LORD poured out his wrath upon the daughter of Zion! He hath cast the glory of Israel from heaven to earth. He hath not remembered his footstool in the day of his wrath.

The LORD hath destroyed all the dwellings of Jacob without mercy: he hath broken down the strongholds of the daughter of Judah in his fury, and hath broken them down; he hath profaned both her kingdom and her princes.

He hath broken all the horn of Israel in his fierce anger; he hath drawn his right hand behind him when the enemy came, and hath kindled a fire in Jacob, and it hath consumed him round about;

He hath bent his bow like an enemy; he hath wielded his right hand like an adversary, and hath slain all that was pleasant to the sight, and hath poured out his fury like fire in the tabernacle of the daughter of Zion.

The LORD is as an enemy: he hath destroyed Israel, he hath destroyed all their palaces, he hath destroyed their strongholds; he hath caused the daughter of Judah much mourning and sorrow;

He hath made his tent desolate like a garden, and hath made his tabernacle desolate. The LORD hath forgotten both the feast day and the sabbath in Zion, and in his fierce anger hath defiled both king and priest.

The LORD hath rejected his altar, and hath utterly destroyed his sanctuary; he hath delivered the walls of their palaces into the hand of the enemy; and they have cried out in the house of the LORD, as on a solemn day.

The LORD hath purposed to destroy the walls of the daughter of Zion: he hath drawn the rod over them, and hath not turned his hand from them, till he destroy them: the walls are pitiful, and the wall lieth desolate.

Their gates are deep in the earth: he hath broken their bars, and made them void. Their kings and their princes are among the heathen, because they cannot practice the law, and their prophets have no vision from the LORD.

The elders of the daughter of Zion lie on the earth, and are quiet; they cast dust upon their heads, and have put on sackcloth: the virgins of Jerusalem hang their heads to the ground.

I have almost wept my eyes out, and it grieveth me in my belly: my liver is poured out upon the earth for the mourning of the daughter of my people, because the babes and sucklings are fainting in the streets of the city,

Saying unto their mothers: Where is bread and wine? when they fainted in the streets of the city, as the fatally wounded, and gave up the ghost in the arms of their mothers.

O daughter of Jerusalem, to whom shall I liken thee, and for what shall I count thee, O virgin daughter of Zion? To whom shall I liken thee, that I may comfort thee? For thy hurt is great, as the sea; who can heal thee?

Thy prophets have preached unto thee evil and foolish visions, and have not revealed unto thee thine iniquity, that they might keep thee in prison; but have preached unto thee evil
preaching, that they might preach thee abroad.

All that pass by clap their hands, and whistle at thee, and shake their heads at the daughter of Jerusalem: is this the city that was said to be the most beautiful, that all the land rejoiced in?

All thine enemies open their mouths against thee, and whistle at thee, and gnash their teeth, and say: We have destroyed them; this is the day of which we have desired; we have obtained it, we have seen it.

The LORD hath done that which he purposed; he hath fulfilled his word, which he commanded long before; he hath destroyed without mercy; he hath made glad the enemy against thee, and hath heard the horn of thine adversaries.

Her heart cried unto the LORD. O thou wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears flow down day and night like a brook; cease not also, and let not the apple of thine eye depart.

Arise in the night, and cry; pour out thine heart in the first watch against the LORD as water; lift up thy hands against him for the souls of thy young