Lamentations 1

איכה פרק א׳

Section: כתובים · חמש מגילות | Book: Lamentations | Chapter: 1 of 5 | Day: 616 of 742

Date: October 20, 2027

קלאוד על הנ״ך

The opening chapter of Eichah is the gateway to the entire scroll, and it establishes at once the book’s governing voice, meter, and theology. Like chapters 2 and 4, it is a complete alphabetical acrostic, twenty-two verses each opening with a successive letter of the aleph-bet, a structure Chazal read as a kind of total accusation and total lament: Israel transgressed the Torah that was given through the letters of the aleph-bet, and so the lament for her must run the full alphabet from aleph to tav. The chapter falls into two clear halves. In the first (verses 1 through 11), the prophet speaks of Jerusalem in the third person, describing the desolate city from the outside as a grieving widow. At verse 11 the perspective pivots: the city herself begins to speak in the first person, and from there to the end (verses 12 through 22) it is Zion’s own voice that cries out, first to the passersby, then to God.

The chapter’s central image is the personification of Jerusalem as a woman who has fallen from queenly glory to widowhood and degradation. The very first word, eichah (alas, how), is the cry that gives the book its name, and Chazal note that three prophets used this word: Moses in his blessing (Devarim 1:12), Isaiah in his rebuke (Yeshayahu 1:21), and Jeremiah here in his lament, each seeing Israel in a different condition. Rashi, opening the book, identifies it as the scroll Jeremiah wrote that Yehoyakim burned (Yirmiyahu 36), and insists from the start that he comes to explain the text according to its plain meaning, even as the aggadic midrashim multiply around every phrase. The opening verse sets the pattern: she that was great with people sits solitary; the princess among provinces has become a vassal paying tribute.

The poem moves relentlessly through the dimensions of the catastrophe. Verse 2 weeps in the night with none to comfort, a refrain (ein menachem) that tolls five times across the chapter. Verse 3 sends Judah into exile, overtaken bein ha-metzarim, between the straits, a phrase Chazal famously read as the three weeks between the seventeenth of Tammuz and the ninth of Av. Verses 4 through 6 survey the ruined Temple economy: roads in mourning empty of festival pilgrims, priests groaning, the daughter of Zion stripped of all her glory, her leaders fleeing like starving stags before the pursuer. Throughout, the text holds two truths in tension: the suffering is real and overwhelming, and it is just. Verse 5 states the theology baldly, ki Hashem hogah al rov peshaeha, the Lord has afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions, and verse 8, chet chatah Yerushalayim, Jerusalem has grievously sinned.

What saves the chapter from despair is the turn to direct address. Already in verses 9 and 11 the lament breaks into prayer mid-sentence, reeh Hashem, see, O Lord, my affliction. From verse 12 the personified city seizes the reader’s attention, lo aleichem kol overei derech, is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? She asks whether there is any pain like her pain, and then, crucially, she justifies God: tzaddik hu Hashem ki pihu mariti, the Lord is righteous, for I have rebelled against His word (verse 18). This confession, placed at the structural climax of the alphabet’s final movement, is the theological heart of Eichah, the acknowledgment that turns raw grief into the beginning of teshuvah. The chapter ends not with comfort but with a plea for justice against the gloating enemy and a final image of a heart faint with sorrow, rabbot anchotai ve-libbi davvai, setting the stage for the deeper darkness of chapter 2.

קלאוד על תרגום איכה

Among all the Targumim to the Megillot, Targum Eichah is the most expansive and the most distinctive, and it deserves to be read alongside the classical commentators as an interpretive voice in its own right. Where Targum Onkelos to the Torah is famously restrained, rendering the Hebrew with spare fidelity, the Aramaic Targum to Eichah is luxuriantly aggadic. It does not so much translate the verses as retell them, weaving the midrashic traditions of Eichah Rabbah directly into the body of the text. The reader who knows only the Hebrew meets, in the Targum, a running midrashic commentary that supplies names, motives, historical settings, and theological framing at every turn.

The Targum’s method is visible from its very first words. The Hebrew opens abruptly with eichah, alas; the Targum supplies a speaker and a scene: Jeremiah the Prophet and High Priest said, How was it decreed against Jerusalem… and immediately reaches back to Eden, comparing the exile of Israel to the expulsion of Adam and Eve, over whom the Master of the Universe also mourned with eichah. This is the Targum’s signature move, to set each local catastrophe within the largest possible frame of sacred history. The Attribute of Justice (middat ha-din) answers as a character in a dialogue, explaining that the punishment fits the greatness of the sin. Throughout the chapter the Targum personifies, dramatizes, and historicizes: the weeping of verse 2 becomes the weeping of the spies on the ninth of Av (the night of unfounded tears that became, measure for measure, a night of weeping for the generations); the friends who betray her in verse 19 are glossed as the political allies who deceived Israel; and in a striking anachronism the Targum even names the Romans, Titus and Vespasian, building their siege-works, collapsing the destructions of the First and Second Temples into a single lament.

For the student of Eichah, the Targum’s value is twofold. First, it preserves and makes accessible the dominant aggadic readings of the chapter, the very midrashim that Rashi often alludes to in compressed form and then sets aside in favor of peshat. Where Rashi writes ‘there are many aggadic midrashim, but I have come to explain the plain sense,’ the Targum is precisely the repository of those midrashim, spelled out in full. Reading the two together gives a complete picture: Rashi’s disciplined plain sense and the Targum’s expansive homiletical imagination. Second, the Targum is itself a theological argument. By framing the destruction as a courtroom drama between the prophet’s plea and the Attribute of Justice, and by linking it to Eden, to the spies, and to the long arc of exile and return, the Targum insists that the churban is neither random nor final, but a moment within a coherent divine order, decreed in justice and destined to be answered in mercy. That conviction, more than any single gloss, is the Targum’s enduring contribution to the reading of Eichah.

פרק א׳ · Chapter 1

פסוק א׳ · Verse 1

Hebrew:

אֵיכָ֣ה׀ יָשְׁבָ֣ה בָדָ֗ד הָעִיר֙ רַבָּ֣תִי עָ֔ם הָיְתָ֖ה כְּאַלְמָנָ֑ה רַבָּ֣תִי בַגּוֹיִ֗ם שָׂרָ֙תִי֙ בַּמְּדִינ֔וֹת הָיְתָ֖ה לָמַֽס׃ {ס}

English:

Alas! Lonely sits the city Once great with people! She that was great among nations Is become like a widow; The princess among states Is become a thrall.

פסוק ב׳ · Verse 2

Hebrew:

בָּכ֨וֹ תִבְכֶּ֜ה בַּלַּ֗יְלָה וְדִמְעָתָהּ֙ עַ֣ל לֶֽחֱיָ֔הּ אֵֽין־לָ֥הּ מְנַחֵ֖ם מִכׇּל־אֹהֲבֶ֑יהָ כׇּל־רֵעֶ֙יהָ֙ בָּ֣גְדוּ בָ֔הּ הָ֥יוּ לָ֖הּ לְאֹיְבִֽים׃ {ס}

English:

Bitterly she weeps in the night, Her cheek wet with tears. There is none to comfort her Of all her friends. All her allies have betrayed her; They have become her foes.

פסוק ג׳ · Verse 3

Hebrew:

גָּֽלְתָ֨ה יְהוּדָ֤ה מֵעֹ֙נִי֙ וּמֵרֹ֣ב עֲבֹדָ֔ה הִ֚יא יָשְׁבָ֣ה בַגּוֹיִ֔ם לֹ֥א מָצְאָ֖ה מָנ֑וֹחַ כׇּל־רֹדְפֶ֥יהָ הִשִּׂיג֖וּהָ בֵּ֥ין הַמְּצָרִֽים׃ {ס}

English:

Judah has gone into exile Because of misery and harsh oppression; When she settled among the nations, She found no rest; All her pursuers overtook her In the narrow places.

פסוק ד׳ · Verse 4

Hebrew:

דַּרְכֵ֨י צִיּ֜וֹן אֲבֵל֗וֹת מִבְּלִי֙ בָּאֵ֣י מוֹעֵ֔ד כׇּל־שְׁעָרֶ֙יהָ֙ שֽׁוֹמֵמִ֔ין כֹּהֲנֶ֖יהָ נֶאֱנָחִ֑ים בְּתוּלֹתֶ֥יהָ נּוּג֖וֹת וְהִ֥יא מַר־לָֽהּ׃ {ס}

English:

Zion’s roads are in mourning, Empty of festival pilgrims; All her gates are deserted. Her priests sigh, Her maidens are unhappy— She is utterly disconsolate!

פסוק ה׳ · Verse 5

Hebrew:

הָי֨וּ צָרֶ֤יהָ לְרֹאשׁ֙ אֹיְבֶ֣יהָ שָׁל֔וּ כִּֽי־יְהֹוָ֥ה הוֹגָ֖הּ עַ֣ל רֹב־פְּשָׁעֶ֑יהָ עוֹלָלֶ֛יהָ הָלְכ֥וּ שְׁבִ֖י לִפְנֵי־צָֽר׃ {ס}

English:

Her enemies are now the masters, Her foes are at ease, Because GOD has afflicted her For her many transgressions; Her infants have gone into captivity Before the enemy.

פסוק ו׳ · Verse 6

Hebrew:

וַיֵּצֵ֥א מִבַּת־צִיּ֖וֹן כׇּל־הֲדָרָ֑הּ הָי֣וּ שָׂרֶ֗יהָ כְּאַיָּלִים֙ לֹא־מָצְא֣וּ מִרְעֶ֔ה וַיֵּלְכ֥וּ בְלֹא־כֹ֖חַ לִפְנֵ֥י רוֹדֵֽף׃ {ס}

English:

Gone from Fair Zion are all That were her glory; Her leaders were like stags That found no pasture; They could only walk feebly Before the pursuer.

פסוק ז׳ · Verse 7

Hebrew:

זָֽכְרָ֣ה יְרוּשָׁלַ֗͏ִם יְמֵ֤י עׇנְיָהּ֙ וּמְרוּדֶ֔יהָ כֹּ֚ל מַחֲמֻדֶ֔יהָ אֲשֶׁ֥ר הָי֖וּ מִ֣ימֵי קֶ֑דֶם בִּנְפֹ֧ל עַמָּ֣הּ בְּיַד־צָ֗ר וְאֵ֤ין עוֹזֵר֙ לָ֔הּ רָא֣וּהָ צָרִ֔ים שָׂחֲק֖וּ עַ֥ל מִשְׁבַּתֶּֽהָ׃ {ס}

English:

All that she treasured In the days of old Jerusalem recalled In her days of woe and sorrow, When her people fell by enemy hands With none to help her; When enemies looked on and gloated Over her downfall.

פסוק ח׳ · Verse 8

Hebrew:

חֵ֤טְא חָֽטְאָה֙ יְר֣וּשָׁלַ֔͏ִם עַל־כֵּ֖ן לְנִידָ֣ה הָיָ֑תָה כׇּֽל־מְכַבְּדֶ֤יהָ הִזִּיל֙וּהָ֙ כִּי־רָא֣וּ עֶרְוָתָ֔הּ גַּם־הִ֥יא נֶאֶנְחָ֖ה וַתָּ֥שׇׁב אָחֽוֹר׃ {ס}

English:

Jerusalem has greatly sinned, Therefore she is become a mockery. All who admired her despise her, For they have seen her disgraced; And she can only sigh And shrink back.

פסוק ט׳ · Verse 9

Hebrew:

טֻמְאָתָ֣הּ בְּשׁוּלֶ֗יהָ לֹ֤א זָֽכְרָה֙ אַחֲרִיתָ֔הּ וַתֵּ֣רֶד פְּלָאִ֔ים אֵ֥ין מְנַחֵ֖ם לָ֑הּ רְאֵ֤ה יְהֹוָה֙ אֶת־עׇנְיִ֔י כִּ֥י הִגְדִּ֖יל אוֹיֵֽב׃ {ס}

English:

Her impurity clings to her skirts. She gave no thought to her future; She has sunk appallingly, With none to comfort her.— “See, O ETERNAL One, my misery; How the enemy jeers!”

פסוק י׳ · Verse 10

Hebrew:

יָדוֹ֙ פָּ֣רַשׂ צָ֔ר עַ֖ל כׇּל־מַחֲמַדֶּ֑יהָ כִּֽי־רָאֲתָ֤ה גוֹיִם֙ בָּ֣אוּ מִקְדָּשָׁ֔הּ אֲשֶׁ֣ר צִוִּ֔יתָה לֹא־יָבֹ֥אוּ בַקָּהָ֖ל לָֽךְ׃ {ס}

English:

The foe has laid hands On everything dear to her. She has seen her Sanctuary Invaded by nations That You have denied admission Into Your community.

פסוק י״א · Verse 11

Hebrew:

כׇּל־עַמָּ֤הּ נֶאֱנָחִים֙ מְבַקְשִׁ֣ים לֶ֔חֶם נָתְנ֧וּ מַחֲמַדֵּיהֶ֛ם בְּאֹ֖כֶל לְהָשִׁ֣יב נָ֑פֶשׁ רְאֵ֤ה יְהֹוָה֙ וְֽהַבִּ֔יטָה כִּ֥י הָיִ֖יתִי זוֹלֵלָֽה׃ {ס}

English:

All her inhabitants sigh As they search for bread; They have bartered their treasures for food, To keep themselves alive.— “See, O ETERNAL One, and behold, How abject I have become!”

פסוק י״ב · Verse 12

Hebrew:

ל֣וֹא אֲלֵיכֶם֮ כׇּל־עֹ֣בְרֵי דֶ֒רֶךְ֒ הַבִּ֣יטוּ וּרְא֔וּ אִם־יֵ֤שׁ מַכְאוֹב֙ כְּמַכְאֹבִ֔י אֲשֶׁ֥ר עוֹלַ֖ל לִ֑י אֲשֶׁר֙ הוֹגָ֣ה יְהֹוָ֔ה בְּי֖וֹם חֲר֥וֹן אַפּֽוֹ׃ {ס}

English:

“May it never befall you, All who pass along the road— Look about and see: Is there any agony like mine, Which was dealt out to me When GOD afflicted me On this day of wrath?

פסוק י״ג · Verse 13

Hebrew:

מִמָּר֛וֹם שָֽׁלַח־אֵ֥שׁ בְּעַצְמֹתַ֖י וַיִּרְדֶּ֑נָּה פָּרַ֨שׂ רֶ֤שֶׁת לְרַגְלַי֙ הֱשִׁיבַ֣נִי אָח֔וֹר נְתָנַ֙נִי֙ שֹֽׁמֵמָ֔ה כׇּל־הַיּ֖וֹם דָּוָֽה׃ {ס}

English:

From above [God] sent a fire Down into my bones, Then spread a net for my feet And hurled me backward— Leaving me forlorn, In constant misery.

פסוק י״ד · Verse 14

Hebrew:

נִשְׂקַד֩ עֹ֨ל פְּשָׁעַ֜י בְּיָד֗וֹ יִשְׂתָּ֥רְג֛וּ עָל֥וּ עַל־צַוָּארִ֖י הִכְשִׁ֣יל כֹּחִ֑י נְתָנַ֣נִי אֲדֹנָ֔י בִּידֵ֖י לֹא־אוּכַ֥ל קֽוּם׃ {ס}

English:

The yoke of my offenses is bound fast, Lashed tight by God’s hand; Imposed upon my neck, It saps my strength; The Sovereign has delivered me into the hands Of those I cannot withstand.

פסוק ט״ו · Verse 15

Hebrew:

סִלָּ֨ה כׇל־אַבִּירַ֤י׀אֲדֹנָי֙ בְּקִרְבִּ֔י קָרָ֥א עָלַ֛י מוֹעֵ֖ד לִשְׁבֹּ֣ר בַּחוּרָ֑י גַּ֚ת דָּרַ֣ךְ אֲדֹנָ֔י לִבְתוּלַ֖ת בַּת־יְהוּדָֽה׃ {ס}

English:

The Sovereign in my midst has rejected All my heroes, And proclaimed a set time against me To crush my young men. As in a press the Sovereign has trodden Fair Maiden Judah.

פסוק ט״ז · Verse 16

Hebrew:

עַל־אֵ֣לֶּה׀ אֲנִ֣י בוֹכִיָּ֗ה עֵינִ֤י׀עֵינִי֙ יֹ֣רְדָה מַּ֔יִם כִּֽי־רָחַ֥ק מִמֶּ֛נִּי מְנַחֵ֖ם מֵשִׁ֣יב נַפְשִׁ֑י הָי֤וּ בָנַי֙ שֽׁוֹמֵמִ֔ים כִּ֥י גָבַ֖ר אוֹיֵֽב׃ {ס}

English:

For these things do I weep, My eyes flow with tears: Far from me is any comforter Who might revive my spirit; My children are forlorn, For the foe has prevailed.”

פסוק י״ז · Verse 17

Hebrew:

פֵּֽרְשָׂ֨ה צִיּ֜וֹן בְּיָדֶ֗יהָ אֵ֤ין מְנַחֵם֙ לָ֔הּ צִוָּ֧ה יְהֹוָ֛ה לְיַעֲקֹ֖ב סְבִיבָ֣יו צָרָ֑יו הָיְתָ֧ה יְרוּשָׁלַ֛͏ִם לְנִדָּ֖ה בֵּינֵיהֶֽם׃ {ס}

English:

Zion spreads out her hands, She has no one to comfort her; GOD has summoned against Jacob His enemies all about him; Jerusalem has become an outcast among them.

פסוק י״ח · Verse 18

Hebrew:

צַדִּ֥יק ה֛וּא יְהֹוָ֖ה כִּ֣י פִ֣יהוּ מָרִ֑יתִי שִׁמְעוּ־נָ֣א כׇל־הָֽעַמִּ֗ים וּרְאוּ֙ מַכְאֹבִ֔י בְּתוּלֹתַ֥י וּבַחוּרַ֖י הָלְכ֥וּ בַשֶּֽׁבִי׃ {ס}

English:

“GOD is in the right, For I have been disobedient. Hear, all you peoples, And behold my agony: My maidens and my youths Have gone into captivity!

פסוק י״ט · Verse 19

Hebrew:

קָרָ֤אתִי לַֽמְאַהֲבַי֙ הֵ֣מָּה רִמּ֔וּנִי כֹּהֲנַ֥י וּזְקֵנַ֖י בָּעִ֣יר גָּוָ֑עוּ כִּֽי־בִקְשׁ֥וּ אֹ֙כֶל֙ לָ֔מוֹ וְיָשִׁ֖יבוּ אֶת־נַפְשָֽׁם׃ {ס}

English:

I cried out to my friends, But they played me false. My priests and my elders Have perished in the city As they searched for food To keep themselves alive.

פסוק כ׳ · Verse 20

Hebrew:

רְאֵ֨ה יְהֹוָ֤ה כִּֽי־צַר־לִי֙ מֵעַ֣י חֳמַרְמָ֔רוּ נֶהְפַּ֤ךְ לִבִּי֙ בְּקִרְבִּ֔י כִּ֥י מָר֖וֹ מָרִ֑יתִי מִח֥וּץ שִׁכְּלָה־חֶ֖רֶב בַּבַּ֥יִת כַּמָּֽוֶת׃ {ס}

English:

See, O ETERNAL One, the distress I am in! My heart is in anguish, I know how wrong I was To disobey. Outside the sword deals death; Indoors, the plague.

פסוק כ״א · Verse 21

Hebrew:

שָׁמְע֞וּ כִּ֧י נֶאֱנָחָ֣ה אָ֗נִי אֵ֤ין מְנַחֵם֙ לִ֔י כׇּל־אֹ֨יְבַ֜י שָׁמְע֤וּ רָֽעָתִי֙ שָׂ֔שׂוּ כִּ֥י אַתָּ֖ה עָשִׂ֑יתָ הֵבֵ֥אתָ יוֹם־קָרָ֖אתָ וְיִֽהְי֥וּ כָמֹֽנִי׃ {ס}

English:

When they heard how I was sighing, There was none to comfort me; All my foes heard of my plight and exulted. For it is Your doing: You have brought on the day that You threatened. Oh, let them become like me!

פסוק כ״ב · Verse 22

Hebrew:

תָּבֹ֨א כׇל־רָעָתָ֤ם לְפָנֶ֙יךָ֙ וְעוֹלֵ֣ל לָ֔מוֹ כַּאֲשֶׁ֥ר עוֹלַ֛לְתָּ לִ֖י עַ֣ל כׇּל־פְּשָׁעָ֑י כִּֽי־רַבּ֥וֹת אַנְחֹתַ֖י וְלִבִּ֥י דַוָּֽי׃ {פ}

English:

Let all their wrongdoing come before You, And deal with them As You have dealt with me For all my transgressions. For my sighs are many, And my heart is sick.”

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