Texts + Translations
Lamentations.
19:30, Friday 31st March
St Mary le Strand Church
Lamentations a5
HETH. Peccatum peccavit Hierusalem, propterea instabilis facta est: omnes qui glorificabant eam spreverunt illam: quia viderunt ignominiam eius: ipsa autem gemens et conversa retrorsum.
TETH. Sordes eius in pedibus eius: nec recordata est finis sui. Deposita est vehementer: non habens consolatorem. Vide Domine afflictionem meam: quoniam erectus est inimicus.
JOD. Manum suam misit hostis ad omnia desiderabilia ejus, quia vidit gentes ingressas sanctuarium suum, de quibus præceperas ne intrarent in ecclesiam tuam.
Jerusalem, Jerusalem, convertere ad Dominum Deum tuum.
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CAPH. Omnis populus ejus gemens, et quærens panem; dederunt pretiosa quæque pro cibo ad refocillandam animam. Vide, Domine, et considera quoniam facta sum vilis!
LAMED. O vos omnes qui transitis per viam, attendite, et videte si est dolor sicut dolor meus! quoniam vindemiavit me, ut locutus est Dominus, in die iræ furoris sui.
MEM. De excelso misit ignem in ossibus meis et erudivit me: expandit rete pedibus meis: convertit me retrorsum: posuit me desolatam tota die maerore confectam.
Jerusalem, Jerusalem, convertere ad Dominum Deum tuum.
Robert White
HETH. Jerusalem sinned grievously, therefore she became filthy; all who honored her despise her, for they have seen her nakedness; yea, she herself groans, and turns her face away.
TETH. Her uncleanness was in her skirts; she took no thought of her doom; therefore her fall is terrible, she has no comforter.
"O Lord, behold my affliction, for the enemy has triumphed!"
JOD. The enemy has stretched out his hands over all her precious things; yea, she has seen the nations invade her sanctuary, those whom thou didst forbid to enter thy congregation.
Jerusalem, Jerusalem, return to the Lord thy God.
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CAPH. All her people groan as they search for bread; they trade their treasures for food to revive their strength. "Look, O Lord, and behold, for I am despised."
LAMED. "Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow which was brought upon me, which the Lord inflicted on the day of his fierce anger."
MEM. "From on high he sent fire; into my bones he made it descend; he spread a net for my feet; he turned me back; he has left me stunned, faint all the day long.
Jerusalem, Jerusalem, return to the Lord thy God.
Lamentationes Hieremiae Prophetae
Incipit Lamentatio Jeremiae prophetae.
ALEPH. Quomodo sedet sola civitas plena populo! Facta est quasi vidua domina gentium; princeps provinciarum facta est sub tributo.
BETH. Plorans ploravit in nocte, et lacrimæ ejus in maxillis ejus: non est qui consoletur eam, ex omnibus caris ejus; omnes amici ejus spreverunt eam, et facti sunt ei inimici.
GHIMEL. Migravit Judas propter afflictionem, et multitudinem servitutis;
habitavit inter gentes, nec invenit requiem: omnes persecutores ejus apprehenderunt eam inter angustias.
Hierusalem, Hierusalem, convertere ad Dominum Deum tuum.
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VAU. Et egressus est a filia Sion omnis decor ejus; facti sunt principes ejus velut arietes non invenientes pascua, et abierunt absque fortitudine ante faciem subsequentis.
ZAIN. Recordata est Jerusalem dierum afflictionis suæ, et prævaricationis, omnium desiderabilium suorum, quæ habuerat a diebus antiquis, cum caderet populus ejus in manu hostili, et non esset auxiliator: viderunt eam hostes, et deriserunt sabbata ejus.
HETH. Peccatum peccavit Hierusalem, propterea instabilis facta est: omnes qui glorificabant eam spreverunt illam: quia viderunt ignominiam eius: ipsa autem gemens et conversa retrorsum.
Hierusalem, Hierusalem, convertere ad Dominum Deum tuum.
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De Lamentations Jeremiae Prophetae.
HETH. Cogitavit Dominus dissipare murum filiæ Sion; tetendit funiculum suum, et non avertit manum suam a perditione: luxitque antemurale, et murus pariter dissipatus est.
CAPH. Defecerunt præ lacrimis oculi mei, conturbata sunt viscera mea; effusum est in terra jecur meum super contritione filiæ populi mei, cum deficeret parvulus et lactens in plateis oppidi.
Hierusalem, Hierusalem, convertere ad Dominum Deum tuum.
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Una hora non potuistis vigilare mecum, qui exhortabamini mori pro me.
Vel Judam non videtis, quomodo no dormit, sed festinat tradere me Judeis. Qui dormitis, surgite, et orate ne intretis in tentationem.
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LAMED. Matribus suis dixerunt: Ubi est triticum et vinum? cum deficerent quasi vulnerati in plateis civitatis, cum exhalarent animas suas in sinu matrum suarum.
MEM. Cui comparabo te, vel cui assimilabo te, filia Jerusalem? cui exæquabo te, et consolabor te, virgo, filia Sion? magna est enim velut mare contritio tua: quis medebitur tui?
NUN. Prophetæ tui viderunt tibi falsa et stulta; nec aperiebant iniquitatem tuam, ut te ad pœnitentiam provocarent; viderunt autem tibi assumptiones falsas, et ejectiones.
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Jesum tradidit impius, summis principis sacerdotum, et seminoribus populi. Petrus autem sequebatur a longe, ut videret finem. Adduxerunt autem ad Caipham principem sacerdotum, ubi scribe et pharisei convenerant.
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ALEPH. Ego vir videns paupertatem meam in virga indignationis ejus. Me minavit, et adduxit in tenebras, et non in lucem. Tantum in me vertit et convertit manum suam tota die.
BETH. In tenebrosis collocavit me, quasi mortuos sempiternos.
GHIMEL. Sed et cum clamavero, et rogavero, exclusit orationem meam.
Hierusalem, Hierusalem, convertere ad Dominum Deum tuum.
Emilio de' Cavalieri
Here beginneth the Lamentations of the Prophet Jeremiah.
ALEPH. How lonely sits the city that was full of people! How like a widow has she become, she that was great among the nations! She that was a princess among the cities has become a vassal.
BETH. She weeps bitterly in the night, tears on her cheeks, among all her lovers she has none to comfort her; all her friends have dealt treacherously with her, they have become her enemies.
GHIMEL. Judah has gone into exile because of affliction and hard servitude; she dwells now among the nations, but finds no resting place; her pursuers have all overtaken her in the midst of her distress.
Jerusalem, Jerusalem, return to the Lord thy God.
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VAU. From the daughter of Zion has departed all her majesty. Her princes have become like harts that find no pasture; they fled without strength before the pursuer.
ZAIN. Jerusalem remembers in the days of her affliction and bitterness all the precious things that were hers from days of old. When her people fell into the hand of the foe, and there was none to help her, the foe gloated over her, mocking at her downfall.
HETH. Jerusalem sinned grievously, therefore she became filthy; all who honored her despise her, for they have seen her nakedness; yea, she herself groans, and turns her face away.
Jerusalem, Jerusalem, return to the Lord thy God.
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The Lamentations of the Prophet Jeremiah.
HETH. The Lord determined to lay in ruins the wall of the daughter of Zion; he marked it off by the line; he restrained not his hand from destroying; he caused rampart and wall to lament, they languish together.
CAPH. My eyes are spent with weeping; my soul is in tumult; my heart is poured out in grief because of the destruction of the daughter of my people, because infants and babes faint in the streets of the city.
Jerusalem, Jerusalem, return to the Lord your God.
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What, could you not watch one hour with me, you that were eager to die for me? Or do you not see Judas, how he sleeps not, but makes haste to betray me to the Jews?
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LAMED. They cry to their mothers, "Where is bread and wine?" as they faint like wounded men in the streets of the city, as their life is poured out on their mothers' bosom.
MEM. What can I say for you, to what compare you, O daughter of Jerusalem? What can I liken to you, that I may comfort you, O virgin daughter of Zion? For vast as the sea is your ruin; who can restore you?
NUN. Your prophets have seen for you false and deceptive visions; they have not exposed your iniquity to restore your fortunes, but have seen for you oracles false and misleading.
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The wicked man betrayed Jesus to the chief priests and the elders of the people: Peter, however, followed him from a distance, to see the end. They led him to Caiaphas, the high priest, where the scribes and the Pharisees were met together.
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ALEPH. I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of his wrath; he has driven and brought me into darkness without any light; surely against me he turns his hand again and again the whole day long.
BETH. He has made me dwell in darkness like the dead of long ago.
GHIMEL. Though I call and cry for help, he shuts out my prayer;
Jerusalem, Jerusalem, return to the Lord thy God.
Troisieme Lecon de Tenebres
JOD. Manum suam misit hostis ad omnia desiderabilia ejus, quia vidit gentes ingressas sanctuarium suum, de quibus præceperas ne intrarent in ecclesiam tuam.
CAPH. Omnis populus ejus gemens, et quærens panem; dederunt pretiosa quæque pro cibo ad refocillandam animam. Vide, Domine, et considera quoniam facta sum vilis!
LAMED. O vos omnes qui transitis per viam, attendite, et videte si est dolor sicut dolor meus! quoniam vindemiavit me, ut locutus est Dominus, in die iræ furoris sui.
MEM. De excelso misit ignem in ossibus meis et erudivit me: expandit rete pedibus meis: convertit me retrorsum: posuit me desolatam tota die maerore confectam.
NUN. Vigilavit jugum iniquitatum mearum; in manu ejus convolutae sunt, et impositae collo meo. Infirmata est virtus mea: dedit me Dominus in manu de qua non potero surgere.
Jerusalem, Jerusalem, convertere ad Dominum Deum tuum.
Francois Couperin
IOD. The enemy has stretched out his hands over all her precious things; yea, she has seen the nations invade her sanctuary, those whom thou didst forbid to enter thy congregation.
CAPH. All her people groan as they search for bread; they trade their treasures for food to revive their strength. "Look, O Lord, and behold, for I am despised."
LAMED. "Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow which was brought upon me, which the Lord inflicted on the day of his fierce anger."
MEM. "From on high he sent fire; into my bones he made it descend; he spread a net for my feet; he turned me back; he has left me stunned, faint all the day long.
NUN. “My transgressions were bound into a yoke; by his hand they were fastened together; they were set upon my neck; he caused my strength to fail; the Lord gave me into the hands of those whom I cannot withstand." Jerusalem, Jerusalem, return to the Lord thy God.