Turn toward me and have mercy on me, for I am alone ¹  and oppressed!

I stay awake; ¹  I am like a solitary bird on a roof.

א (Alef) ^{1  2} Alas! ³  The city once full of people ⁴  now sits all alone! ⁵  The prominent ⁶  lady among the nations has become a widow! ⁷  The princess ⁸  who once ruled the provinces ⁹  has become a forced laborer!

God settles those who have been deserted in their own homes; ¹  he frees prisoners and grants them prosperity. ²  But sinful rebels live in the desert. ³ 

I am like an owl ¹  in the wilderness; I am like a screech owl ²  among the ruins. ³ 

They will hear, ‘Run! Save yourselves! Even if you must be like a lonely shrub in the desert!’ ¹ 

How deserted will that once-famous city ¹  be, that city that was once filled with ²  joy! ³ 

Yet Jesus himself ¹  frequently withdrew ²  to the wilderness ³  and prayed.

But the one united with ¹  the Lord is one spirit with him. ² 

he digs a pit ¹  and then falls into the hole he has made. ² 

while he went a day’s journey into the desert. He went and sat down under a shrub ¹  and asked the Lord to take his life: ²  “I’ve had enough! Now, O Lord, take my life. After all, I’m no better than my ancestors.” ³ 

After noticing a fig tree ¹  by the road he went to it, but found nothing on it except leaves. He said to it, “Never again will there be fruit from you!” And the fig tree withered at once.

But as the man ¹  went out he began to announce it publicly and spread the story widely, so that Jesus ²  was no longer able to enter any town openly but stayed outside in remote places. Still ³  they kept coming ⁴  to him from everywhere.

Now David was sitting between the inner and outer gates, ¹  and the watchman went up to the roof over the gate at the wall. When he looked, he saw a man running by himself.

He stretched out ¹  and fell asleep under the shrub. All of a sudden an angelic messenger ²  touched him and said, “Get up and eat.”

The Israelites said things about the Lord their God that were not right. ¹  They built high places in all their cities, from the watchtower to the fortress. ² 

Look at Abraham, your father, and Sarah, who gave you birth. ¹  When I summoned him, he was a lone individual, ²  but I blessed him ³  and gave him numerous descendants. ⁴ 

in hard work and toil, ¹  through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, many times without food, in cold and without enough clothing. ² 

Now a prophet visited King Ahab of Israel and said, “This is what the Lord says, ‘Do you see this huge army? ¹  Look, I am going to hand it over to you this very day. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’”

One thousand will scurry at the battle cry of one enemy soldier; ¹  at the battle cry of five enemy soldiers you will all run away, ²  until the remaining few are as isolated ³  as a flagpole on a mountaintop or a signal flag on a hill.”