Lamentations 2

1 How the Lord has covered the Daughter of Zion with the cloud of His anger! He has cast the glory of Israel from heaven to earth. He has abandoned His footstool in the day of His anger.

2 Without pity the Lord has swallowed up all the dwellings of Jacob. In His wrath He has demolished the fortified cities of the Daughter of Judah. He brought to the ground and defiled her kingdom and its princes.

3 In fierce anger He has cut off every horn of Israel and withdrawn His right hand at the approach of the enemy. He has burned in Jacob like a flaming fire that consumes everything around it.

4 He has bent His bow like an enemy; His right hand is positioned. Like a foe He has killed all who were pleasing to the eye; He has poured out His wrath like fire on the tent of the Daughter of Zion.

5 The Lord is like an enemy; He has swallowed up Israel. He has swallowed up all her palaces and destroyed her strongholds. He has multiplied mourning and lamentation for the Daughter of Judah.

6 He has laid waste His tabernacle like a garden booth; He has destroyed His place of meeting. The LORD has made Zion forget her appointed feasts and Sabbaths. In His fierce anger He has despised both king and priest.

7 The Lord has rejected His altar; He has abandoned His sanctuary; He has delivered the walls of her palaces into the hand of the enemy. They have raised a shout in the house of the LORD as on the day of an appointed feast.

8 The LORD determined to destroy the wall of the Daughter of Zion. He stretched out a measuring line and did not withdraw His hand from destroying. He made the ramparts and walls lament; together they waste away.

9 Her gates have sunk into the ground; He has destroyed and shattered their bars. Her king and her princes are exiled among the nations, the law is no more, and even her prophets find no vision from the LORD.

10 The elders of the Daughter of Zion sit on the ground in silence. They have thrown dust on their heads and put on sackcloth. The young women of Jerusalem have bowed their heads to the ground.

11 My eyes fail from weeping; I am churning within. My heart is poured out in grief over the destruction of the daughter of my people, because children and infants faint in the streets of the city.

12 They cry out to their mothers: “Where is the grain and wine?” as they faint like the wounded in the streets of the city, as their lives fade away in the arms of their mothers.

13 What can I say for you? To what can I compare you, O Daughter of Jerusalem? To what can I liken you, that I may console you, O Virgin Daughter of Zion? For your wound is as deep as the sea. Who can ever heal you?

14 The visions of your prophets were empty and deceptive; they did not expose your guilt to ward off your captivity. The burdens they envisioned for you were empty and misleading.

15 All who pass by clap their hands at you in scorn. They hiss and shake their heads at the Daughter of Jerusalem: “Is this the city that was called the perfection of beauty, the joy of all the earth?”

16 All your enemies open their mouths against you. They hiss and gnash their teeth, saying, “We have swallowed her up. This is the day for which we have waited. We have lived to see it!”

17 The LORD has done what He planned; He has accomplished His decree, which He ordained in days of old; He has overthrown you without pity. He has let the enemy gloat over you and exalted the horn of your foes.

18 The hearts of the people cry out to the Lord. O wall of the Daughter of Zion, let your tears run down like a river day and night. Give yourself no relief, and your eyes no rest.

19 Arise, cry out in the night from the first watch of the night. Pour out your heart like water in the presence of the Lord. Lift up your hands to Him for the lives of your children who are fainting from hunger on the corner of every street.

20 Look, O LORD, and consider: Whom have You ever treated like this? Should women eat their offspring, the infants they have nurtured? Should priests and prophets be killed in the sanctuary of the Lord?

21 Both young and old lie together in the dust of the streets. My young men and maidens have fallen by the sword. You have slain them in the day of Your anger; You have slaughtered them without compassion.

22 You summoned my terrors on every side, as for the day of an appointed feast. In the day of the LORD’s anger no one escaped or survived; my enemy has destroyed those I nurtured and reared.

1 ¶ How hath the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger, [and] cast down from heaven unto the earth the beauty of Israel, and remembered not his footstool in the day of his anger!

2 The Lord hath swallowed up all the habitations of Jacob, and hath not pitied: he hath thrown down in his wrath the strong holds of the daughter of Judah; he hath brought [them] down to the ground: he hath polluted the kingdom and the princes thereof.

3 He hath cut off in [his] fierce anger all the horn of Israel: he hath drawn back his right hand from before the enemy, and he burned against Jacob like a flaming fire, [which] devoureth round about.

4 He hath bent his bow like an enemy: he stood with his right hand as an adversary, and slew all [that were] pleasant to the eye in the tabernacle of the daughter of Zion: he poured out his fury like fire.

5 The Lord was as an enemy: he hath swallowed up Israel, he hath swallowed up all her palaces: he hath destroyed his strong holds, and hath increased in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation.

6 And he hath violently taken away his tabernacle, as [if it were of] a garden: he hath destroyed his places of the assembly: the LORD hath caused the solemn feasts and sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion, and hath despised in the indignation of his anger the king and the priest.

7 The Lord hath cast off his altar, he hath abhorred his sanctuary, he hath given up into the hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces; they have made a noise in the house of the LORD, as in the day of a solemn feast.

8 The LORD hath purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion: he hath stretched out a line, he hath not withdrawn his hand from destroying: therefore he made the rampart and the wall to lament; they languished together.

9 Her gates are sunk into the ground; he hath destroyed and broken her bars: her king and her princes [are] among the Gentiles: the law [is] no [more]; her prophets also find no vision from the LORD.

10 ¶ The elders of the daughter of Zion sit upon the ground, [and] keep silence: they have cast up dust upon their heads; they have girded themselves with sackcloth: the virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground.

11 Mine eyes do fail with tears, my bowels are troubled, my liver is poured upon the earth, for the destruction of the daughter of my people; because the children and the sucklings swoon in the streets of the city.

12 They say to their mothers, Where [is] corn and wine? when they swooned as the wounded in the streets of the city, when their soul was poured out into their mothers' bosom.

13 What thing shall I take to witness for thee? what thing shall I liken to thee, O daughter of Jerusalem? what shall I equal to thee, that I may comfort thee, O virgin daughter of Zion? for thy breach [is] great like the sea: who can heal thee?

14 Thy prophets have seen vain and foolish things for thee: and they have not discovered thine iniquity, to turn away thy captivity; but have seen for thee false burdens and causes of banishment.

15 All that pass by clap [their] hands at thee; they hiss and wag their head at the daughter of Jerusalem, [saying, Is] this the city that [men] call The perfection of beauty, The joy of the whole earth?

16 All thine enemies have opened their mouth against thee: they hiss and gnash the teeth: they say, We have swallowed [her] up: certainly this [is] the day that we looked for; we have found, we have seen [it].

17 The LORD hath done [that] which he had devised; he hath fulfilled his word that he had commanded in the days of old: he hath thrown down, and hath not pitied: and he hath caused [thine] enemy to rejoice over thee, he hath set up the horn of thine adversaries.

18 Their heart cried unto the Lord, O wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears run down like a river day and night: give thyself no rest; let not the apple of thine eye cease.

19 Arise, cry out in the night: in the beginning of the watches pour out thine heart like water before the face of the Lord: lift up thy hands toward him for the life of thy young children, that faint for hunger in the top of every street.

20 Behold, O LORD, and consider to whom thou hast done this. Shall the women eat their fruit, [and] children of a span long? shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord?

21 The young and the old lie on the ground in the streets: my virgins and my young men are fallen by the sword; thou hast slain [them] in the day of thine anger; thou hast killed, [and] not pitied.

22 Thou hast called as in a solemn day my terrors round about, so that in the day of the LORD'S anger none escaped nor remained: those that I have swaddled and brought up hath mine enemy consumed.

1 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.

2 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.

3 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;

4 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.

5 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;

6 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.

7 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.

8 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.

9 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.

10 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.

11 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,

12 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.

13 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?

14 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.

15 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?

16 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.

17 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.

18 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.

19 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 children, which faint for hunger in the front of every street.

20 Look, O LORD, and see whom thou hast so corrupted. Shall the women of her womb eat the fruit of her womb, and the youngest of her children by a span? Shall prophets and priests be slain in the sanctuary of the LORD?

21 Boys and old men lay in the streets of the earth: my virgins and my young men fell by the sword. Thou hast slain in the day of thy wrath: thou hast slain without mercy.

22 Thou hast called mine enemies round about, as on a solemn day; that none escaped, nor remained, in the day of the LORD'S wrath. Those whom I have nourished and brought up, the enemy hath slain.