Lamentations 2

¹ How the Lord has covered Daughter Zion
with a cloud in his anger!
He has hurled down from heaven to earth
the splendor of Israel.
He did not remember his footstool
on the day of his anger.

² The Lord swallowed up without mercy
all the dwellings of Jacob.
In his wrath he tore down
the fortifications of Daughter Judah.
He brought to the ground in dishonor
the kingdom and its princes.

³ He cut off in fierce anger
every horn of Israel.
He drew back his right hand
from before the enemy.
He burned against Jacob like a flaming fire
consuming all around.

⁴ He bent his bow like an enemy;
his right hand was set
like an adversary.
He killed all who were the delight of the eye.
In the tent of Daughter Zion
he poured out his wrath like fire.

⁵ The Lord has become like an enemy;
he swallowed up Israel.
He swallowed up all her palaces;
he destroyed his fortifications.
He multiplied in Daughter Judah
mourning and lamentation.

⁶ He stripped his booth like a garden;
he destroyed his meeting place.
The LORD made Zion forget
appointed feast and sabbath.
In the fury of his anger he spurned
king and priest.

⁷ The Lord rejected his altar;
he disowned his sanctuary.
He handed over to the enemy
the walls of her palaces.
They 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 Daughter Zion.
He stretched out the measuring line;
he did not restrain his hand from swallowing.
He made rampart and wall lament;
together they languished.

⁹ Her gates sank into the ground;
he destroyed and shattered her bars.
Her king and her princes are among the nations;
there is no instruction.
Her prophets also find
no vision from the LORD.

¹⁰ The elders of Daughter Zion
sit on the ground in silence.
They cast dust on their heads;
they put on sackcloth.
The young women of Jerusalem
bow their heads to the ground.

¹¹ My eyes are spent with tears;
my stomach churns.
My bile is poured out on the ground
because of the destruction of my dear people,
because children and infants faint
in the streets of the city.

¹² They say to their mothers,
"Where is bread and wine?"
as they faint like the wounded
in the streets of the city,
as their lives pour out
on their mothers' laps.

¹³ What can I say for you? To what can I compare you,
O Daughter Jerusalem?
What can I liken to you, that I may comfort you,
O virgin Daughter Zion?
For your ruin is vast as the sea;
who can heal you?

¹⁴ Your prophets saw for you
false and worthless visions.
They did not expose your guilt
so as to restore your fortunes.
They saw for you oracles
that were false and misleading.

¹⁵ All who pass along the road
clap their hands at you.
They hiss and shake their heads
at Daughter 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;
they say, "We have swallowed her!
Surely this is the day we waited for;
we have found it, we have seen it!"

¹⁷ The LORD has done what he planned;
he has fulfilled his word
that he decreed long ago.
He has torn down without pity;
he let the enemy rejoice over you
and exalted the horn of your adversaries.

¹⁸ Their heart cried out to the Lord.
O wall of Daughter Zion,
let tears stream down like a torrent
day and night.
Give yourself no rest;
let your eyes have no relief.

¹⁹ Arise, cry out in the night,
at the beginning of the watches.
Pour out your heart like water
before the face of the Lord.
Lift your hands to him
for the lives of your children
who faint from hunger
at the head of every street.

²⁰ Look, O LORD, and consider!
To whom have you done this?
Should women eat their offspring,
the children they have nursed?
Should priest and prophet be killed
in the sanctuary of the Lord?

²¹ Young and old lie
on the ground in the streets.
My young women and my young men
have fallen by the sword.
You killed them on the day of your anger;
you slaughtered without pity.

²² You summoned, as on a festival day,
terrors from every side.
On the day of the LORD's anger
no one escaped or survived.
Those I nursed and raised—
my enemy has destroyed them.