2
1 How
has the Lord
covered the
daughter of Zion
with a cloud
in his anger!
He has cast
the beauty of
Israel down from
heaven to the
earth,
and hasn’t remembered
his footstool in
the day of
his anger.
2 The Lord
has swallowed up
all the dwellings
of Jacob
without pity.
He has thrown
down in his
wrath the
strongholds of the
daughter of Judah.
He has brought
them down to
the ground.
He has profaned
the kingdom and
its princes.
3 He
has cut off
all the horn
of Israel in
fierce anger.
He has drawn
back his right
hand from before
the enemy.
He has burned
up Jacob like
a flaming fire,
which devours all
around.
4 He
has bent his
bow like an
enemy.
He has stood
with his right
hand as an
adversary.
He has killed
all that were
pleasant to the
eye.
In the tent of
the daughter of
Zion, he has
poured out his
wrath like fire.
5 The Lord
has become as
an enemy.
He has swallowed
up Israel.
He has swallowed
up all her palaces.
He has destroyed
his strongholds.
He has multiplied
mourning and lamentation
in the daughter
of Judah.
6 He
has violently taken
away his
tabernacle,
as if it were
a garden.
He has destroyed
his place of
assembly.
The LORD
has caused solemn
assembly and
Sabbath to be
forgotten in Zion.
In the
indignation of his
anger, he has
despised the king
and the priest.
7 The
Lord has cast
off his altar.
He has abhorred
his sanctuary.
He has given
the walls of
her palaces into
the hand of
the enemy.
They have made
a noise in
the LORD’s house,
as in the
day of a
solemn assembly.
8 The
LORD has purposed
to destroy the
wall of the
daughter of Zion.
He has stretched
out the line.
He has not
withdrawn his hand
from destroying;
He has made
the rampart and
wall lament.
They languish together.
9 Her
gates have
sunk into the ground.
He has destroyed
and broken her
bars.
Her king and
her princes are
among the nations
where the law
is not.
Yes, her prophets
find no vision
from the LORD.
10 The
elders of the
daughter of Zion
sit on the
ground.
They keep silence.
They have cast
up dust on
their heads.
They have clothed
themselves with
sackcloth.
The virgins of
Jerusalem hang
down their heads
to the ground.
11 My
eyes fail with
tears.
My heart is
troubled.
My bile is poured
on the earth,
because of the
destruction of the
daughter of my
people,
because the young
children and the
infants swoon in
the streets of
the city.
12 They ask
their mothers,
“Where is grain
and wine?”
when they swoon
as the wounded
in the streets
of the city,
when their soul
is poured out
into their mothers’
bosom.
13 What
shall I testify
to you?
What shall I
liken to you,
daughter of
Jerusalem?
What shall I
compare to you,
that I may
comfort you,
virgin daughter of
Zion?
For your breach
is as big as
the sea.
Who can heal
you?
14 Your
prophets have seen
false and foolish
visions for you.
They have not
uncovered your
iniquity,
to reverse your
captivity,
but have seen
for you
false revelations and causes
of banishment.
15 All
that pass by
clap their hands
at you.
They hiss and
wag their head
at the daughter
of Jerusalem, saying,
“Is this the
city that
men called ‘The
perfection of
beauty,
the joy of
the whole earth’?”
16 All
your enemies have
opened their mouth
wide against you.
They hiss and
gnash their teeth.
They say, “We
have swallowed her
up.
Certainly this is
the day that
we looked for.
We have found
it.
We have seen
it.”
17 The
LORD has done
that which he
planned.
He has fulfilled
his word that he
commanded in the
days of old.
He has thrown
down,
and has not
pitied.
He has caused
the enemy to
rejoice over you.
He has exalted
the horn of
your adversaries.
18 Their
heart cried to
the Lord.
O wall of
the daughter of
Zion,
let tears run
down like a
river day and
night.
Give yourself no
relief.
Don’t let your
eyes rest.
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 up your
hands toward him
for the life
of your young
children,
who faint for
hunger at the
head of every
street.
20 “Look,
LORD, and see
to whom you
have done thus!
Should the women eat
their offspring,
the children that
they held and bounced
on their knees?
Should the priest
and the prophet
be killed in
the sanctuary of
the Lord?
21 “The
youth and the
old man lie
on the ground in
the streets.
My virgins and
my young men
have fallen by
the sword.
You have killed
them in the
day of your anger.
You have
slaughtered, and
not pitied.
22 “You
have called, as
in the day
of a solemn
assembly, my
terrors on every
side.
There was no
one that escaped
or remained in
the day of
the LORD’s anger.
My enemy has
consumed those
whom I have cared
for and brought
up.