Lamentations 2

1 How the Lord has covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger! He has cast down the beauty of Israel from heaven to the earth, and has not remembered his footstool in the day of his anger.

2 The Lord has swallowed up all the habitations of Jacob, and has not pitied. In his wrath he has thrown down the strongholds of the daughter of Judah. He has brought them down to the ground. He has profaned the kingdom and the rulers thereof.

3 In fierce anger he has cut off all the horn of Israel. He has drawn back his right hand from before the enemy. And he has burned up Jacob like a flaming fire which devours round about.

4 He has bent his bow like an enemy. He has stood with his right hand as an adversary, and has slain all who were pleasant to the eye. He has poured out his wrath like fire in the tent of the daughter of Zion.

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. And he has multiplied mourning and lamentation in the daughter of Judah.

6 And he has taken away his tabernacle violently, as a garden. He has destroyed his place of assembly. Jehovah has caused solemn assembly and sabbath to be forgotten in Zion. And in the indignation of his anger has despised the king and the priest.

7 The Lord has cast off his altar. He has abhorred his sanctuary. He has given up the walls of her palaces into the hand of the enemy. They have made a noise in the house of Jehovah, as in the day of a solemn assembly.

8 Jehovah 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 He has not withdrawn his hand from destroying. And he has made the rampart and wall to lament, they languish together.

9 Her gates are sunk into the ground. He has destroyed and broken her bars. Her king and her rulers are among the nations where the law is not. Yea, her prophets find no vision from Jehovah.

10 The elders of the daughter of Zion sit upon the ground. They 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 My eyes fail with tears, my heart is troubled, my liver is poured upon the earth, because of the destruction of the daughter of my people, because the young sons and the sucklings faint in the streets of the city.

12 They say to their mothers, Where is grain and wine? when they faint 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 thee? What shall I liken to thee, O daughter of Jerusalem? What shall I compare 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 false and foolish visions for thee. And they have not uncovered thine iniquity, to bring back thy captivity, but have seen for thee false oracles and causes of banishment.

15 All who 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 called The perfection of beauty, The joy of the whole earth?

16 All thine enemies have opened their mouth wide 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 Jehovah has done that which he purposed. He has fulfilled his word that he commanded in the days of old. He has thrown down, and has not pitied. And he has caused the enemy to rejoice over thee. He has exalted the horn of thine 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 thyself no respite. Let not the apple of thine eye cease.

19 Arise, cry out in the night, at the beginning of the watches. Pour out thy heart like water before the face of the Lord. Lift up thy hands toward him for the life of thy young sons, who faint for hunger at the head of every street.

20 See, O Jehovah, and behold to whom thou have done thus! Shall the women eat their fruit, the sons who are dandled in the hands? Shall the priest and the prophet be slain 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. Thou have slain them in the day of thine anger. Thou have slaughtered, and not pitied.

22 Thou have called, as in the day of a solemn assembly, my terrors on every side. And there was none who escaped or remained in the day of Jehovah's anger. My enemy has consumed those whom I have dandled and brought up.