Lamentations 2

1 ALEPH. O how the Lord has covered the daughter of Zion with gloom in his fury! O how he has thrown down from heaven to earth the famous one of Israel, and he has not remembered his footstool in the day of his fury.

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

2 BETH. The Lord has cast down, and he has not been lenient, with all the beauties of Jacob. In his fury, he has destroyed the fortifications of the virgin of Judah, and he has thrown them down to the ground. He has polluted the kingdom and its leaders.

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 profaned the kingdom and the princes thereof.

3 GHIMEL. In the anger of his fury, he has broken the entire horn of Israel. He has drawn back his right hand before the face of the enemy. And he has kindled within Jacob a flaming fire, devouring all around.

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

4 DALETH. He has bent his bow like an enemy. He has fixed his right hand like an adversary. And he has cut down all that was beautiful to behold in the tabernacle of the daughter of Zion. He has poured out his indignation like fire.

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

5 HE. The Lord has become like an enemy. He has thrown down Israel. He has thrown down all of his defenses. He has torn apart his fortifications. And he has filled the daughter of Judah with humbled men and humbled women.

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

6 VAU. And he has torn apart her tent like a garden. He has demolished her tabernacle. In Zion, the Lord has delivered feast and Sabbath into oblivion, and king and priest into disgrace, and into the indignation of his fury.

And he hath violently taken away his tabernacle, as if it were of a garden; he hath destroyed his place of assembly: the LORD hath caused solemn assembly and sabbath to be forgotten in Zion, and hath despised in the indignation of his anger the king and the priest.

7 ZAIN. The Lord has pushed away his own altar. He has cursed his own sanctuary. He has delivered the walls of its towers into the hand of the enemy. They have made a noise in the house of the Lord, as if on the day of a solemnity.

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 assembly.

8 HETH. The Lord has decided to tear down the wall of the daughter of Zion. He has stretched out his measuring line, and he has not turned away his hand from perdition. And the rampart has mourned, and with the wall it has been torn apart.

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

9 TETH. Her gates have been buried in the ground. He has ruined and crushed its bars. Her king and her princes are with the Gentiles. There is no law, and her prophets have found no vision from the Lord.

Her gates are sunk into the ground; he hath destroyed and broken her bars: her king and her princes are among the nations where the law is not; yea, her prophets find no vision from the LORD.

10 JOD. The elders of the daughter of Zion have become idle; they sit on the ground. They have sprinkled their heads with ashes. They have been wrapped with haircloth. The virgins of Jerusalem have cast their heads down to the ground.

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 CAPH. My eyes have exhausted their tears. My internal organs have become disturbed. My liver has been poured out on the earth, over the grief of the daughter of my people, when the little ones and the infants passed away in the streets of the town.

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 young children and the sucklings swoon in the streets of the city.

12 LAMED. They said to their mothers, “Where is the wheat and the wine?” when they fell like the wounded in the streets of the city, when they breathed out their lives into the bosoms of their mothers.

They say to their mothers, Where is corn 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 MEM. To what shall I compare you, or to what shall I liken you, O daughter of Jerusalem? To what shall I equate you, so as to console you, O virgin daughter of Zion? For your destruction is as great as the sea. Who will cure you?

What shall I testify unto thee? what 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 NUN. Your prophets have seen false and foolish things for you. And they have not laid open your iniquity, so as to provoke you to repentance. Yet they have seen for you false revelations and banishments.

Thy prophets have seen visions for thee of vanity and foolishness; and they have not discovered thine iniquity, to bring again thy captivity: but have seen for thee burdens of vanity and causes of banishment.

15 SAMECH. All those who passed by the way have clapped their hands over you. They have hissed and shook their heads over the daughter of Jerusalem, saying, “Is this the city of perfect dignity, the joy of all the earth?”

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 called The perfection of beauty, The joy of the whole earth?

16 PHE. All your enemies have opened their mouth over you. They have hissed and gnashed their teeth, and they said: “We will devour her. Yes, this is the day we waited for. We have found it, we have seen it.”

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 AIN. The Lord has done what he decided to do. He has fulfilled his word, which he instructed since the days of antiquity. He has destroyed, and he has not been lenient, and he has caused the enemy to rejoice over you, and he has exalted the horn of your adversaries.

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

18 SADE. Their heart cried out to the Lord from the walls of the daughter of Zion. Let tears run down like a torrent throughout the day and the night. Do not give rest to yourself, and do not allow the pupil of your eye to cease.

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 respite; let not the apple of thine eye cease.

19 COPH. Rise up. Give praise in the night, in the first of the watches. Pour out your heart like water before the sight of the Lord. Lift up your hands to him on behalf of the souls of your little ones, who have passed away from famine at the head of all the crossroads.

Arise, cry out in the night, at 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 at the top of every street.

20 RES. O Lord, see and consider those whom you have made into such a vintage. So then, shall women eat their own fruit, little ones measured by the palm of the hand? Shall priest and prophet be killed in the sanctuary of the Lord?

See, O LORD, and behold, to whom thou hast done thus! shall the women eat their fruit, the children that are dandled in the hands? shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord?

21 SIN. The boy and the old man lie down on the ground outside. My virgins and my youths have fallen by the sword. You have slain them in the day of your fury. You have struck down, and you have not shown pity.

The youth and the old man 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 slaughtered, [and] not pitied.

22 THAU. You have called, as if to a day of solemnity, those who would terrify me all around. And there was no one, in the day of the fury of the Lord, who escaped or was left behind. Those whom I educated and nourished, my enemy has consumed.

Thou hast called, as in the day of a solemn assembly, my terrors on every side, and there was none that escaped or remained in the day of the LORD’S anger: those that I have dandled and brought up hath mine enemy consumed.