Lamentations 2

1 [ALEPH-BET] How the Lord clouds in His anger the daughter of Zion, He has cast from the heavens [to] earth the beauty of Israel, And has not remembered His footstool in the day of His anger.

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, He has not pitied any of the pleasant places of Jacob, He has broken down in His wrath The fortresses of the daughter of Judah, He has caused to come to the earth, He defiled the kingdom and its princes.

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 in the heat of anger every horn of Israel, He has turned backward His right hand From the face of the enemy, And He burns against Jacob as a flaming fire, It has devoured all around.

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 as an enemy, His right hand has stood as an adversary, And He slays all the desirable ones of the eye, In the tent of the daughter of Zion, He has poured out as fire His fury.

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 been as an enemy, He has swallowed up Israel, He has swallowed up all her palaces, He has destroyed His fortresses, And He multiplies in the daughter of Judah Mourning and moaning.

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 And He shakes as a garden His dwelling place, He has destroyed His appointed place, YHWH has forgotten in Zion the appointed time and Sabbath, And despises, in the indignation of His anger, king and priest.

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 rejected His sanctuary, He has shut up into the hand of the enemy The walls of her palaces, A noise they have made in the house of YHWH Like a day of appointment.

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 YHWH has devised to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion, He has stretched out a line, He has not turned His hand from destroying, And He causes bulwark and wall to mourn, Together—they have been weak.

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 Sunk into the earth have her gates, He has destroyed and broken her bars, Her king and her princes [are] among the nations, There is no law, also her prophets Have not found vision from YHWH.

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 Sit on the earth—[the] elderly of Zion’s daughter keep silent, They have caused dust to go up on their head, They have girded on sackcloth, The virgins of Jerusalem have Put their head down to the earth.

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 have been consumed by tears, My bowels have been troubled, My liver has been poured out to the earth, For the breach of the daughter of my people; In infant and suckling being feeble, In the broad places of the city,

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 To their mothers they say, “Where [are] grain and wine?” In their becoming feeble as a pierced one In the broad places of the city, In their soul pouring itself out into the bosom of their mothers.

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 do I testify [to] you, what do I liken to you, O daughter of Jerusalem? What do I equal to you, and I comfort you, O virgin daughter of Zion? For great as a sea [is] your breach, Who gives healing to you?

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 for you a false and insipid thing, And have not revealed concerning your iniquity, To return your captivity, And they see for you false burdens and causes of expulsion.

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 Everyone passing by the way clapped hands at you, They have hissed—and they shake the head At the daughter of Jerusalem: “Is this the city of which they said: The perfection of beauty, a joy to all the land?”

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 Opened against you their mouth have all your enemies, They have hissed, indeed, they gnash the teeth, They have said: “We have swallowed [her] up, Surely this [is] the day that we looked for, We have found—we have seen.”

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 YHWH has done that which He devised, He has fulfilled His saying That He commanded from the days of old, He has broken down and has not pitied, And causes an enemy to rejoice over you, He lifted up the horn of your adversaries.

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 has cried to the Lord; O wall of the daughter of Zion, Cause to go down tears as a stream daily and nightly, do not give rest to yourself, Do not let the daughter of your eye stand still.

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 aloud in the night, At the beginning of the watches. Pour out your heart as water, Before the face of the Lord, Lift up to Him your hands, for the soul of your infants, Who are feeble with hunger at the head of all out-places.

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 See, O YHWH, and look attentively, To whom You have acted thus, Do women eat their fruit, infants of a handbreadth? Slain in the sanctuary of the Lord are priest and prophet?

“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 Lain on the earth [in] out-places have young and old, My virgins and my young men have fallen by the sword, You have slain in a day of Your anger, You have slaughtered—You have not pitied.

“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 call as [at] a day of appointment, My fears from all around, And there has not been in the day of the anger of YHWH, An escaped and remaining one, They whom I stretched out and nourished, My enemy has consumed!

“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.