Lamentations 2

1 How YHWH covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger. He has cast down from heaven to the earth the splendor of Israel, and hasn't remembered his footstool in the day of his anger.

[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.

2 YHWH has swallowed up all the habitations of Jacob, and has not pitied. He has thrown down in his wrath the strongholds of the daughter of Judah. He has brought them down to the ground; he has humiliated the kingdom and its rulers.

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.

3 He has cut off in fierce anger all the strength of Israel. He has drawn back his right hand before the enemy. He has blazed in Jacob like a flaming fire, which devours all around.

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.

4 He has bent his bow like an enemy; his right hand he has positioned like an adversary. He killed all that were pleasant to the eye. In the tent of the daughter of Zion he has poured out his wrath like fire.

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.

5 YHWH has become as an enemy; he has swallowed up Israel; he has swallowed up all her palaces and has destroyed its strongholds. He has multiplied in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation.

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.

6 He has done violence to his temple, as if it were a vineyard; he has destroyed his place of assembly. YHWH has caused solemn assembly and Sabbath to be forgotten in Zion, and he has spurned in his fierce anger king and priest and prince.

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.

7 YHWH has rejected his altar, he has disowned his sanctuary, and has given up into the hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces. They have made a shout in the house of YHWH, as in the day of a solemn assembly.

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.

8 YHWH has determined 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 to lament; they languish together.

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.

9 Her gates are sunk into the ground; he has destroyed and broken her bars. Her king and her princes are among the nations where the law is no more, and her prophets find no vision from YHWH.

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.

10 The elders of the daughter of Zion sit on the ground in 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.

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.

11 My eyes are worn out from weeping, my stomach is churning. My heart is poured on the earth, because of the destruction of the daughter of my people, because the young children and the infants faint in the streets of the city.

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,

12 They tell their mothers, "Where is grain and wine?" When they faint as the wounded in the streets of the city, as their lives fade away in their mothers' bosom.

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.

13 What shall I testify of 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 ruin is great like the sea. Who can heal you?

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?

14 Your prophets have seen for you false and deceptive visions. They have not uncovered your iniquity, to bring back your captivity, but have seen for you false and misleading oracles.

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.

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'?"

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?”

16 All your enemies have opened wide their mouth against you. 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."

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.”

17 YHWH 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. He has caused the enemy to gloat over you and exalted the horn of your adversaries.

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.

18 Their heart cried to YHWH. O wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears run down like a river day and night. Give yourself no respite; do not let your tears cease.

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.

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

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.

20 Look, YHWH, and see to whom you have done like this. Shall the women eat their fruit, the children that are dandled in the hands? Shall the priest and the prophet be killed in the sanctuary of YHWH?

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?

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, without pity.

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.

22 You have called, as in the day of a solemn assembly, my terrors on every side. There was none that escaped or remained in the day of YHWH's anger. Those that I have borne and brought up has my enemy destroyed.

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!