Lamentations 2
1How has the Lord darkened in his wrath 1 The daughter of Zion! 1 He has cast down the glory of Israel 1 From heaven to earth, 1 And has not remembered his footstool. 1
2In the day of his wrath 1 The Lord has overwhelmed her as in the sea, 1 And not spared: 1 He has brought down in his fury 1 All the beautiful things of Jacob; 1 He has brought down to the ground 1 The strongholds of the daughter of Judah: 1 He has profaned her king and her princes. 1
3He has broken in his fierce anger 1 All the horn of Israel: 1 He has turned back his right hand 1 From the face of the enemy, 1 And has kindled a flame in Jacob as fire, 1 And it has devoured all things round about. 1
4He has bent his bow as an opposing enemy: 1 He has strengthened his right hand as an adversary, 1 And has destroyed all the desirable things of my eyes 1 In the tabernacle of the daughter of Zion: 1 He has poured forth his anger as fire. 1
5The Lord is become as an enemy: 1 He has overwhelmed Israel as in the sea, 1 He has overwhelmed her palaces: 1 He has destroyed his strongholds, 1 And has multiplied the afflicted and humbled ones 1 To the daughter of Judah. 1
6And he has scattered his tabernacle as a vine, 1 He has marred his feast: 1 The Lord has forgotten the feast 1 And the Sabbath which he appointed in Zion, 1 And in the fury of his wrath 1 Has vexed the king, and priest, and prince. 1
7The Lord has rejected his altar, 1 He has cast off his sanctuary, 1 He has broken by the hand of the enemy 1 The wall of her palaces; 1 They have uttered their voice in the house of the Lord 1 As on a feast day. 1
8And he has turned to destroy 1 The wall of the daughter of Zion: 1 He has stretched out the measuring line, 1 He has not turned back his hand from afflicting her: 1 Therefore the bulwark mourned, 1 And the wall was weakened with it. 1
9Her gates are sunk into the ground: 1 He has destroyed and broken to pieces her bars, 1 And her king and her prince among the Gentiles: 1 There is no law, 1 Nay, her prophets have seen no vision from the Lord. 1
10The elders of the daughter of Zion 1 Have sat upon the ground, 1 They have kept silence: 1 They have cast up dust upon their heads; 1 They have girded themselves with sackcloth: 1 They have brought down to the ground 1 The chief virgins in Jerusalem. 1
11Mine eyes have failed with tears, 1 My heart is troubled, 1 My glory is cast down to the ground, 1 For the destruction of the daughter of my people; 1 While the infant and suckling swoon 1 In the streets of the city. 1
12They said to their mothers, 1 Where is corn and wine? 1 While they fainted like wounded men 1 In the streets of the city, 1 While their souls were poured out 1 Into their mother’s bosom. 1
13What shall I testify to thee, 1 Or what shall I compare to thee, 1 O daughter of Jerusalem? 1 Who shall save and comfort thee, 1 O virgin daughter of Zion? 1 For the cup of thy destruction is enlarged: 1 Who shall heal thee? 1
14Thy prophets have seen for thee 1 Vanities and folly: 1 And they have not discovered thine iniquity, 1 To turn back thy captivity; 1 But they have seen for thee vain burdens, 1 And worthless visions. 1
15All that go by the way 1 Have clapped their hands at thee; 1 They have hissed and shaken their head 1 At the daughter of Jerusalem. 1 Is this the city, they say, 1 The crown of joy of all the earth? 1
16All thine enemies have opened their mouth against thee: 1 They have hissed and gnashed their teeth, 1 And said, We have swallowed her up: 1 Moreover this is the day which we looked for; 1 We have found it, we have seen it. 1
17The Lord has done that which he purposed; 1 He has accomplished his word, 1 Even the things which he commanded from the ancient days: 1 He has thrown down, and has not spared: 1 And he has caused the enemy to rejoice over thee, 1 He has exalted the horn of him that afflicted thee. 1
18Their heart cried to the Lord, 1 Ye walls of Zion, 1 Pour down tears like torrents day and night: 1 Give thyself no rest; 1 Let not the apple of thine eyes cease. 1
19Arise, rejoice in the night 1 At the beginning of thy watch: 1 Pour out thy heart as water 1 Before the face of the Lord: 1 Lift up thy hands to him 1 For the life of thine infants, 1 Who faint for hunger 1 At the top of all the streets. 1
20Behold, O Lord, 1 And see for whom thou hast gathered thus. 1 Shall the women eat the fruit of their womb? 1 The cook has made a gathering: 1 Shall the infants sucking at the breasts be slain? 1 Wilt thou slay the priest and prophet 1 In the sanctuary of the Lord? 1
21The child and old man 1 Have lain down in the street: 1 My virgins and my young men 1 Are gone into captivity: 1 Thou hast slain them 1 With the sword and with famine; 1 In the day of thy wrath thou hast mangled them, 1 Thou hast not spared. 1
22He has called my sojourners round about 1 To a solemn day, 1 And there was not in the day of the wrath of the Lord 1 Anyone that escaped or was left; 1 Whereas I have strengthened and multiplied all mine enemies.