Lamentations 2
1The Lord has covered the daughter of Zion under the cloud of his anger. 1 He has thrown the splendor of Israel down from heaven to earth. 1 He has not remembered his footstool on the day of his anger. 1
2The Lord has swallowed up and has had no compassion on all the towns of Jacob. 1 In the days of his anger he has thrown down the fortified cities of the daughter of Judah; 1 in dishonor he has brought down to the ground the kingdom and its rulers. 1
3With fierce anger he has cut off every horn of Israel. 1 He has withdrawn his right hand from before the enemy. 1 He has burned up Jacob like a blazing fire that devours everything around it. 1
4Like an enemy he has bent his bow toward us, 1 with his right is ready to shoot. 1 He has slaughtered all who had been so pleasing to him in the tent of the daughter of Zion; 1 he has poured out his wrath like fire. 1
5The Lord has become like an enemy. He has swallowed up Israel. 1 He has swallowed up all her palaces. He has destroyed her strongholds. 1 He has increased mourning and lamentation within the daughter of Judah. 1
6He has attacked his tabernacle like a garden hut. He has destroyed the place of the solemn assembly. 1 Yahweh has caused both solemn assembly and Sabbath to be forgotten in Zion, 1 for he has despised both king and priest in the indignation of his anger. 1
7The Lord has rejected his altar and disowned his sanctuary. 1 He has given over the walls of her palaces into the hand of the enemy. 1 They have raised a shout in the house of Yahweh, as on the day of an appointed feast. 1
8Yahweh decided to destroy the city wall of the daughter of Zion. 1 He has stretched out the measuring line and has not withheld his hand from destroying the wall. 1 He has made the ramparts and wall to lament; together they wasted away. 1
9Her gates have sunk into the ground; he has destroyed and broken the bars of her gate. 1 Her king and her princes are among the nations, the law is no more 1 and her prophets find no vision from Yahweh. 1
10The elders of the daughter of Zion sit on the ground in silence. 1 They have thrown dust on their heads and put on sackcloth. 1 The virgins of Jerusalem have bowed their heads to the ground. 1
11My eyes have failed from their tears; my stomach churns; 1 my inner parts are poured out to the ground because of the destruction of the daughter of my people, 1 children and infants faint in the streets of the city. 1
12They say to their mothers, “Where is grain and wine?” 1 as they faint like a wounded man in the streets of the city, 1 their lives are poured out on the bosom of their mothers. 1
13What can I say to you, daughter of Jerusalem? 1 To what can I compare to you, that I may comfort you, virgin daughter of Zion? 1 Your wound is as great as the sea. Who can heal you? 1
14Your prophets have seen false and worthless visions for you. 1 They have not exposed your iniquity to restore your fortunes, 1 but for you they gave utterances that are false and misleading. 1
15All those who pass along the road clap their hands at you. 1 They hiss and shake their heads against the daughter of Jerusalem and say, 1 “Is this the city that they called 'The Perfection of Beauty,' 'The Joy for All of Earth'?” 1
16All your enemies open their mouths against you. 1 They sneer and grind their teeth in rage and say, “We have swallowed her up! 1 This is the day we have waited for! We have lived to see it!” 1
17Yahweh has done what he planned to do. He has fulfilled his word. 1 He has overthrown you without pity, 1 for he has permitted the enemy to rejoice over you; he has lifted up the horn of your enemies. 1
18Their heart cried out to the Lord, 1 walls of the daughter of Zion! Make your tears flow down like a river day and night. 1 Give yourself no relief, your eyes no relief. 1
19Arise, cry out in the night, at the beginning of the night watches! 1 Pour out your heart like water before the face of the Lord. 1 Lift up your hands to him for the lives of your children who faint with hunger at the corner of every street.” 1
20See, Yahweh, and consider those you have dealt in this way. 1 Should women eat the fruit of their wombs, the children whom they have cared for? 1 Should priest and prophet be slaughtered in the sanctuary of the Lord? 1
21Both the young and the old lie on the dust of the streets. 1 My young women and my young men have fallen by the sword; 1 you have slaughtered them without taking pity on them. 1
22You have summoned, as you would call the people to a feast day, my terrors on every side, on the day of the anger of Yahweh no one escaped or survived; 1 those I cared for and raised, 1 my enemy has destroyed.