Lamentations 2

The Lord Has Cast Down Daughter Zion

1How the Lord, in his anger,
has covered daughter Zion with a cloud!
He has cast the splendor of Israel
from heaven to earth
and has not remembered his footstool
on the day of his anger. 2The Lord swallowed up without compassion
all the dwellings of Jacob.
In his wrath he tore down
the strongholds of daughter Judah;
he brought kingdom and princes
down to the ground and profaned them. 3In fierce anger he cut off
every horn of Israel.
He drew back his right hand
before the enemy
and burned in Jacob like a flaming fire
that consumes all around. 4He bent his bow like an enemy;
his right hand stood like an adversary.
He killed all who were pleasing to the eye.
In the tent of daughter Zion
he poured out his fury like fire.

The Lord Has Become Like an Enemy

5The Lord has become like an enemy;
he swallowed up Israel.
He swallowed all her palaces
and destroyed her strongholds.
He multiplied mourning and lamentation
in daughter Judah. 6He violently stripped away his shelter
as though it were a garden;
he destroyed his appointed meeting place.
The LORD caused appointed festival and Sabbath
to be forgotten in Zion,
and in the indignation of his anger
he rejected king and priest. 7The Lord rejected his altar
and disowned his sanctuary.
He handed the walls of her palaces
over to the enemy.
They raised a shout in the house of the LORD
as on a day of appointed festival. 8The LORD determined
to destroy the wall of daughter Zion.
He stretched out the measuring line
and did not withdraw his hand from swallowing up.
He caused rampart and wall to mourn;
together they languish.

Zion Sits in Silence

9Her gates have sunk into the ground;
he destroyed and shattered her bars.
Her king and princes are among the nations;
there is no instruction.
Her prophets also find
no vision from the LORD. 10The elders of daughter Zion
sit on the ground in silence.
They throw dust upon their heads
and put on sackcloth.
The young women of Jerusalem
bow their heads to the ground. 11My eyes are spent with tears;
my inward parts churn.
My liver is poured out on the ground
because of the breaking of daughter my people,
as child and infant faint
in the streets of the city. 12They say to their mothers,
“Where are grain and wine?”
as they faint like the wounded
in the streets of the city,
as their lives pour out
upon their mothers’ bosoms.

Who Can Heal You?

13What can I testify to you?
To what can I compare you,
daughter Jerusalem?
What can I liken to you
so that I may comfort you,
virgin daughter Zion?
For your breaking is as great as the sea.
Who can heal you? 14Your prophets saw for you
empty and deceptive visions.
They did not expose your guilt
to turn back your captivity,
but saw for you oracles
of emptiness and misdirection. 15All who pass by
clap their hands at you.
They hiss and shake their heads
at daughter Jerusalem:

“Is this the city
that was called perfection of beauty,
the joy of all the earth?” 16All your enemies
open their mouths against you.
They hiss and gnash their teeth.
They say, “We have swallowed her!
Surely this is the day we waited for;
we have found it, we have seen it.”

Pour Out Your Heart Like Water

17The LORD has done what he planned;
he fulfilled his word
that he commanded from days of old.
He tore down and did not have compassion.
He made the enemy rejoice over you
and raised the horn of your adversaries. 18Their heart cried out to the Lord.

O wall of daughter Zion,
let tears run down like a torrent
day and night.
Give yourself no relief;
let the pupil of your eye have no rest. 19Rise! Cry out in the night,
at the beginning of the watches.
Pour out your heart like water
before the face of the Lord.
Lift your hands toward him
for the lives of your children,
who faint from hunger
at the head of every street.

See, O LORD, and Look

20See, O LORD, and look:
to whom have you done this?
Should women eat their own fruit,
the children they have cared for?
Should priest and prophet be killed
in the sanctuary of the Lord? 21Young and old
lie on the ground in the streets.
My young women and my young men
have fallen by the sword.
You killed them on the day of your anger;
you slaughtered without compassion. 22You summoned, as on a festival day,
my terrors from all around.
On the day of the LORD’s anger
there was no one who escaped or survived.
Those whom I cared for and raised,
my enemy consumed.