Lamentations 2:1-19

Legacy Standard Bible

2 How the Lord has ^(A)covered the daughter of Zion
With a cloud in His anger!
He has ^(B)cast from heaven to earth
The ^(C)beauty of Israel,
And has not remembered the ^(D)footstool of His feet
In the day of His anger.

² The Lord has ^(E)swallowed up; He has not spared
All the habitations of Jacob.
In His wrath He has ^(F)pulled down
The strongholds of the daughter of Judah;
He has ^(G)brought them down to the ground;
He has ^(H)profaned the kingdom and its princes.

³ In ^[a]hot anger He has cut in pieces
^[b]All the ^(I)strength of Israel;
He has ^(J)turned back His right hand
From before the enemy.
And He has ^(K)burned in Jacob like a flaming fire
Devouring round about.

⁴ He has bent His ^(L)bow like an enemy;
He has set His right hand like an adversary
And killed all that were ^(M)desirable to the eye;
In the tent of the daughter of Zion
He has ^(N)poured out His wrath like fire.

⁵ The Lord has become like an ^(O)enemy.
He has ^(P)swallowed up Israel;
He has swallowed up all its ^(Q)palaces;
He has brought its strongholds to ruin
And ^(R)multiplied in the daughter of Judah
Mourning and moaning.

⁶ And He has violently treated His ^[c]tabernacle like a garden booth;
He has ^(S)brought His appointed ^[d]meeting place to ruin.
Yahweh has ^(T)caused to be forgotten
The appointed time and sabbath in Zion,
And He has ^(U)spurned king and priest
In the indignation of His anger.

⁷ The Lord has ^(V)rejected His altar;
He has abandoned His sanctuary;
He ^(W)has delivered into the hand of the enemy
The walls of her palaces.
They have made a ^(X)noise in the house of Yahweh
As in the day of an appointed time.

⁸ Yahweh ^[e]determined to bring to ruin
The wall of the daughter of Zion.
He has ^(Y)stretched out a line;
He has not turned His hand back from swallowing up,
And He has ^(Z)caused rampart and wall to mourn;
They have languished together.

⁹ Her ^(AA)gates have sunk into the ground;
He has destroyed and broken her bars.
Her king and her princes are among the nations;
The ^(AB)law is no more.
Also, her prophets find
^(AC)No vision from Yahweh.

¹⁰ The elders of the daughter of Zion
^(AD)Sit on the ground; they ^(AE)are silent.
They have thrown ^(AF)dust up on their heads;
They have girded themselves with ^(AG)sackcloth.
The ^(AH)virgins of Jerusalem
Have bowed their heads down to the ground.

¹¹ My ^(AI)eyes fail because of tears;
My ^[f](AJ)inmost being is greatly disturbed;
My ^[g](AK)heart is poured out on the earth
^(AL)Because of the ^[h]destruction of the daughter of my people,
When ^(AM)infants and nursing babies faint
In the open squares of the city.

¹² They say to their mothers,
“^(AN)Where is grain and wine?”
As they faint like a wounded man
In the open squares of the city,
As their ^(AO)life is poured out
On their mothers’ bosom.

¹³ What shall I testify about you?
To what ^(AP)shall I equate you,
O daughter of Jerusalem?
To what shall I liken you as I comfort you,
O ^(AQ)virgin daughter of Zion?
For your ^[i]destruction is as vast as the sea;
Who can ^(AR)heal you?

¹⁴ Your ^(AS)prophets have beheld for you
Worthless and ineffective visions;
And they have not ^(AT)uncovered your iniquity
So as to ^[j]return you from captivity,
But they have ^(AU)beheld for you worthless and misleading ^[k]oracles.

¹⁵ All who pass along the way
^(AV)Clap their hands in derision at you;
They ^(AW)hiss and shake their heads
At the daughter of Jerusalem,
“Is this the city of which they said,
‘^(AX)The perfection of beauty,
^(AY)The joy of the whole earth’?”

¹⁶ All ^(AZ)your enemies
Have opened their mouths wide against you;
They hiss and ^(BA)gnash their teeth.
They say, “We have ^(BB)swallowed her up!
Surely this is the ^(BC)day for which we have hoped;
We have found it, we have seen it.”

¹⁷ Yahweh has ^(BD)done what He purposed;
He has completed His word
Which He commanded from days of old.
He has pulled down ^(BE)without sparing,
And He has caused the enemy to ^(BF)be glad over you;
He has ^(BG)exalted the ^[l]might of your adversaries.

¹⁸ Their ^(BH)heart cried out to the Lord,
“O ^(BI)wall of the daughter of Zion,
Let your ^(BJ)tears run down like a river day and night;
Give yourself no relief;
Let ^[m]your eyes not be still.

¹⁹ Arise, cry aloud in the ^(BK)night
At the head of the night watches;
^(BL)Pour out your heart like water
Before the presence of the Lord;
Lift up your hands to Him
For the ^(BM)life of your infants
Who are ^(BN)faint because of hunger
At the head of every street.”