Lamentations 2:1-19

Modern English Version

² The Lord has swallowed up without mercy
    all the habitations of Jacob;
In His wrath He has thrown down
    the strongholds of the daughter of Judah;
He has brought them down to the ground;
    He has profaned the kingdom and its princes.

³ He has cut off in fierce anger
    all the might of Israel;
He has drawn back His right hand
    from before the enemy.
He has burned against Jacob
    like a flaming fire, devouring all around.

⁴ He has bent His bow like an enemy,
    with his right hand set like an adversary;
    He has killed all who were pleasant to His eye;
in the tabernacle of the daughter of Zion,
    He has poured out His fury like fire.

⁵ The Lord has become like an enemy;
    He has swallowed up Israel,
He has swallowed up all her palaces;
    He has destroyed her strongholds,
and has increased mourning and lamentation
    in the daughter of Judah.

⁶ He has violently taken away His tabernacle as if it were a garden;
    He has destroyed His place of assembly;
the Lord has caused the solemn feasts and Sabbaths
    to be forgotten in Zion.
In his fierce indignation He has despised the king and the priest.

⁷ The Lord has scorned His altar,
    He has disowned His sanctuary;
He has given up the walls of her palaces
    into the hand of the enemy.
They have made a noise in the house of the Lord
    as on the day of a solemn feast.

⁸ The Lord has purposed to destroy
    the wall of the daughter of Zion.
He has stretched out a line;
    He has not withdrawn His hand from destroying;
therefore He caused the rampart and the wall to lament;
    they languished together.

⁹ Her gates have sunk into the ground;
    He has destroyed and broken her bars.
Her king and her princes are among the nations;
    the Law is no more,
and her prophets find
    no vision from the Lord.

¹⁰ The elders of the daughter of Zion
    sit on the ground in silence;
they throw dust on their heads
    and gird themselves with sackcloth.
The virgins of Jerusalem
    bow their heads to the ground.

¹¹ My eyes fail with tears,
    my spirit is greatly troubled;
my bile is poured on the ground
    because of the destruction of the daughter of my people,
because the children and infants faint
    in the streets of the city.

¹² They say to their mothers,
    “Where is grain and wine?”
when they faint like a wounded man
    in the streets of the city,
as their life is poured out
    on their mothers’ bosom.

¹³ What can I say for you,
    to what shall I liken you,
    O daughter of Jerusalem?
What shall I compare with you,
    that I may comfort you,
    O virgin daughter of Zion?
For your devastation is great like the sea;
    who can heal you?

¹⁴ Your prophets have seen for you
    false and deceptive visions;
they have not revealed your iniquity,
    to bring back your captives,
but have seen for you oracles
    that are false and misleading.

¹⁵ All who pass by
    clap their hands at you;
they hiss and shake their heads
    at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying,
“Is this the city that men call
    the perfection of beauty,
    the joy of the whole earth?”

¹⁶ All your enemies
    have opened their mouth against you;
they hiss and gnash their teeth.
    They say, “We have swallowed her up!
Certainly this is the day that we longed for;
    we have found it; we have seen it.”

¹⁷ The Lord has done what He planned;
    He has fulfilled His word
    that He had commanded in the days of old.
He has thrown down and has not pitied,
    and He has caused the enemy to rejoice over you;
    He has exalted the power of your adversaries.

¹⁸ Their heart cried to the Lord:
O wall of the daughter of Zion,
    let your tears run down
    like a river day and night;
give yourself no rest,
    your eyes no respite!

¹⁹ Arise, 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 to Him
    for the lives of your young children,
who faint for hunger
    at the head of every street.