Lamentations 2:1-19

New King James Version

² The Lord has swallowed up and has ^(E)not pitied
All the dwelling places of Jacob.
He has thrown down in His wrath
The strongholds of the daughter of Judah;
He has brought them down to the ground;
^(F)He has profaned the kingdom and its princes.

³ He has cut off in fierce anger
Every ^[a]horn of Israel;
^(G)He has drawn back His right hand
From before the enemy.
^(H)He has blazed against Jacob like a flaming fire
Devouring all around.

^4 (I)Standing like an enemy, He has bent His bow;
With His right hand, like an adversary,
He has slain ^(J)all who were pleasing to His eye;
On the tent of the daughter of Zion,
He has poured out His fury like fire.

^5 (K)The Lord was like an enemy.
He has swallowed up Israel,
He has swallowed up all her palaces;
^(L)He has destroyed her strongholds,
And has increased mourning and lamentation
In the daughter of Judah.

⁶ He has done violence ^(M)to His ^[b]tabernacle,
^(N)As if it were a garden;
He has destroyed His place of assembly;
The Lord has caused
The appointed feasts and Sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion.
In His burning indignation He has ^(O)spurned the king and the priest.

⁷ The Lord has spurned His altar,
He has ^(P)abandoned His sanctuary;
He has ^[c]given up the walls of her palaces
Into the hand of the enemy.
^(Q)They have made a noise in the house of the Lord
As on the day of a set feast.

⁸ The Lord has ^[d]purposed to destroy
The ^(R)wall of the daughter of Zion.
^(S)He has stretched out a line;
He has not withdrawn His hand from destroying;
Therefore He has caused the rampart and wall to lament;
They languished together.

⁹ Her gates have sunk into the ground;
He has destroyed and ^(T)broken her bars.
^(U)Her king and her princes are among the ^[e]nations;
^(V)The Law is no more,
And her ^(W)prophets find no ^[f]vision from the Lord.

¹⁰ The elders of the daughter of Zion
^(X)Sit on the ground and keep silence;
^[g]They ^(Y)throw dust on their heads
And ^(Z)gird themselves with sackcloth.
The virgins of Jerusalem
Bow their heads to the ground.

^11 (AA)My eyes fail with tears,
My ^[h]heart is troubled;
^(AB)My ^[i]bile is poured on the ground
Because of the destruction of the daughter of my people,
Because ^(AC)the children and the infants
Faint in the streets of the city.

¹² They say to their mothers,
“Where is grain and wine?”
As they swoon like the wounded
In the streets of the city,
As their life is poured out
In their mothers’ bosom.

¹³ How shall I ^(AD)console^[j] 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 ruin is spread wide as the sea;
Who can heal you?

¹⁴ Your ^(AE)prophets have seen for you
False and deceptive visions;
They have not ^(AF)uncovered your iniquity,
To bring back your captives,
But have envisioned for you false ^(AG)prophecies and delusions.

¹⁵ All who ^[k]pass by ^(AH)clap their hands at you;
They hiss ^(AI)and shake their heads
At the daughter of Jerusalem:
“Is this the city that is called
^(AJ)‘The perfection of beauty,
The joy of the whole earth’?”

^16 (AK)All your enemies have opened their mouth against you;
They hiss and gnash their teeth.
They say, ^(AL)“We have swallowed her up!
Surely this is the ^(AM)day we have waited for;
We have found it, ^(AN)we have seen it!”

¹⁷ The Lord has done what He ^(AO)purposed;
He has fulfilled His word
Which He commanded in days of old.
He has thrown down and has not pitied,
And He has caused an enemy to ^(AP)rejoice over you;
He has exalted the ^[l]horn of your adversaries.

¹⁸ Their heart cried out to the Lord,
“O wall of the daughter of Zion,
^(AQ)Let tears run down like a river day and night;
Give yourself no relief;
Give ^[m]your eyes no rest.

¹⁹ “Arise, ^(AR)cry out in the night,
At the beginning of the watches;
^(AS)Pour out your heart like water before the face of the Lord.
Lift your hands toward Him
For the life of your young children,
Who faint from hunger ^(AT)at the head of every street.”