Lamentations 2

English Standard Version

The Lord Has Destroyed Without Pity

2 How the Lord in his anger
    has set the daughter of Zion ^(A)under a cloud!
^(B)He has cast down from heaven to earth
    the splendor of Israel;
he has not remembered ^(C)his footstool
    in the day of his anger.

²The Lord ^(D)has swallowed up ^(E)without mercy
    all the habitations of Jacob;
in his wrath ^(F)he has broken down
    the strongholds of the daughter of Judah;
he has brought ^(G)down to the ground ^(H)in dishonor
    the kingdom ^(I)and its rulers.

³He has cut down in ^(J)fierce anger
    all ^(K)the might of Israel;
^(L)he has withdrawn from them his right hand
    in the face of the enemy;
^(M)he has burned like a flaming fire in Jacob,
    consuming all around.

⁴^(N)He has bent his bow like an enemy,
with his right hand set ^(O)like a foe;
and he has killed all who were delightful in our eyes
in the tent of the daughter of Zion;
he has poured out his fury like fire.

⁵^(P)The Lord has become like an enemy;
    ^(Q)he has swallowed up Israel;
^(R)he has swallowed up all its palaces;
    he has laid in ruins its strongholds,
and he has multiplied in the daughter of Judah
    ^(S)mourning and lamentation.

⁶He has laid waste his booth like a garden,
laid in ruins ^(T)his meeting place;
^(U)the Lord has made Zion forget
festival and ^(V)Sabbath,
and in his fierce indignation has spurned king and priest.

⁷^(W)The Lord has scorned his altar,
    ^(X)disowned his sanctuary;
^(Y)he has delivered into the hand of the enemy
    the walls of her palaces;
^(Z)they raised a clamor in the house of the Lord
    as on the day of festival.

⁸^(AA)The Lord determined to lay in ruins
    ^(AB)the wall of the daughter of Zion;
^(AC)he stretched out the measuring line;
    he did not restrain his hand from destroying;
^(AD)he caused rampart and wall to lament;
    ^(AE)they languished together.

⁹Her gates have sunk into the ground;
    ^(AF)he has ruined ^(AG)and broken her bars;
^(AH)her king and princes are among the nations;
    the law is no more,
and ^(AI)her prophets find
    no vision from the Lord.

¹⁰The elders of the daughter of Zion
    ^(AJ)sit on the ground ^(AK)in silence;
^(AL)they have thrown dust on their heads
    and ^(AM)put on sackcloth;
the young women of Jerusalem
    have bowed their heads to the ground.

¹¹^(AN)My eyes are spent with weeping;
    ^(AO)my stomach churns;
^(AP)my bile is poured out to the ground
    ^(AQ)because of the destruction of the daughter of my people,
^(AR)because infants and babies ^(AS)faint
    in the streets of the city.

¹²They cry to their mothers,
    ^(AT)“Where is bread and wine?”
^(AU)as they faint like a wounded man
    in the streets of the city,
as their life is poured out
    on their mothers' bosom.

¹³What can I say for you, ^(AV)to what compare you,
    O daughter of Jerusalem?
^(AW)What can I liken to you, that I may comfort you,
    O virgin daughter of Zion?
^(AX)For your ruin is vast as the sea;
    who can heal you?

¹⁴^(AY)Your prophets have seen for you
    false and deceptive visions;
^(AZ)they have not exposed your iniquity
    to ^(BA)restore your fortunes,
^(BB)but have seen for you ^(BC)oracles
    that are false and misleading.

¹⁵All who pass along the way
    clap their hands at you;
^(BD)they hiss and wag their heads
    at the daughter of Jerusalem:
“Is this the city that was called
    ^(BE)the perfection of beauty,
    ^(BF)the joy of all the earth?”

¹⁶^(BG)All your enemies
    rail against you;
they hiss, they gnash their teeth,
    they cry: “We ^(BH)have swallowed her!
Ah, this is the day we longed for;
    now we have it; ^(BI)we see it!”

¹⁷The Lord has done what he purposed;
    he has carried out ^(BJ)his word,
which he commanded ^(BK)long ago;
    ^(BL)he has thrown down ^(BM)without pity;
^(BN)he has made the enemy rejoice over you
    and exalted the ^(BO)might of your foes.

¹⁸Their heart cried to the Lord.
    O ^(BP)wall of the daughter of Zion,
^(BQ)let tears stream down like a torrent
    ^(BR)day and night!
^(BS)Give yourself no rest,
    ^(BT)your eyes no respite!

¹⁹“Arise, ^(BU)cry out in the night,
    at the beginning of the night watches!
^(BV)Pour out your heart like water
    before the presence of the Lord!
^(BW)Lift your hands to him
    for the lives of your children,
^(BX)who faint for hunger
    at the head of every street.”

²⁰Look, O Lord, and see!
    ^(BY)With whom have you dealt thus?
^(BZ)Should women eat the fruit of their womb,
    the children of ^(CA)their tender care?
Should ^(CB)priest and prophet be killed
    in the sanctuary of the Lord?

²¹In the dust of the streets
    ^(CC)lie the young and the old;
^(CD)my young women and my young men
    have fallen by the sword;
^(CE)you have killed them in the day of your anger,
    slaughtering ^(CF)without pity.

²²You summoned as if to ^(CG)a festival day
    ^(CH)my terrors on every side,
^(CI)and on the day of the anger of the Lord
    no one escaped or survived;
^(CJ)those whom I held and raised
    my enemy destroyed.