Lamentations 2

The Lord Has Destroyed Without Pity

1  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.
 2  The 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.
 3  He 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l he has withdrawn from them his right hand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.
 6  He 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.
 9  Her 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.
 10  The 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.
 12  They 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.
 13  What 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.
 15  All 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!”
 17  The  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.
 18  Their 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.”
 20  Look, 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?
 21  In 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.
 22  You 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.
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