CHAPTER 2
How
the Lord
has covered
the Daughter
of Zion
with His cloud of anger!
He has cast
the glory
of Israel
from heaven
to earth.
He has abandoned
His footstool
in the day
of His anger.
Without
pity
the Lord
has swallowed up
all
the dwellings
of Jacob.
In His wrath
He has demolished
the fortified cities
of the Daughter
of Judah.
He brought
to the ground
and defiled
her kingdom
and its princes.
He has cut off
every
horn
of Israel
in His fierce
anger
and withdrawn
His right hand
at the approach
of the enemy.
He has burned
in Jacob
like a flaming
fire
that consumes
all around it.
He has bent
His bow
like an enemy;
His right hand
is positioned.
Like a foe
He has killed
all
who were pleasing
to the eye;
He has poured out
His wrath
like fire
on the tent
of the Daughter
of Zion.
The Lord
is
like an enemy;
He has swallowed up
Israel.
He swallowed up
all
her palaces
and destroyed
her strongholds.
He has multiplied
mourning
and lamentation
in the Daughter
of Judah.
He has laid waste
to His tabernacle
like a garden booth;
He has destroyed
His place of meeting.
The LORD
has made Zion forget
her appointed feasts
and Sabbaths.
In His fierce anger
He has despised
both king
and priest.
The Lord
has rejected
His altar;
He has abandoned
His sanctuary;
He has handed the walls
of her palaces
over to
the enemy.
They have raised
a shout
in the house
of the LORD
as on the day
of an appointed feast.
The LORD
determined
to destroy
the wall
of the Daughter
of Zion.
He stretched out
a measuring line
and did not
withdraw
His hand
from destroying.
He made the ramparts
and walls
lament;
together
they waste away.
Her gates
have sunk
into the ground;
He has destroyed
and shattered
their bars.
Her king
and her princes
are exiled among the nations,
the law
is no more,
and even
her prophets
find
no
vision
from the LORD.
The elders
of the Daughter
of Zion
sit
on the ground
in silence.
They have thrown
dust
on
their heads
and put on
sackcloth.
The young women
of Jerusalem
have bowed
their heads
to the ground.
My eyes
fail
from weeping;
I am churning
within.
My heart
is poured out
in grief
over
the destruction
of the daughter
of my people,
because children
and infants
faint
in the streets
of the city.
They cry out
to their mothers:
“Where
is the grain
and wine?”
as they faint
like the wounded
in the streets
of the city,
as their lives
fade away
in
the arms
of their mothers.
What
can I say for you?
To
what
can I compare you,
O daughter
of Jerusalem?
To
what
can I liken you,
that I may console you,
O virgin
Daughter
of Zion?
For
your wound
is as deep
as the sea.
Who
can ever heal you?
The visions
of your prophets
were empty
and deceptive;
they did not
expose
your guilt
to ward off
your captivity.
The oracles
they saw
for you
were empty
and misleading.
All
who pass by
clap
their hands
at you in scorn.
They hiss
and shake
their heads
at
the Daughter
of Jerusalem:
“Is this
the city
that was called
the perfection
of beauty,
the joy
of the whole
earth?”
All
your enemies
open
their mouths
against you.
They hiss
and gnash
their teeth,
saying,
“We have swallowed her up.
This
is the day
for which we have waited.
We have lived
to see it!”
The LORD
has done
what
He planned;
He has accomplished
His decree,
which
He ordained
in days
of old.
He has overthrown you
without
pity;
He has let the enemy
gloat
over you
and exalted
the horn
of your foes.
The hearts of the people
cry out
to
the Lord.
O wall
of the Daughter
of Zion,
let your tears
run down
like a river
day
and night.
Give
yourself no
relief,
and your eyes
no
rest.
Arise,
cry out
in the night
from the first
watch of the night.
Pour out
your heart
like water
in
the presence
of the Lord.
Lift up
your hands
to Him
for
the lives
of your children
who are fainting
from hunger
on the corner
of every
street.
Look,
O LORD,
and consider:
Whom
have You ever treated
like this?
Should women
eat
their offspring,
the infants
they have nurtured?
Should priests
and prophets
be killed
in the sanctuary
of the Lord?
Both young
and old
lie together
in the dust
of the streets.
My young men
and maidens
have fallen
by the sword.
You have slain them
in the day
of Your anger;
You have slaughtered them
without
compassion.
You summoned
my attackers
on every side,
as for an appointed feast
day.
In the Day
of the LORD’s
anger
no
one escaped
or survived.
My enemy
has destroyed
those
I nurtured
and reared.