Lamentations 2:13–19

¹³What shall I testify unto thee? what shall I liken to thee, O daughter of Jerusalem?

What shall I compare to thee, that I may comfort thee, O virgin daughter of Zion?

For thy breach is great like the sea: who can heal thee?

¹⁴Thy prophets have seen for thee false and foolish visions;

And they have not uncovered thine iniquity, to bring back thy captivity,

But have seen for thee false oracles and causes of banishment.

¹⁵All that pass by clap their hands at thee;

They hiss and wag their head at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying,

Is this the city that men called

The perfection of beauty, The joy of the whole earth?

¹⁶All thine enemies have opened their mouth wide against thee;

They hiss and gnash the teeth; they say, We have swallowed her up;

Certainly this is the day that we looked for; we have found, we have seen it.

¹⁷Jehovah hath done that which he purposed; he hath fulfilled his word that he commanded in the days of old;

He hath thrown down, and hath not pitied:

And he hath caused the enemy to rejoice over thee; he hath exalted the horn of thine adversaries.

¹⁸Their heart cried unto the Lord:

O wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears run down like a river day and night;

Give thyself no respite; let not the apple of thine eye cease.

¹⁹Arise, cry out in the night, at the beginning of the watches;

Pour out thy heart like water before the face of the Lord:

Lift up thy hands toward him for the life of thy young children, that faint for hunger at the head of every street.