Lamentations 2

CHAPTER 2

The Anger of Yahweh

Aleph

¹How the Lord has ^acovered the daughter of Zion

With a cloud in His anger!

He has ^bcast from heaven to earth

The ^cbeauty of Israel,

And has not remembered the ^dfootstool of His feet

In the day of His anger.

Beth

²The Lord has ^aswallowed up; He has not spared

All the habitations of Jacob.

In His wrath He has ^bpulled down

The strongholds of the daughter of Judah;

He has ^cbrought them down to the ground;

He has ^dprofaned the kingdom and its princes.

Gimel

³In ¹hot anger He has cut in pieces

²All the ^astrength of Israel;

He has ^bturned back His right hand

From before the enemy.

And He has ^cburned in Jacob like a flaming fire

Devouring round about.

Daleth

⁴He has bent His ^abow like an enemy;

He has set His right hand like an adversary

And killed all that were ^bdesirable to the eye;

In the tent of the daughter of Zion

He has ^cpoured out His wrath like fire.

He

⁵The Lord has become like an ^aenemy.

He has ^bswallowed up Israel;

He has swallowed up all its ^cpalaces;

He has brought its strongholds to ruin

And ^dmultiplied in the daughter of Judah

Mourning and moaning.

Vav

⁶And He has violently treated His ¹tabernacle like a garden booth;

He has ^abrought His appointed ²meeting place to ruin.

Yahweh has ^bcaused to be forgotten

The appointed time and sabbath in Zion,

And He has ^cspurned king and priest

In the indignation of His anger.

Zayin

⁷The Lord has ^arejected His altar;

He has abandoned His sanctuary;

He ^bhas delivered into the hand of the enemy

The walls of her palaces.

They have made a ^cnoise in the house of Yahweh

As in the day of an appointed time.

Heth

⁸Yahweh ¹determined to bring to ruin

The wall of the daughter of Zion.

He has ^astretched out a line;

He has not turned His hand back from swallowing up,

And He has ^bcaused rampart and wall to mourn;

They have languished together.

Teth

⁹Her ^agates have sunk into the ground;

He has destroyed and broken her bars.

Her king and her princes are among the nations;

The ^blaw is no more.

Also, her prophets find

^cNo vision from Yahweh.

Yodh

¹⁰The elders of the daughter of Zion

^aSit on the ground; they ^bare silent.

They have thrown ^cdust up on their heads;

They have girded themselves with ^dsackcloth.

The ^evirgins of Jerusalem

Have bowed their heads down to the ground.

Kaph

¹¹My ^aeyes fail because of tears;

My ^1binmost being is greatly disturbed;

My ^2cheart is poured out on the earth

^dBecause of the ³destruction of the daughter of my people,

When ^einfants and nursing babies faint

In the open squares of the city.

Lamedh

¹²They say to their mothers,

“^aWhere is grain and wine?”

As they faint like a wounded man

In the open squares of the city,

As their ^blife is poured out

On their mothers’ bosom.

Mem

¹³What shall I testify about you?

To what ^ashall I equate you,

O daughter of Jerusalem?

To what shall I liken you as I comfort you,

O ^bvirgin daughter of Zion?

For your ¹destruction is as vast as the sea;

Who can ^cheal you?

Nun

¹⁴Your ^aprophets have beheld for you

Worthless and ineffective visions;

And they have not ^buncovered your iniquity

So as to ¹return you from captivity,

But they have ^cbeheld for you worthless and misleading ²oracles.

Samekh

¹⁵All who pass along the way

^aClap their hands in derision at you;

They ^bhiss and shake their heads

At the daughter of Jerusalem,

“Is this the city of which they said,

‘^cThe perfection of beauty,

^dThe joy of the whole earth’?”

Pe

¹⁶All ^ayour enemies

Have opened their mouths wide against you;

They hiss and ^bgnash their teeth.

They say, “We have ^cswallowed her up!

Surely this is the ^dday for which we have hoped;

We have found it, we have seen it.”

Ayin

¹⁷Yahweh has ^adone what He purposed;

He has completed His word

Which He commanded from days of old.

He has pulled down ^bwithout sparing,

And He has caused the enemy to ^cbe glad over you;

He has ^dexalted the ¹might of your adversaries.

Tsadhe

¹⁸Their ^aheart cried out to the Lord,

“O ^bwall of the daughter of Zion,

Let your ^ctears run down like a river day and night;

Give yourself no relief;

Let ¹your eyes not be still.

Qoph

¹⁹“Arise, cry aloud in the ^anight

At the head of the night watches;

^bPour out your heart like water

Before the presence of the Lord;

Lift up your hands to Him

For the ^clife of your infants

Who are ^dfaint because of hunger

At the head of every street.”

Resh

²⁰See, O Yahweh, and look!

With ^awhom have You dealt thus?

Should women ^beat their ¹offspring,

The infants who were ²born healthy?

Should ^cpriest and prophet be killed

In the sanctuary of the Lord?

Shin

²¹On the ground in the streets

Lie ^ayoung and old;

My ^bvirgins and my young men

Have fallen by the sword.

You have killed them in the day of Your anger;

You have slaughtered, ^cnot sparing.

Tav

²²You called as in the day of an appointed time

My ^aterrors on every side;

And there was ^bno one who escaped or survived

In the day of Yahweh’s anger.

Those ^cwhom I ¹gave birth to and reared,

My enemy consumed them.