Lamentations 2:13–19

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.”