Lamentations 2

Chapter 2

God’s Anger over Israel

¹How the Lord has ^acovered the daughter of Zion

With a cloud in His anger!

He has ^bcast from heaven to earth

The ^cglory of Israel,

And has not remembered His ^dfootstool

In the day of His anger.

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

All the habitations of Jacob.

In His wrath He has ^bthrown down

The strongholds of the daughter of Judah;

He has ^cbrought them down to the ground;

He has ^dprofaned the kingdom and its princes.

³In fierce anger He has cut off

¹All the ^astrength of Israel;

He has ^bdrawn back His right hand

From before the enemy.

And He has ^cburned in Jacob like a flaming fire

Consuming round about.

⁴He has bent His ^abow like an enemy;

He has set His right hand like an adversary

And slain all that were ^bpleasant to the eye;

In the tent of the daughter of Zion

He has ^cpoured out His wrath like fire.

⁵The Lord has become like an ^aenemy.

He has ^bswallowed up Israel;

He has swallowed up all its ^cpalaces,

He has destroyed its strongholds

And ^dmultiplied in the daughter of Judah

Mourning and moaning.

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

He has ^adestroyed His appointed ²meeting place.

The Lord has ^bcaused to be forgotten

The appointed feast and sabbath in Zion,

And He has ^cdespised king and priest

In the indignation of His anger.

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 the Lord

As in the day of an appointed feast.

⁸The Lord ¹determined to destroy

The wall of the daughter of Zion.

He has ^astretched out a line,

He has not restrained His hand from ²destroying,

And He has ^bcaused rampart and wall to lament;

They have languished together.

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 the Lord.

¹⁰The elders of the daughter of Zion

^aSit on the ground, they ^bare silent.

They have thrown ^cdust on their heads;

They have girded themselves with ^dsackcloth.

The ^evirgins of Jerusalem

Have bowed their heads to the ground.

¹¹My ^aeyes fail because of tears,

My ^1bspirit is greatly troubled;

My ^2cheart is poured out on the earth

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

When ^elittle ones and infants faint

In the streets of the city.

¹²They say to their mothers,

“^aWhere is grain and wine?”

As they faint like a wounded man

In the streets of the city,

As their ^blife is poured out

On their mothers’ bosom.

¹³How shall I admonish you?

To what ^ashall I compare you,

O daughter of Jerusalem?

To what shall I liken you as I comfort you,

O ^bvirgin daughter of Zion?

For your ¹ruin is as vast as the sea;

Who can ^cheal you?

¹⁴Your ^aprophets have seen for you

False and foolish visions;

And they have not ^bexposed your iniquity

So as to restore you from captivity,

But they have ^cseen for you false and misleading ¹oracles.

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,

^dA joy to all the earth’?”

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 waited;

We have reached it, we have seen it.”

¹⁷The Lord has ^adone what He purposed;

He has accomplished His word

Which He commanded from days of old.

He has thrown down ^bwithout sparing,

And He has caused the enemy to ^crejoice over you;

He has ^dexalted the ¹might of your adversaries.

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 have no rest.

¹⁹“Arise, cry aloud in the ^anight

At the beginning 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 little ones

Who are ^dfaint because of hunger

At the head of every street.”

²⁰See, O Lord, and look!

With ^awhom have You dealt thus?

Should women ^beat their ¹offspring,

The little ones who were ²born healthy?

Should ^cpriest and prophet be slain

In the sanctuary of the Lord?

²¹On the ground in the streets

Lie ^ayoung and old;

My ^bvirgins and my young men

Have fallen by the sword.

You have slain them in the day of Your anger,

You have slaughtered, ^cnot sparing.

²²You called as in the day of an appointed feast

My ^aterrors on every side;

And there was ^bno one who escaped or survived

In the day of the Lord’s anger.

Those ^cwhom I ¹bore and reared,

My enemy annihilated them.