Lamentations 2:13–19

¹³How shall I ^dconsole ¹you?

To what shall I liken you,

O daughter of Jerusalem?

What shall I compare with you, that I may comfort you,

O virgin daughter of Zion?

For your ruin is spread wide as the sea;

Who can heal you?

¹⁴Your ^eprophets have seen for you

False and deceptive visions;

They have not ^funcovered your iniquity,

To bring back your captives,

But have envisioned for you false ^gprophecies and delusions.

¹⁵All who ²pass by ^hclap their hands at you;

They hiss ⁱand shake their heads

At the daughter of Jerusalem:

“Is this the city that is called

^j‘The perfection of beauty,

The joy of the whole earth’?”

^16kAll your enemies have opened their mouth against you;

They hiss and gnash their teeth.

They say, ^l“We have swallowed her up!

Surely this is the ^mday we have waited for;

We have found it, ⁿwe have seen it!”

¹⁷The Lord has done what He ^opurposed;

He has fulfilled His word

Which He commanded in days of old.

He has thrown down and has not pitied,

And He has caused an enemy to ^prejoice over you;

He has exalted the ³horn of your adversaries.

¹⁸Their heart cried out to the Lord,

“O wall of the daughter of Zion,

^qLet tears run down like a river day and night;

Give yourself no relief;

Give ⁴your eyes no rest.

¹⁹“Arise, ^rcry out in the night,

At the beginning of the watches;

^sPour out your heart like water before the face of the Lord.

Lift your hands toward Him

For the life of your young children,

Who faint from hunger ^tat the head of every street.”