Chapter 2

God’s Anger over Israel

1 How 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.

2 The 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.

3 In 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.

4 He 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.

5 The 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.

6 And 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.

7 The 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.

8 The 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.

9 Her 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.

10 The 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.

11 My 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.

12 They 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.

13 How 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?

14 Your 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.

15 All 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’?”

16 All 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.”

17 The 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.

18 Their 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.”

20 See, 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?

21 On 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.

22 You 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.