Lamentations 2-4

New Living Translation

² Without mercy the Lord has destroyed
    every home in Israel.^[c]
In his anger he has broken down
    the fortress walls of beautiful Jerusalem.^[d]
He has brought them to the ground,
    dishonoring the kingdom and its rulers.

³ All the strength of Israel
    vanishes beneath his fierce anger.
The Lord has withdrawn his protection
    as the enemy attacks.
He consumes the whole land of Israel
    like a raging fire.

⁴ He bends his bow against his people,
    as though he were their enemy.
His strength is used against them
    to kill their finest youth.
His fury is poured out like fire
    on beautiful Jerusalem.^[e]

⁵ Yes, the Lord has vanquished Israel
    like an enemy.
He has destroyed her palaces
    and demolished her fortresses.
He has brought unending sorrow and tears
    upon beautiful Jerusalem.

⁶ He has broken down his Temple
    as though it were merely a garden shelter.
The Lord has blotted out all memory
    of the holy festivals and Sabbath days.
Kings and priests fall together
    before his fierce anger.

⁷ The Lord has rejected his own altar;
    he despises his own sanctuary.
He has given Jerusalem’s palaces
    to her enemies.
They shout in the Lord’s Temple
    as though it were a day of celebration.

⁸ The Lord was determined
    to destroy the walls of beautiful Jerusalem.
He made careful plans for their destruction,
    then did what he had planned.
Therefore, the ramparts and walls
    have fallen down before him.

⁹ Jerusalem’s gates have sunk into the ground.
    He has smashed their locks and bars.
Her kings and princes have been exiled to distant lands;
    her law has ceased to exist.
Her prophets receive
    no more visions from the Lord.

¹⁰ The leaders of beautiful Jerusalem
    sit on the ground in silence.
They are clothed in burlap
    and throw dust on their heads.
The young women of Jerusalem
    hang their heads in shame.

¹¹ I have cried until the tears no longer come;
    my heart is broken.
My spirit is poured out in agony
    as I see the desperate plight of my people.
Little children and tiny babies
    are fainting and dying in the streets.

¹² They cry out to their mothers,
    “We need food and drink!”
Their lives ebb away in the streets
    like the life of a warrior wounded in battle.
They gasp for life
    as they collapse in their mothers’ arms.

¹³ What can I say about you?
    Who has ever seen such sorrow?
O daughter of Jerusalem,
    to what can I compare your anguish?
O virgin daughter of Zion,
    how can I comfort you?
For your wound is as deep as the sea.
    Who can heal you?

¹⁴ Your prophets have said
    so many foolish things, false to the core.
They did not save you from exile
    by pointing out your sins.
Instead, they painted false pictures,
    filling you with false hope.

¹⁵ All who pass by jeer at you.
    They scoff and insult beautiful Jerusalem,^[f] saying,
“Is this the city called ‘Most Beautiful in All the World’
    and ‘Joy of All the Earth’?”

¹⁶ All your enemies mock you.
    They scoff and snarl and say,
“We have destroyed her at last!
    We have long waited for this day,
    and it is finally here!”

¹⁷ But it is the Lord who did just as he planned.
    He has fulfilled the promises of disaster
    he made long ago.
He has destroyed Jerusalem without mercy.
    He has caused her enemies to gloat over her
    and has given them power over her.

¹⁸ Cry aloud^[g] before the Lord,
    O walls of beautiful Jerusalem!
Let your tears flow like a river
    day and night.
Give yourselves no rest;
    give your eyes no relief.

¹⁹ Rise during the night and cry out.
    Pour out your hearts like water to the Lord.
Lift up your hands to him in prayer,
    pleading for your children,
for in every street
    they are faint with hunger.

²⁰ “O Lord, think about this!
    Should you treat your own people this way?
Should mothers eat their own children,
    those they once bounced on their knees?
Should priests and prophets be killed
    within the Lord’s Temple?

²¹ “See them lying in the streets—
    young and old,
boys and girls,
    killed by the swords of the enemy.
You have killed them in your anger,
    slaughtering them without mercy.

²² “You have invited terrors from all around,
    as though you were calling them to a day of feasting.
In the day of the Lord’s anger,
    no one has escaped or survived.
The enemy has killed all the children
    whom I carried and raised.”

⁴ He has made my skin and flesh grow old.
    He has broken my bones.
⁵ He has besieged and surrounded me
    with anguish and distress.
⁶ He has buried me in a dark place,
    like those long dead.

⁷ He has walled me in, and I cannot escape.
    He has bound me in heavy chains.
⁸ And though I cry and shout,
    he has shut out my prayers.
⁹ He has blocked my way with a high stone wall;
    he has made my road crooked.

¹⁰ He has hidden like a bear or a lion,
    waiting to attack me.
¹¹ He has dragged me off the path and torn me in pieces,
    leaving me helpless and devastated.
¹² He has drawn his bow
    and made me the target for his arrows.

¹³ He shot his arrows
    deep into my heart.
¹⁴ My own people laugh at me.
    All day long they sing their mocking songs.
¹⁵ He has filled me with bitterness
    and given me a bitter cup of sorrow to drink.

¹⁶ He has made me chew on gravel.
    He has rolled me in the dust.
¹⁷ Peace has been stripped away,
    and I have forgotten what prosperity is.
¹⁸ I cry out, “My splendor is gone!
    Everything I had hoped for from the Lord is lost!”

¹⁹ The thought of my suffering and homelessness
    is bitter beyond words.^[h]
20 I will never forget this awful time,
    as I grieve over my loss.
²¹ Yet I still dare to hope
    when I remember this:

²² The faithful love of the Lord never ends!^[i]
    His mercies never cease.
²³ Great is his faithfulness;
    his mercies begin afresh each morning.
²⁴ I say to myself, “The Lord is my inheritance;
    therefore, I will hope in him!”

²⁵ The Lord is good to those who depend on him,
    to those who search for him.
²⁶ So it is good to wait quietly
    for salvation from the Lord.
²⁷ And it is good for people to submit at an early age
    to the yoke of his discipline:

²⁸ Let them sit alone in silence
    beneath the Lord’s demands.
²⁹ Let them lie face down in the dust,
    for there may be hope at last.
³⁰ Let them turn the other cheek to those who strike them
    and accept the insults of their enemies.

³¹ For no one is abandoned
    by the Lord forever.
³² Though he brings grief, he also shows compassion
    because of the greatness of his unfailing love.
³³ For he does not enjoy hurting people
    or causing them sorrow.

³⁴ If people crush underfoot
    all the prisoners of the land,
³⁵ if they deprive others of their rights
    in defiance of the Most High,
³⁶ if they twist justice in the courts—
    doesn’t the Lord see all these things?

³⁷ Who can command things to happen
    without the Lord’s permission?
³⁸ Does not the Most High
    send both calamity and good?
³⁹ Then why should we, mere humans, complain
    when we are punished for our sins?

⁴⁰ Instead, let us test and examine our ways.
    Let us turn back to the Lord.
⁴¹ Let us lift our hearts and hands
    to God in heaven and say,
⁴² “We have sinned and rebelled,
    and you have not forgiven us.

⁴³ “You have engulfed us with your anger, chased us down,
    and slaughtered us without mercy.
⁴⁴ You have hidden yourself in a cloud
    so our prayers cannot reach you.
⁴⁵ You have discarded us as refuse and garbage
    among the nations.

⁴⁶ “All our enemies
    have spoken out against us.
⁴⁷ We are filled with fear,
    for we are trapped, devastated, and ruined.”
⁴⁸ Tears stream from my eyes
    because of the destruction of my people!

⁴⁹ My tears flow endlessly;
    they will not stop
⁵⁰ until the Lord looks down
    from heaven and sees.
⁵¹ My heart is breaking
    over the fate of all the women of Jerusalem.

⁵² My enemies, whom I have never harmed,
    hunted me down like a bird.
⁵³ They threw me into a pit
    and dropped stones on me.
⁵⁴ The water rose over my head,
    and I cried out, “This is the end!”

⁵⁵ But I called on your name, Lord,
    from deep within the pit.
⁵⁶ You heard me when I cried, “Listen to my pleading!
    Hear my cry for help!”
⁵⁷ Yes, you came when I called;
    you told me, “Do not fear.”

⁵⁸ Lord, you have come to my defense;
    you have redeemed my life.
⁵⁹ You have seen the wrong they have done to me, Lord.
    Be my judge, and prove me right.
⁶⁰ You have seen the vengeful plots
    my enemies have laid against me.

⁶¹ Lord, you have heard the vile names they call me.
    You know all about the plans they have made.
⁶² My enemies whisper and mutter
    as they plot against me all day long.
⁶³ Look at them! Whether they sit or stand,
    I am the object of their mocking songs.

⁶⁴ Pay them back, Lord,
    for all the evil they have done.
⁶⁵ Give them hard and stubborn hearts,
    and then let your curse fall on them!
⁶⁶ Chase them down in your anger,
    destroying them beneath the Lord’s heavens.

² See how the precious children of Jerusalem,^[j]
    worth their weight in fine gold,
are now treated like pots of clay
    made by a common potter.

³ Even the jackals feed their young,
    but not my people Israel.
They ignore their children’s cries,
    like ostriches in the desert.

⁴ The parched tongues of their little ones
    stick to the roofs of their mouths in thirst.
The children cry for bread,
    but no one has any to give them.

⁵ The people who once ate the richest foods
    now beg in the streets for anything they can get.
Those who once wore the finest clothes
    now search the garbage dumps for food.

⁶ The guilt^[k] of my people
    is greater than that of Sodom,
where utter disaster struck in a moment
    and no hand offered help.

⁷ Our princes once glowed with health—
    brighter than snow, whiter than milk.
Their faces were as ruddy as rubies,
    their appearance like fine jewels.^[l]

⁸ But now their faces are blacker than soot.
    No one recognizes them in the streets.
Their skin sticks to their bones;
    it is as dry and hard as wood.

⁹ Those killed by the sword are better off
    than those who die of hunger.
Starving, they waste away
    for lack of food from the fields.

¹⁰ Tenderhearted women
    have cooked their own children.
They have eaten them
    to survive the siege.

¹¹ But now the anger of the Lord is satisfied.
    His fierce anger has been poured out.
He started a fire in Jerusalem^[m]
    that burned the city to its foundations.

¹² Not a king in all the earth—
    no one in all the world—
would have believed that an enemy
    could march through the gates of Jerusalem.

¹³ Yet it happened because of the sins of her prophets
    and the sins of her priests,
who defiled the city
    by shedding innocent blood.

¹⁴ They wandered blindly
    through the streets,
so defiled by blood
    that no one dared touch them.

¹⁵ “Get away!” the people shouted at them.
    “You’re defiled! Don’t touch us!”
So they fled to distant lands
    and wandered among foreign nations,
    but none would let them stay.

¹⁶ The Lord himself has scattered them,
    and he no longer helps them.
People show no respect for the priests
    and no longer honor the leaders.

¹⁷ We looked in vain for our allies
    to come and save us,
but we were looking to nations
    that could not help us.

¹⁸ We couldn’t go into the streets
    without danger to our lives.
Our end was near; our days were numbered.
    We were doomed!

¹⁹ Our enemies were swifter than eagles in flight.
    If we fled to the mountains, they found us.
If we hid in the wilderness,
    they were waiting for us there.

²⁰ Our king—the Lord’s anointed, the very life of our nation—
    was caught in their snares.
We had thought that his shadow
    would protect us against any nation on earth!

²¹ Are you rejoicing in the land of Uz,
    O people of Edom?
But you, too, must drink from the cup of the Lord’s anger.
    You, too, will be stripped naked in your drunkenness.

²² O beautiful Jerusalem,^[n] your punishment will end;
    you will soon return from exile.
But Edom, your punishment is just beginning;
    soon your many sins will be exposed.