The Daily Audio Bible

1 ^[a]“Look how deserted Jerusalem is!
    Once the city was crowded with people.
    Once it was important among the nations.
        Now it is a widow.
    Once it was a princess among the provinces.
        Now it does forced labor.
² Jerusalem cries bitterly at night with tears running down its cheeks.
    Out of all those who love the city, no one offers it comfort.
    All of Jerusalem’s friends have betrayed it and become its enemies.

¹² “Doesn’t this affect all of you who pass by?
    Look and see if there’s any pain
    like the pain that Yahweh has caused me,
    like the pain that he has made me suffer on the day of his fierce anger.
¹³ He sent fire from above.
    He made it go deep into my bones.
        He spread a net for my feet.
        He made me turn back.
        He has left me devastated.
        He has made me sick all day long.
¹⁴ My rebellious acts are a heavy burden for me.
    They were tied together by Yahweh’s own hands.
    They were tied around my neck.
        He has weakened me with them.
        Adonay has handed me over to people I cannot oppose.^[d]
15 Adonay has treated all the warriors inside my walls with contempt.
    He called an army to defeat my young men.
        Adonay trampled the people of Judah in a winepress.
¹⁶ I’m crying because of all these things.
    My eyes—my eyes flow with tears.
        No one can give me the comfort I need to keep me alive.
            Everyone is too far away from me.
                My children are devastated because my enemies have won.”

2 ^[f]“Look how Adonay has covered the people of Zion
    with the cloud of his anger!
    He has thrown down Israel’s beauty from heaven to earth.
    He didn’t even remember his footstool on the day of his anger.
² Adonay swallowed up all of Jacob’s pastures without any pity.
    He tore down the fortified cities of Judah in his fury.
    He brought the kingdom of Judah and its leaders
        down to the ground in dishonor.
³ In his burning anger he cut off all of Israel’s strength.
    He withdrew his right hand when they faced their enemy.
    He burned like a raging fire in the land of Jacob,
        destroying everything around him.
⁴ Like an enemy he bent his bow.
    Like an opponent his right hand held the arrow steady.
    He killed all the beautiful people.
    He poured out his fury like fire on the tent of Zion’s people.
⁵ Adonay became an enemy.
    He swallowed up Israel.
    He swallowed up all of its palaces.
    He destroyed its strongholds.
    He made the people of Judah mourn and moan.
⁶ He stripped his own booth as if it were a garden
    and destroyed his own festivals.
    Yahweh wiped out the memory of festivals and days of worship in Zion.
    He expelled kings and priests because of his fierce anger.
⁷ Adonay rejected his altar and disowned his holy place.
    He handed the walls of Zion’s palaces over to its enemies.
        The enemies made noise in Yahweh’s temple
            as though it were a festival day.
⁸ Yahweh planned to destroy the wall of Zion’s people.
    He marked it off with a line.
    He didn’t take his hand away until he had swallowed it up.
    He made the towers and walls mourn.
        They are completely dejected.

⁹ “Zion’s gates have sunk into the ground.
    The Lord destroyed and shattered the bars across its gates.
    Its king and influential people are scattered among the nations.
    There is no longer any instruction from Moses’ Teachings.
    Its prophets can find no visions from Yahweh.
¹⁰ The respected leaders of Zion’s people sit silently on the ground.
    They throw dirt on their heads and put on sackcloth.
    The young women of Jerusalem bow their heads to the ground.
¹¹ My eyes are worn out with tears.
    My stomach is churning.
    My heart is poured out on the ground
    because of the destruction of my people.
    Little children and infants faint in the city streets.
¹² They’re asking their mothers for some bread and wine
    as they faint like wounded people in the city streets.
        Their lives dwindle away in their mothers’ arms.

¹³ “What example can I give you?
    What parallel can I show you, people of Jerusalem?
    What comparison can I make that will comfort you, beloved people of Zion?
    Your wounds are as deep as the sea.
    Who can heal you?
¹⁴ Your prophets saw misleading visions about you.
    They painted a good picture of you.
    They didn’t expose your guilt in order to make things better again.
    They gave you false prophecies that misled you.
¹⁵ Everyone who walks along the road shakes a fist at you.
    They hiss and shake their heads at Jerusalem’s people:
        ‘Is this the city they used to call absolutely beautiful,
            the joy of the whole world?’
¹⁶ All your enemies gawk at you.
    They hiss and grit their teeth.
    They say, ‘We’ve swallowed it up.
        Yes, this is the day we’ve been waiting for.
            At last we have seen it!’
¹⁷ Yahweh has accomplished what he had planned to do.
    He carried out the threat he announced long ago.
    He tore you down without any pity, Jerusalem.
    He made your enemies gloat over you.
    He raised the weapons of your opponents.
¹⁸ The hearts of Jerusalem’s people
    cried out to Adonay, the wall of Zion’s people.
        Let your tears run down like a river day and night.
            Don’t let them stop.
                Don’t let your eyes rest.
¹⁹ Get up! Cry out at night, every hour on the hour.
    Pour your heart out like water in the presence of Adonay.
        Lift up your hands to him in prayer
            for the life of your little children
                who faint from hunger at every street corner.”

²⁰ “O Yahweh, look and consider:
    Have you ever treated anyone like this?
        Should women eat their own children,
            the children they have nursed?
        Should priests and prophets be killed in Adonay’s holy place?
²¹ Young and old lie on the ground in the streets.
    My young women and men are cut down by swords.
    You killed them on the day of your anger.
    You slaughtered them without any pity.
²² You have invited those who terrorize me on every side,
    as though they were invited to a festival.
    No one escaped or survived on the day of Yahweh’s anger.
    My enemy has murdered the children I nursed and raised.”

¹ I will sing about mercy and justice.
    O Yahweh, I will make music to praise you.
² I want to understand the path to integrity.
    When will you come to me?