耶和華懲罰耶路撒冷

主的怒氣像烏雲一樣遮蓋錫安城[a]
祂使以色列的榮美從天上墜下。
祂發怒的時候並不顧念自己的腳凳。

主毫不留情地毀滅雅各一切的住處,
祂在烈怒中夷平猶大的堡壘,
讓以色列及其首領蒙羞。

祂發烈怒毀滅以色列全軍。
敵人襲來時,祂收回大能的手。
祂像烈焰一樣吞噬雅各。

祂抬起右手張弓搭箭,
宛若仇敵,
殺戮一切悅人眼目的人,
將祂的怒火撒向錫安城的帳篷。

主像敵人一樣毀滅以色列,
吞噬她的宮殿,夷平她的堡壘,
使猶大人哀哭不止。

祂摧毀自己的居所,
如同摧毀花園;
祂摧毀自己規定的聚會之處,
使錫安的人民忘記安息日和節期。
祂在烈怒中棄絕所有的君王和祭司。

主撇棄自己的祭壇,
憎惡自己的聖所,
把耶路撒冷的殿牆交給敵人。
他們像過節一樣,
在耶和華的殿中喧嚷吵鬧。

耶和華決意拆毀錫安的城牆,
祂拉了準線,
定意毀滅,決不停止。
祂使城牆和壁壘一同悲哀哭泣。

錫安的城門陷入地中,
主摧毀、砍斷她的門閂。
她的君王和首領流落異鄉,
律法不復存在,
她的先知得不到從耶和華而來的異象。

10 錫安城的長老腰束麻布,
頭蒙灰塵,坐在地上,
默然不語;
耶路撒冷的少女垂頭至地。

11 我哭得眼睛失明,
心如刀割,肝膽欲碎,
因為人民慘遭毀滅,
兒童和嬰孩昏倒在街頭。

12 孩子們問母親:
「哪裡有餅和酒呢?」
他們像受傷的勇士,
昏倒在城中的街頭,
在母親懷中奄奄一息。

13 耶路撒冷啊,我該說什麼呢?
誰能與你的苦難相比呢?
錫安啊,我用什麼話語才能安慰你呢?
你的傷口深如海洋,
誰能醫治你呢?

14 你的先知所見的異象虛假無用。
他們沒有揭露你的罪惡,
以致你被擄。
他們給你的預言虛假謬誤。

15 路人都拍掌嘲笑你。
他們向耶路撒冷城搖頭,
嗤笑道:
「這就是那被譽為完美無瑕、
普世喜悅的城嗎?」

16 敵人都幸災樂禍地譏諷你,
他們咬牙切齒地說:
「我們吞滅了她!
這是我們期待已久的日子!
我們終於見到這一天了!」

17 耶和華實現了祂的計劃,
成就了祂很久以前的應許。
祂毫不留情地毀滅了你,
使你的仇敵幸災樂禍,
耀武揚威。

18 錫安的城牆啊,
你要從心裡向主呼求!
你的眼淚要像江河一樣晝夜湧流,
不歇不眠。

19 你要在夜間起來,
在主面前整夜呼求,
向祂傾心吐意;
你要為餓昏街頭的孩童向主舉手禱告。

20 「耶和華啊,求你看看,
你曾這樣對付過誰呢?
母親豈能吃自己的孩子?
祭司和先知豈能在主的聖所中被殺?

21 「老人和小孩陳屍街頭,
少男少女都喪身刀下。
你在發怒的日子殺了他們,
毫不留情。

22 「你從四面八方召人攻擊我,
如同召集人過節。
耶和華發怒的日子,
無人得以逃脫,無人得以倖免。
敵人殺光了我養育的孩子。」

Footnotes

  1. 2·1 」希伯來文是「女子」,可能是對錫安的暱稱,下同2·4104·22

[a]How the Lord has covered Daughter Zion
    with the cloud of his anger[b]!(A)
He has hurled down the splendor of Israel
    from heaven to earth;
he has not remembered his footstool(B)
    in the day of his anger.(C)

Without pity(D) the Lord has swallowed(E) up
    all the dwellings of Jacob;
in his wrath he has torn down
    the strongholds(F) of Daughter Judah.
He has brought her kingdom and its princes
    down to the ground(G) in dishonor.

In fierce anger he has cut off
    every horn[c][d](H) of Israel.
He has withdrawn his right hand(I)
    at the approach of the enemy.
He has burned in Jacob like a flaming fire
    that consumes everything around it.(J)

Like an enemy he has strung his bow;(K)
    his right hand is ready.
Like a foe he has slain
    all who were pleasing to the eye;(L)
he has poured out his wrath(M) like fire(N)
    on the tent(O) of Daughter Zion.

The Lord is like an enemy;(P)
    he has swallowed up Israel.
He has swallowed up all her palaces
    and destroyed her strongholds.(Q)
He has multiplied mourning and lamentation(R)
    for Daughter Judah.(S)

He has laid waste his dwelling like a garden;
    he has destroyed(T) his place of meeting.(U)
The Lord has made Zion forget
    her appointed festivals and her Sabbaths;(V)
in his fierce anger he has spurned
    both king and priest.(W)

The Lord has rejected his altar
    and abandoned his sanctuary.(X)
He has given the walls of her palaces(Y)
    into the hands of the enemy;
they have raised a shout in the house of the Lord
    as on the day of an appointed festival.(Z)

The Lord determined to tear down
    the wall around Daughter Zion.(AA)
He stretched out a measuring line(AB)
    and did not withhold his hand from destroying.
He made ramparts(AC) and walls lament;
    together they wasted away.(AD)

Her gates(AE) have sunk into the ground;
    their bars(AF) he has broken and destroyed.
Her king and her princes are exiled(AG) among the nations,
    the law(AH) is no more,
and her prophets(AI) no longer find
    visions(AJ) from the Lord.

10 The elders of Daughter Zion
    sit on the ground in silence;(AK)
they have sprinkled dust(AL) on their heads(AM)
    and put on sackcloth.(AN)
The young women of Jerusalem
    have bowed their heads to the ground.(AO)

11 My eyes fail from weeping,(AP)
    I am in torment within(AQ);
my heart(AR) is poured out(AS) on the ground
    because my people are destroyed,(AT)
because children and infants faint(AU)
    in the streets of the city.

12 They say to their mothers,
    “Where is bread and wine?”(AV)
as they faint like the wounded
    in the streets of the city,
as their lives ebb away(AW)
    in their mothers’ arms.(AX)

13 What can I say for you?(AY)
    With what can I compare you,
    Daughter(AZ) Jerusalem?
To what can I liken you,
    that I may comfort you,
    Virgin Daughter Zion?(BA)
Your wound is as deep as the sea.(BB)
    Who can heal you?

14 The visions of your prophets
    were false(BC) and worthless;
they did not expose your sin
    to ward off your captivity.(BD)
The prophecies they gave you
    were false and misleading.(BE)

15 All who pass your way
    clap their hands at you;(BF)
they scoff(BG) and shake their heads(BH)
    at Daughter Jerusalem:(BI)
“Is this the city that was called
    the perfection of beauty,(BJ)
    the joy of the whole earth?”(BK)

16 All your enemies open their mouths
    wide against you;(BL)
they scoff and gnash their teeth(BM)
    and say, “We have swallowed her up.(BN)
This is the day we have waited for;
    we have lived to see it.”(BO)

17 The Lord has done what he planned;
    he has fulfilled(BP) his word,
    which he decreed long ago.(BQ)
He has overthrown you without pity,(BR)
    he has let the enemy gloat over you,(BS)
    he has exalted the horn[e] of your foes.(BT)

18 The hearts of the people
    cry out to the Lord.(BU)
You walls of Daughter Zion,(BV)
    let your tears(BW) flow like a river
    day and night;(BX)
give yourself no relief,
    your eyes no rest.(BY)

19 Arise, cry out in the night,
    as the watches of the night begin;
pour out your heart(BZ) like water
    in the presence of the Lord.(CA)
Lift up your hands(CB) to him
    for the lives of your children,
who faint(CC) from hunger
    at every street corner.

20 “Look, Lord, and consider:
    Whom have you ever treated like this?
Should women eat their offspring,(CD)
    the children they have cared for?(CE)
Should priest and prophet be killed(CF)
    in the sanctuary of the Lord?(CG)

21 “Young and old lie together
    in the dust of the streets;
my young men and young women
    have fallen by the sword.(CH)
You have slain them in the day of your anger;
    you have slaughtered them without pity.(CI)

22 “As you summon to a feast day,
    so you summoned against me terrors(CJ) on every side.
In the day of the Lord’s anger
    no one escaped(CK) or survived;
those I cared for and reared(CL)
    my enemy has destroyed.”

Footnotes

  1. Lamentations 2:1 This chapter is an acrostic poem, the verses of which begin with the successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet.
  2. Lamentations 2:1 Or How the Lord in his anger / has treated Daughter Zion with contempt
  3. Lamentations 2:3 Or off / all the strength; or every king
  4. Lamentations 2:3 Horn here symbolizes strength.
  5. Lamentations 2:17 Horn here symbolizes strength.

How hath the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger, and cast down from heaven unto the earth the beauty of Israel, and remembered not his footstool in the day of his anger!

The Lord hath swallowed up all the habitations of Jacob, and hath not pitied: he hath thrown down in his wrath the strong holds of the daughter of Judah; he hath brought them down to the ground: he hath polluted the kingdom and the princes thereof.

He hath cut off in his fierce anger all the horn of Israel: he hath drawn back his right hand from before the enemy, and he burned against Jacob like a flaming fire, which devoureth round about.

He hath bent his bow like an enemy: he stood with his right hand as an adversary, and slew all that were pleasant to the eye in the tabernacle of the daughter of Zion: he poured out his fury like fire.

The Lord was as an enemy: he hath swallowed up Israel, he hath swallowed up all her palaces: he hath destroyed his strong holds, and hath increased in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation.

And he hath violently taken away his tabernacle, as if it were of a garden: he hath destroyed his places of the assembly: the Lord hath caused the solemn feasts and sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion, and hath despised in the indignation of his anger the king and the priest.

The Lord hath cast off his altar, he hath abhorred his sanctuary, he hath given up into the hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces; they have made a noise in the house of the Lord, as in the day of a solemn feast.

The Lord hath purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion: he hath stretched out a line, he hath not withdrawn his hand from destroying: therefore he made the rampart and the wall to lament; they languished together.

Her gates are sunk into the ground; he hath destroyed and broken her bars: her king and her princes are among the Gentiles: the law is no more; her prophets also find no vision from the Lord.

10 The elders of the daughter of Zion sit upon the ground, and keep silence: they have cast up dust upon their heads; they have girded themselves with sackcloth: the virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground.

11 Mine eyes do fail with tears, my bowels are troubled, my liver is poured upon the earth, for the destruction of the daughter of my people; because the children and the sucklings swoon in the streets of the city.

12 They say to their mothers, Where is corn and wine? when they swooned as the wounded in the streets of the city, when their soul was poured out into their mothers' bosom.

13 What thing shall I take to witness for thee? what thing shall I liken to thee, O daughter of Jerusalem? what shall I equal to thee, that I may comfort thee, O virgin daughter of Zion? for thy breach is great like the sea: who can heal thee?

14 Thy prophets have seen vain and foolish things for thee: and they have not discovered thine iniquity, to turn away thy captivity; but have seen for thee false burdens and causes of banishment.

15 All that pass by clap their hands at thee; they hiss and wag their head at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying, Is this the city that men call The perfection of beauty, The joy of the whole earth?

16 All thine enemies have opened their mouth against thee: they hiss and gnash the teeth: they say, We have swallowed her up: certainly this is the day that we looked for; we have found, we have seen it.

17 The Lord hath done that which he had devised; he hath fulfilled his word that he had commanded in the days of old: he hath thrown down, and hath not pitied: and he hath caused thine enemy to rejoice over thee, he hath set up the horn of thine adversaries.

18 Their heart cried unto the Lord, O wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears run down like a river day and night: give thyself no rest; let not the apple of thine eye cease.

19 Arise, cry out in the night: in the beginning of the watches pour out thine heart like water before the face of the Lord: lift up thy hands toward him for the life of thy young children, that faint for hunger in the top of every street.

20 Behold, O Lord, and consider to whom thou hast done this. Shall the women eat their fruit, and children of a span long? shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord?

21 The young and the old lie on the ground in the streets: my virgins and my young men are fallen by the sword; thou hast slain them in the day of thine anger; thou hast killed, and not pitied.

22 Thou hast called as in a solemn day my terrors round about, so that in the day of the Lord's anger none escaped nor remained: those that I have swaddled and brought up hath mine enemy consumed.

The Lord Has Destroyed Without Pity

How the Lord in his anger
    has set the daughter of Zion (A)under a cloud!
(B)He has cast down from heaven to earth
    the splendor of Israel;
he has not remembered (C)his footstool
    in the day of his anger.

The Lord (D)has swallowed up (E)without mercy
    all the habitations of Jacob;
in his wrath (F)he has broken down
    the strongholds of the daughter of Judah;
he has brought (G)down to the ground (H)in dishonor
    the kingdom (I)and its rulers.

He has cut down in (J)fierce anger
    all (K)the might of Israel;
(L)he has withdrawn from them his right hand
    in the face of the enemy;
(M)he has burned like a flaming fire in Jacob,
    consuming all around.

(N)He has bent his bow like an enemy,
    with his right hand set (O)like a foe;
and he has killed all who were delightful in our eyes;
    in the tent of the daughter of Zion,
he has poured out his fury like fire.

(P)The Lord has become like an enemy;
    (Q)he has swallowed up Israel;
(R)he has swallowed up all its palaces;
    he has laid in ruins its strongholds,
and he has multiplied in the daughter of Judah
    (S)mourning and lamentation.

He has laid waste his booth like a garden,
    laid in ruins (T)his meeting place;
(U)the Lord has made Zion forget
    festival and (V)Sabbath,
and in his fierce indignation has spurned king and priest.

(W)The Lord has scorned his altar,
    (X)disowned his sanctuary;
(Y)he has delivered into the hand of the enemy
    the walls of her palaces;
(Z)they raised a clamor in the house of the Lord
    as on the day of festival.

(AA)The Lord determined to lay in ruins
    (AB)the wall of the daughter of Zion;
(AC)he stretched out the measuring line;
    he did not restrain his hand from destroying;
(AD)he caused rampart and wall to lament;
    (AE)they languished together.

Her gates have sunk into the ground;
    (AF)he has ruined (AG)and broken her bars;
(AH)her king and princes are among the nations;
    the law is no more,
and (AI)her prophets find
    no vision from the Lord.

10 The elders of the daughter of Zion
    (AJ)sit on the ground (AK)in silence;
(AL)they have thrown dust on their heads
    and (AM)put on sackcloth;
the young women of Jerusalem
    have bowed their heads to the ground.

11 (AN)My eyes are spent with weeping;
    (AO)my stomach churns;
(AP)my bile is poured out to the ground
    (AQ)because of the destruction of the daughter of my people,
(AR)because infants and babies (AS)faint
    in the streets of the city.

12 They cry to their mothers,
    (AT)“Where is bread and wine?”
(AU)as they faint like a wounded man
    in the streets of the city,
as their life is poured out
    on their mothers' bosom.

13 What can I say for you, (AV)to what compare you,
    O daughter of Jerusalem?
(AW)What can I liken to you, that I may comfort you,
    O virgin daughter of Zion?
(AX)For your ruin is vast as the sea;
    who can heal you?

14 (AY)Your prophets have seen for you
    false and deceptive visions;
(AZ)they have not exposed your iniquity
    to (BA)restore your fortunes,
(BB)but have seen for you (BC)oracles
    that are false and misleading.

15 All who pass along the way
    clap their hands at you;
(BD)they hiss and wag their heads
    at the daughter of Jerusalem:
“Is this the city that was called
    (BE)the perfection of beauty,
    (BF)the joy of all the earth?”

16 (BG)All your enemies
    rail against you;
they hiss, they gnash their teeth,
    they cry: “We (BH)have swallowed her!
Ah, this is the day we longed for;
    now we have it; (BI)we see it!”

17 The Lord has done what he purposed;
    he has carried out (BJ)his word,
which he commanded (BK)long ago;
    (BL)he has thrown down (BM)without pity;
(BN)he has made the enemy rejoice over you
    and exalted the (BO)might of your foes.

18 Their heart cried to the Lord.
    O (BP)wall of the daughter of Zion,
(BQ)let tears stream down like a torrent
    (BR)day and night!
(BS)Give yourself no rest,
    (BT)your eyes no respite!

19 “Arise, (BU)cry out in the night,
    at the beginning of the night watches!
(BV)Pour out your heart like water
    before the presence of the Lord!
(BW)Lift your hands to him
    for the lives of your children,
(BX)who faint for hunger
    at the head of every street.”

20 Look, O Lord, and see!
    (BY)With whom have you dealt thus?
(BZ)Should women eat the fruit of their womb,
    the children of (CA)their tender care?
Should (CB)priest and prophet be killed
    in the sanctuary of the Lord?

21 In the dust of the streets
    (CC)lie the young and the old;
(CD)my young women and my young men
    have fallen by the sword;
(CE)you have killed them in the day of your anger,
    slaughtering (CF)without pity.

22 You summoned as if to (CG)a festival day
    (CH)my terrors on every side,
(CI)and on the day of the anger of the Lord
    no one escaped or survived;
(CJ)those whom I held and raised
    my enemy destroyed.