⁴ Your foes have roared within your holy place;
    they set up their emblems there.^(B)
5 At the upper entrance they hacked
    the wooden trellis with axes.^[a](C)
6 And then, with hatchets and hammers,
    they smashed all its carved work.
⁷ They set your sanctuary on fire;
    they desecrated the dwelling place of your name,
    bringing it to the ground.^(D)
8 They said to themselves, “We will utterly subdue them”;
    they burned all the meeting places of God in the land.^(E)

⁹ We do not see our emblems;
    there is no longer any prophet,
    and there is no one among us who knows how long.^(F)
10 How long, O God, is the foe to scoff?
    Is the enemy to revile your name forever?^(G)

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

¹⁶ All your enemies
    open their mouths against you;
they hiss, they gnash their teeth,
    they cry: “We have devoured her!
Ah, this is the day we longed for;
    at last we have seen it!”^(B)

¹⁷ The Lord has done what he purposed;
    he has carried out his threat;
as he ordained long ago,
    he has demolished without pity;
he has made the enemy rejoice over you
    and exalted the might of your foes.^(C)

⁸ Jerusalem sinned grievously,
    so she has become a filthy thing;
all who honored her despise her,
    for they have seen her nakedness;
she herself groans
    and turns her face away.^(A)