^5 (A)The Lord was like an enemy.
He has swallowed up Israel,
He has swallowed up all her palaces;
^(B)He has destroyed her strongholds,
And has increased mourning and lamentation
In the daughter of Judah.

² The Lord has swallowed up and has ^(A)not pitied
All the dwelling places of Jacob.
He has thrown down in His wrath
The strongholds of the daughter of Judah;
He has brought them down to the ground;
^(B)He has profaned the kingdom and its princes.

^4 (A)Standing like an enemy, He has bent His bow;
With His right hand, like an adversary,
He has slain ^(B)all who were pleasing to His eye;
On the tent of the daughter of Zion,
He has poured out His fury like fire.

“Consider and call for ^(A)the mourning women,
That they may come;
And send for skillful wailing women,
That they may come.
¹⁸ Let them make haste
And take up a wailing for us,
That ^(B)our eyes may run with tears,
And our eyelids gush with water.
¹⁹ For a voice of wailing is heard from Zion:
‘How we are plundered!
We are greatly ashamed,
Because we have forsaken the land,
Because we have been cast out of ^(C)our dwellings.’ ”

²⁰ Yet hear the word of the Lord, O women,
And let your ear receive the word of His mouth;
Teach your daughters wailing,
And everyone her neighbor a lamentation.