Herren bestraffar sitt folk

Alef

Hur har inte Herren i sin vrede övertäckt dottern Sion med mörka moln!
Från himlen har han kastat
    Israels härlighet ner till jorden.
Han har inte kommit ihåg sin fotapall
på sin vredes dag.

Beth

Utan att skona har Herren fördärvat
alla Jakobs boningar.
    I sin vrede bröt han ner
dottern Judas fästen.
    Han slog dem till marken,
han orenade riket och dess furstar.

Gimel

I vredens hetta högg han av
    varje horn i Israel.
Han drog tillbaka sin högra hand
    när fienden kom.
Jakob förbrände han likt en flammande eld
som förtär allt runt omkring.

Daleth

Han spände sin båge som en fiende,
hans högra hand var redo.
    Lik en ovän dödade han
allt som var ljuvligt för ögat.
    Över dottern Sions hydda.
utgöt han sin vrede som en eld.

He

Herren var som en fiende.
    Han fördärvade Israel,
han fördärvade alla dess palats,
    han förstörde dess fästen.
Han hopade hos dottern Juda
    bedrövelse och jämmer.

Waw

Han bröt ner sin boning som en trädgård,
han förstörde sin mötesplats.
    Högtid och sabbat
lät Herren falla i glömska i Sion,
    och i sin brinnande vrede förkastade han
kung och präst.

Zajin

Herren förkastade sitt altare,
    han övergav sin helgedom.
Murarna omkring hennes palats
    gav han i fiendernas hand.
De ropade högt i Herrens hus
    som på en högtidsdag.

Heth

Herren hade beslutat förstöra
    dottern Sions murar.
Han spände mätsnöret för att fördärva
och drog inte tillbaka sin hand.
    Han lät sorg komma över vallar och murar,
alla ligger nu förstörda.

Teth

Hennes portar har sjunkit ner i jorden,
han förstörde och krossade hennes bommar.
Hennes kung och hennes furstar lever bland hednafolken.
Ingen undervisning ges mer
    och hennes profeter
får ingen syn från Herren.

Jod

10 De sitter stumma på marken,
    de äldste i dottern Sion.
De har kastat stoft på sina huvuden
och klätt sig i säcktyg.
    Jerusalems jungfrur
sänker sina huvuden mot jorden.

Kaf

11 Mina ögon är förtärda av gråt,
    det jäser i mitt innersta.
Min lever är som utgjuten på jorden
ty dottern mitt folk går under,
    barn och spädbarn förgås
på gatorna i staden.

Lamed

12 De ropar till sina mödrar:
    "Var finns bröd och vin?"
De tynar bort likt de slagna
    på stadens gator,
de ger upp andan
    i sina mödrars famn.

Mem

13 Vad skall jag säga dig,
    vad skall jag jämföra dig med, du dotter Jerusalem?
Vad skall jag likna dig vid för att trösta dig,
du jungfru dotter Sion?
    Din skada är ju stor som ett hav,
vem kan hela dig?

Nun

14 Dina profeters syner
    var falska och dåraktiga.
De uppenbarade inte din missgärning för dig
för att göra slut på din fångenskap.
    De budskap de förkunnade för dig
var falska och förförande.

Samek

15 Alla som går vägen förbi
    slår hånfullt ihop händerna åt dig.
De visslar och skakar på huvudet
    åt dottern Jerusalem.
"Är detta den stad som man kallade
    den fulländade skönheten, hela jordens fröjd?"

Pe

16 Alla dina fiender spärrar upp munnen mot dig,
de visslar och skär tänder,
    de säger: "Vi har fördärvat henne.
Ja, detta är den dag som vi har väntat på.
Nu har vi upplevt och sett den!"

Ajin

17 Herren har gjort vad han hade beslutat,
han har uppfyllt sitt ord,
    det han för länge sedan hade sagt.
Han har rivit ner utan att skona,
    han har låtit fienden glädjas över dig,
han har upphöjt dina ovänners horn.

Tsade

18 Deras hjärtan ropar till Herren.
    Du dotter Sions mur,
låt dina tårar rinna som en bäck
    både dag och natt.
Ge dig ingen ro,
    unna inte ditt öga någon vila.

Qof

19 Stig upp, ropa högt i natten,
    när nattväkterna börjar.
Utgjut ditt hjärta som vatten
    inför Herrens ansikte.
Lyft upp dina händer till honom
    för dina barns liv,
ty de tynar bort av hunger
    i alla gathörn.

Resh

20 Se, Herre, och besinna
    vem du har handlat så emot.
Skall kvinnor äta sin livsfrukt,
    barnen som de har burit i sin famn?
Skall präster och profeter dödas
    i Herrens helgedom?

Shin

21 På marken, ute på gatorna, ligger de,
unga och gamla.
    Mina jungfrur och mina unga män
har fallit för svärd.
    Du dödade på din vredes dag,
du slaktade utan att skona.

Taw

22 Som till en högtidsdag bådade du upp
förskräckelser från alla håll.
    Herrens vredes dag fanns det ingen
som undkom eller överlevde.
    Dem som jag har burit i min famn och uppfostrat
har min fiende förgjort.

[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.

God’s Anger with Jerusalem

How the Lord has covered the daughter of Zion
With a (A)cloud in His anger!
(B)He cast down from heaven to the earth
(C)The beauty of Israel,
And did not remember (D)His footstool
In the day of His anger.

The Lord has swallowed up and has (E)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;
(F)He has profaned the kingdom and its princes.

He has cut off in fierce anger
Every [a]horn of Israel;
(G)He has drawn back His right hand
From before the enemy.
(H)He has blazed against Jacob like a flaming fire
Devouring all around.

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

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

He has done violence (M)to His [b]tabernacle,
(N)As if it were a garden;
He has destroyed His place of assembly;
The Lord has caused
The appointed feasts and Sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion.
In His burning indignation He has (O)spurned the king and the priest.

The Lord has spurned His altar,
He has (P)abandoned His sanctuary;
He has [c]given up the walls of her palaces
Into the hand of the enemy.
(Q)They have made a noise in the house of the Lord
As on the day of a set feast.

The Lord has [d]purposed to destroy
The (R)wall of the daughter of Zion.
(S)He has stretched out a line;
He has not withdrawn His hand from destroying;
Therefore He has caused the rampart and wall to lament;
They languished together.

Her gates have sunk into the ground;
He has destroyed and (T)broken her bars.
(U)Her king and her princes are among the [e]nations;
(V)The Law is no more,
And her (W)prophets find no [f]vision from the Lord.

10 The elders of the daughter of Zion
(X)Sit on the ground and keep silence;
[g]They (Y)throw dust on their heads
And (Z)gird themselves with sackcloth.
The virgins of Jerusalem
Bow their heads to the ground.

11 (AA)My eyes fail with tears,
My [h]heart is troubled;
(AB)My [i]bile is poured on the ground
Because of the destruction of the daughter of my people,
Because (AC)the children and the infants
Faint in the streets of the city.

12 They say to their mothers,
“Where is grain and wine?”
As they swoon like the wounded
In the streets of the city,
As their life is poured out
In their mothers’ bosom.

13 How shall I (AD)console[j] you?
To what shall I liken you,
O daughter of Jerusalem?
What shall I compare with you, that I may comfort you,
O virgin daughter of Zion?
For your ruin is spread wide as the sea;
Who can heal you?

14 Your (AE)prophets have seen for you
False and deceptive visions;
They have not (AF)uncovered your iniquity,
To bring back your captives,
But have envisioned for you false (AG)prophecies and delusions.

15 All who [k]pass by (AH)clap their hands at you;
They hiss (AI)and shake their heads
At the daughter of Jerusalem:
Is this the city that is called
(AJ)‘The perfection of beauty,
The joy of the whole earth’?”

16 (AK)All your enemies have opened their mouth against you;
They hiss and gnash their teeth.
They say, (AL)“We have swallowed her up!
Surely this is the (AM)day we have waited for;
We have found it, (AN)we have seen it!

17 The Lord has done what He (AO)purposed;
He has fulfilled His word
Which He commanded in days of old.
He has thrown down and has not pitied,
And He has caused an enemy to (AP)rejoice over you;
He has exalted the [l]horn of your adversaries.

18 Their heart cried out to the Lord,
“O wall of the daughter of Zion,
(AQ)Let tears run down like a river day and night;
Give yourself no relief;
Give [m]your eyes no rest.

19 “Arise, (AR)cry out in the night,
At the beginning of the watches;
(AS)Pour out your heart like water before the face of the Lord.
Lift your hands toward Him
For the life of your young children,
Who faint from hunger (AT)at the head of every street.”

20 “See, O Lord, and consider!
To whom have You done this?
(AU)Should the women eat their offspring,
The children [n]they have cuddled?
Should the priest and prophet be slain
In the sanctuary of the Lord?

21 “Young(AV) and old lie
On the ground in the streets;
My virgins and my young men
Have fallen by the (AW)sword;
You have slain them in the day of Your anger,
You have slaughtered and not pitied.

22 “You have invited as to a feast day
(AX)The terrors that surround me.
In the day of the Lord’s anger
There was no refugee or survivor.
(AY)Those whom I have borne and brought up
My enemies have (AZ)destroyed.”

Footnotes

  1. Lamentations 2:3 Strength
  2. Lamentations 2:6 Lit. booth
  3. Lamentations 2:7 delivered
  4. Lamentations 2:8 determined
  5. Lamentations 2:9 Gentiles
  6. Lamentations 2:9 Prophetic revelation
  7. Lamentations 2:10 A sign of mourning
  8. Lamentations 2:11 Lit. inward parts
  9. Lamentations 2:11 Lit. liver
  10. Lamentations 2:13 Or bear witness to
  11. Lamentations 2:15 Lit. pass by this way
  12. Lamentations 2:17 Strength
  13. Lamentations 2:18 Lit. the daughter of your eye
  14. Lamentations 2:20 Vg. a span long