Lamentations 2:11-22

English Standard Version

¹¹^(A)My eyes are spent with weeping;
    ^(B)my stomach churns;
^(C)my bile is poured out to the ground
    ^(D)because of the destruction of the daughter of my people,
^(E)because infants and babies ^(F)faint
    in the streets of the city.

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

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

¹⁴^(L)Your prophets have seen for you
    false and deceptive visions;
^(M)they have not exposed your iniquity
    to ^(N)restore your fortunes,
^(O)but have seen for you ^(P)oracles
    that are false and misleading.

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

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

¹⁷The Lord has done what he purposed;
    he has carried out ^(W)his word,
which he commanded ^(X)long ago;
    ^(Y)he has thrown down ^(Z)without pity;
^(AA)he has made the enemy rejoice over you
    and exalted the ^(AB)might of your foes.

¹⁸Their heart cried to the Lord.
    O ^(AC)wall of the daughter of Zion,
^(AD)let tears stream down like a torrent
    ^(AE)day and night!
^(AF)Give yourself no rest,
    ^(AG)your eyes no respite!

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

²⁰Look, O Lord, and see!
    ^(AL)With whom have you dealt thus?
^(AM)Should women eat the fruit of their womb,
    the children of ^(AN)their tender care?
Should ^(AO)priest and prophet be killed
    in the sanctuary of the Lord?

²¹In the dust of the streets
    ^(AP)lie the young and the old;
^(AQ)my young women and my young men
    have fallen by the sword;
^(AR)you have killed them in the day of your anger,
    slaughtering ^(AS)without pity.

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