Lamentations 2
Legacy Standard Bible
The Anger of Yahweh
Aleph
2 How the Lord has (A)covered the daughter of Zion
With a cloud in His anger!
He has (B)cast from heaven to earth
The (C)beauty of Israel,
And has not remembered the (D)footstool of His feet
In the day of His anger.
Beth
2 The Lord has (E)swallowed up; He has not spared
All the habitations of Jacob.
In His wrath He has (F)pulled down
The strongholds of the daughter of Judah;
He has (G)brought them down to the ground;
He has (H)profaned the kingdom and its princes.
Gimel
3 In [a]hot anger He has cut in pieces
[b]All the (I)strength of Israel;
He has (J)turned back His right hand
From before the enemy.
And He has (K)burned in Jacob like a flaming fire
Devouring round about.
Daleth
4 He has bent His (L)bow like an enemy;
He has set His right hand like an adversary
And killed all that were (M)desirable to the eye;
In the tent of the daughter of Zion
He has (N)poured out His wrath like fire.
He
5 The Lord has become like an (O)enemy.
He has (P)swallowed up Israel;
He has swallowed up all its (Q)palaces;
He has brought its strongholds to ruin
And (R)multiplied in the daughter of Judah
Mourning and moaning.
Vav
6 And He has violently treated His [c]tabernacle like a garden booth;
He has (S)brought His appointed [d]meeting place to ruin.
Yahweh has (T)caused to be forgotten
The appointed time and sabbath in Zion,
And He has (U)spurned king and priest
In the indignation of His anger.
Zayin
7 The Lord has (V)rejected His altar;
He has abandoned His sanctuary;
He (W)has delivered into the hand of the enemy
The walls of her palaces.
They have made a (X)noise in the house of Yahweh
As in the day of an appointed time.
Heth
8 Yahweh [e]determined to bring to ruin
The wall of the daughter of Zion.
He has (Y)stretched out a line;
He has not turned His hand back from swallowing up,
And He has (Z)caused rampart and wall to mourn;
They have languished together.
Teth
9 Her (AA)gates have sunk into the ground;
He has destroyed and broken her bars.
Her king and her princes are among the nations;
The (AB)law is no more.
Also, her prophets find
(AC)No vision from Yahweh.
Yodh
10 The elders of the daughter of Zion
(AD)Sit on the ground; they (AE)are silent.
They have thrown (AF)dust up on their heads;
They have girded themselves with (AG)sackcloth.
The (AH)virgins of Jerusalem
Have bowed their heads down to the ground.
Kaph
11 My (AI)eyes fail because of tears;
My [f](AJ)inmost being is greatly disturbed;
My [g](AK)heart is poured out on the earth
(AL)Because of the [h]destruction of the daughter of my people,
When (AM)infants and nursing babies faint
In the open squares of the city.
Lamedh
12 They say to their mothers,
“(AN)Where is grain and wine?”
As they faint like a wounded man
In the open squares of the city,
As their (AO)life is poured out
On their mothers’ bosom.
Mem
13 What shall I testify about you?
To what (AP)shall I equate you,
O daughter of Jerusalem?
To what shall I liken you as I comfort you,
O (AQ)virgin daughter of Zion?
For your [i]destruction is as vast as the sea;
Who can (AR)heal you?
Nun
14 Your (AS)prophets have beheld for you
Worthless and ineffective visions;
And they have not (AT)uncovered your iniquity
So as to [j]return you from captivity,
But they have (AU)beheld for you worthless and misleading [k]oracles.
Samekh
15 All who pass along the way
(AV)Clap their hands in derision at you;
They (AW)hiss and shake their heads
At the daughter of Jerusalem,
“Is this the city of which they said,
‘(AX)The perfection of beauty,
(AY)The joy of the whole earth’?”
Pe
16 All (AZ)your enemies
Have opened their mouths wide against you;
They hiss and (BA)gnash their teeth.
They say, “We have (BB)swallowed her up!
Surely this is the (BC)day for which we have hoped;
We have found it, we have seen it.”
Ayin
17 Yahweh has (BD)done what He purposed;
He has completed His word
Which He commanded from days of old.
He has pulled down (BE)without sparing,
And He has caused the enemy to (BF)be glad over you;
He has (BG)exalted the [l]might of your adversaries.
Tsadhe
18 Their (BH)heart cried out to the Lord,
“O (BI)wall of the daughter of Zion,
Let your (BJ)tears run down like a river day and night;
Give yourself no relief;
Let [m]your eyes not be still.
Qoph
19 Arise, cry aloud in the (BK)night
At the head of the night watches;
(BL)Pour out your heart like water
Before the presence of the Lord;
Lift up your hands to Him
For the (BM)life of your infants
Who are (BN)faint because of hunger
At the head of every street.”
Resh
20 See, O Yahweh, and look!
With (BO)whom have You dealt thus?
Should women (BP)eat their [n]offspring,
The infants who were [o]born healthy?
Should (BQ)priest and prophet be killed
In the sanctuary of the Lord?
Shin
21 On the ground in the streets
Lie (BR)young and old;
My (BS)virgins and my young men
Have fallen by the sword.
You have killed them in the day of Your anger;
You have slaughtered, (BT)not sparing.
Tav
22 You called as in the day of an appointed time
My (BU)terrors on every side;
And there was (BV)no one who escaped or survived
In the day of Yahweh’s anger.
Those (BW)whom I [p]gave birth to and reared,
My enemy consumed them.
Footnotes
- Lamentations 2:3 Lit burning
- Lamentations 2:3 Lit Every horn
- Lamentations 2:6 Lit booth
- Lamentations 2:6 Or time, cf. 2:6b, 7
- Lamentations 2:8 Lit thought
- Lamentations 2:11 Lit inward parts are in ferment
- Lamentations 2:11 Lit liver
- Lamentations 2:11 Lit breaking
- Lamentations 2:13 Lit breaking
- Lamentations 2:14 Or restore
- Lamentations 2:14 Lit burdens
- Lamentations 2:17 Lit horn
- Lamentations 2:18 Lit the daughter of your eye
- Lamentations 2:20 Lit fruit
- Lamentations 2:20 Or tenderly cared for
- Lamentations 2:22 Lit bore healthy, tenderly cared for
Lamentations 2
Common English Bible
God’s anger toward Jerusalem
2 Oh, no!
In anger, my Lord put Daughter Zion under a cloud;[a]
he threw Israel’s glory from heaven down to earth.
On that day of wrath, he didn’t consider his own footstool.
2 Showing no compassion, my Lord devoured each of Jacob’s meadows;
in his wrath he tore down the walled cities of Daughter Judah.
The kingdom and its officials, he forced to the ground, shamed.
3 In his burning rage, he cut off each of Israel’s horns;
right in front of the enemy, he withdrew his strong hand;
he burned against Jacob like a flaming fire that ate up everything nearby.
4 He bent his bow as an enemy would; his strong hand was poised like an adversary.
He killed every precious thing in sight;
he poured out his wrath like fire on Daughter Zion’s tent.
5 My Lord has become like an enemy. He devoured Israel;
he devoured all her palaces; he made ruins of her city walls.
In Daughter Judah he multiplied mourning along with more mourning!
6 He wrecked his own booth like a garden; he destroyed his place for festivals.
The Lord made Zion forget both festival and sabbath;
in his fierce rage, he scorned both monarch and priest.
7 My Lord rejected his altar, he abandoned his sanctuary;
he handed Zion’s palace walls over to enemies.
They shouted in the Lord’s own house as if it were a festival day.
8 The Lord planned to destroy Daughter Zion’s wall.
He stretched out a measuring line, didn’t stop himself from devouring.
He made barricades and walls wither—together they wasted away.
9 Zion’s gates sank into the ground; he broke and shattered her bars;
her king and her officials are now among the nations. There is no Instruction![b]
Even her prophets couldn’t find a vision from the Lord.
10 Daughter Zion’s elders sit on the ground and mourn.
They throw dust on their heads; they put on mourning clothes.
Jerusalem’s young women bow their heads all the way to the ground.
11 My eyes are worn out from weeping; my stomach is churning.
My insides are poured on the ground because the daughter of my people is shattered,
because children and babies are fainting in the city streets.
12 They say to their mothers, “Where are grain and wine?”
while fainting like the wounded in the city streets,
while their lives are draining away at their own mothers’ breasts.
13 What can I testify about you, Daughter Jerusalem?[c] To what could I compare you?
With what could I equate you? How can I comfort you, young woman Daughter Zion?
Your hurt is as vast as the sea. Who can heal you?
14 Your prophets gave you worthless and empty visions.
They didn’t reveal your sin so as to prevent your captivity.
Instead, they showed you worthless and incorrect prophecies.
15 All who pass by on the road clap their hands about you;
they whistle, shaking their heads at Daughter Jerusalem:
“Could this be the city called Perfect Beauty, the Joy of All the Earth?”
16 All your enemies open wide their mouths against you;
they whistle, grinding their teeth. They say, “We have devoured!
This is definitely the day we’ve been waiting for. We’ve seen it come to pass.”
17 The Lord did what he had planned. He accomplished the word
that he had commanded long ago. He ripped down, showing no compassion.
He made the enemy rejoice over you; he raised up your adversaries’ horn.
18 Cry out to my Lord from the heart,[d] you wall of Daughter Zion;
make your[e] tears run down like a flood all day and night.
Don’t relax at all; don’t rest your eyes a moment.
19 Get up and cry out at nighttime, at the start of the night shift; pour out your heart before my Lord like water.
Lift your hands up to him for the life of your children—
the ones who are fainting from hunger on every street corner.
20 Lord, look and see to whom you have done this!
Should women eat their own offspring, their own beautiful babies?
Should priest and prophet be killed in my Lord’s own sanctuary?
21 Young and old alike lie on the ground in the streets;
my young women and young men fall dead by the sword.
On the day of your anger, you killed; you slaughtered, showing no compassion.
22 You invited—as if to a festival!—terrors[f] from every side.
On the day of the Lord’s anger, no one escaped, not one survived.
The children that I nurtured, that I raised myself, my enemy finished them off.
Footnotes
- Lamentations 2:1 Heb uncertain
- Lamentations 2:9 Heb Torah
- Lamentations 2:13 Or How can I warn you? or To what could I liken you?; Heb uncertain
- Lamentations 2:18 Correction; or their heart cried out to my Lord
- Lamentations 2:18 Heb lacks your.
- Lamentations 2:22 Correction; or my attackers
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