Lamentations 2
New American Standard Bible
God’s Anger over Israel
2 How the Lord has [a](A)covered the daughter of Zion
With a cloud in His anger!
He has (B)hurled
The (C)glory of Israel from heaven to earth,
And has not remembered His (D)footstool
In the day of His anger.
2 The Lord has [b](E)destroyed; He has not spared
All the settlements of Jacob.
In His wrath He has (F)overthrown
The strongholds of the daughter of Judah,
He has (G)hurled them down to the ground;
He has (H)profaned the kingdom and its leaders.
3 In fierce anger He has cut off
[c]All the (I)strength of Israel;
He has (J)pulled back His right hand
From the enemy.
And He has (K)burned in Jacob like a flaming fire
Consuming on all sides.
4 He has bent His (L)bow like an enemy;
His right hand is positioned like an adversary,
And He has killed everything that was (M)pleasant to the eye.
In the tent of the daughter of Zion
He has (N)poured out His wrath like fire.
5 The Lord has become like an (O)enemy.
He has (P)engulfed Israel;
He has engulfed all its (Q)palaces,
He has destroyed its strongholds
And (R)caused great mourning and grieving in the daughter of Judah.
6 And He has treated His [d]tabernacle violently, like a despised garden;
He has (S)destroyed His appointed [e]meeting place.
The Lord has (T)caused
The appointed feast and Sabbath in Zion to be forgotten,
And He has (U)despised king and priest
In the indignation of His anger.
7 The Lord has (V)rejected His altar,
He has [f]repudiated His sanctuary;
He (W)has handed over
The walls of her palaces to the enemy.
They have made a (X)noise in the house of the Lord
As on the day of an appointed feast.
8 The Lord determined to destroy
The wall of the daughter of Zion.
He has (Y)stretched out a line,
He has not restrained His hand from [g]destroying,
And He has (Z)caused rampart and wall to mourn;
They have languished together.
9 Her (AA)gates have sunk into the ground,
He has destroyed and broken her bars.
Her king and her leaders are among the nations;
The (AB)Law is gone.
Her prophets, too, find
(AC)No vision from the Lord.
10 The elders of the daughter of Zion
(AD)Sit on the ground and [h](AE)are silent.
They have thrown (AF)dust on their heads;
They have put on (AG)sackcloth.
The (AH)virgins of Jerusalem
Have bowed their heads to the ground.
11 My (AI)eyes fail because of tears,
My [i](AJ)spirit is greatly troubled;
My [j](AK)heart is poured out on the earth
(AL)Because of the [k]destruction of the daughter of my people,
When (AM)little ones and infants languish
In the streets of the city.
12 They say to their mothers,
“(AN)Where is grain and wine?”
As they faint like a wounded person
In the streets of the city,
As their (AO)lives are poured out
[l]In their mothers’ arms.
13 How shall I admonish you?
What (AP)shall I compare to you,
Daughter of Jerusalem?
What shall I liken to you as I comfort you,
(AQ)Virgin daughter of Zion?
For your collapse is as vast as the sea;
Who can (AR)heal you?
14 Your (AS)prophets have seen for you
Worthless and deceptive visions;
And they have not (AT)exposed your wrongdoing
So as to restore you from captivity,
But they have (AU)seen for you worthless and misleading pronouncements.
15 All who pass along the way
(AV)Clap their hands in ridicule at you;
They (AW)[m]hiss and shake their heads
At the daughter of Jerusalem:
“Is this the city of which they said,
‘(AX)Perfect in beauty,
(AY)A joy to all the earth’?”
16 All (AZ)your enemies
Have opened their mouths wide against you;
They [n]hiss and (BA)gnash their teeth.
They say, “We have (BB)engulfed her!
This certainly is the (BC)day which we awaited;
We have reached it, we have seen it!”
17 The Lord has (BD)done what He determined;
He has accomplished His word
Which He commanded from days of old.
He has torn down (BE)without sparing,
And He has helped the enemy to (BF)rejoice over you;
He has (BG)exalted the [o]might of your adversaries.
18 Their (BH)heart cried out to the Lord:
“You (BI)wall of the daughter of Zion,
Let your (BJ)tears stream down like a river day and night;
Give yourself no relief,
Let [p]your eyes have no rest.
19 Arise, whimper in the (BK)night
At the beginning of the night watches;
(BL)Pour out your heart like water
Before the presence of the Lord;
Raise your hands to Him
For the (BM)life of your little ones
Who (BN)languish because of hunger
At the head of every street.
20 See, Lord, and look!
With (BO)whom have You dealt this way?
Should women really (BP)eat their [q]children,
The little ones who were [r]born healthy?
Should (BQ)priest and prophet really be killed
In the sanctuary of the Lord?
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 put them to death on the day of Your anger,
You have slaughtered, (BT)without sparing.
22 You called as on the day of an appointed feast
My (BU)terrors on every side;
And there was (BV)no one who survived or escaped
On the day of the Lord’s anger.
As for those (BW)whom I brought forth healthy and whom I raised,
My enemy annihilated them.”
Footnotes
- Lamentations 2:1 Or scorned...Zion in His anger
- Lamentations 2:2 Lit engulfed
- Lamentations 2:3 Lit Every horn
- Lamentations 2:6 Or booth
- Lamentations 2:6 Or feast
- Lamentations 2:7 I.e., scornfully rejected
- Lamentations 2:8 Lit engulfing
- Lamentations 2:10 Another reading is wail
- Lamentations 2:11 Lit inward parts are in ferment
- Lamentations 2:11 Lit liver
- Lamentations 2:11 Lit breaking
- Lamentations 2:12 Lit on...breast
- Lamentations 2:15 Or whistle
- Lamentations 2:16 Or whistle
- 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
Lexham English Bible
The Lord is Angry
2 How, in his anger,[a]
the Lord has covered the daughter of Zion in a cloud!
He has thrown down from heavens to earth
the splendor of Israel,
and he has not remembered his footstool
in the day of his anger.[b]
2 The Lord has devoured; he has not shown mercy
to all the dwellings of Jacob;
he has broken down in his wrath
the fortifications of the daughter of Judah;
he has leveled to the ground, he has dishonored
the kingdom and its commanders.[c]
3 He has cut down in fierce anger[d]
all the might of Israel;
he has withdrawn his right hand
from the faces of the enemy,
and he has burned in Jacob like a flaming fire,
it has consumed all around.
4 He has bent his bow like an enemy;
he has set his right hand
like a foe, and he has slain
all the treasures of the eye;[e]
in the tent of the daughter of Zion,
he has poured out his anger like fire.
5 The Lord has become like an enemy;
he has destroyed Israel;
he has destroyed all its citadel fortresses;[f]
he has ruined all its fortifications
and multiplied lamentation and mourning
in the daughter of Judah.
6 He has broken down his dwelling[g] place like the garden;
he has ruined his appointed feasts;
Yahweh has made them forget in Zion
festival[h] and Sabbath,
and he has despised in his anger
king and priest.
7 The Lord has rejected his altar;
he has rejected his sanctuary;
he has delivered into the hands of the enemy
the walls of its citadel fortresses.[i]
They have cried out in the house of Yahweh
like a day of an appointed feast.
8 Yahweh has planned to destroy
the wall of the daughter of Zion.
He measured with a line; he has not restrained
his hand from destroying;
he caused rampart and wall to mourn;
together they have languished away.
9 Her gates have sunk into the earth;
he has ruined and broken her bars,
her kings and its princes are among the nations;
there is no more law.[j]
Also, her prophets have not found
a revelation from Yahweh.
10 They sit on the ground,
the elders of the daughter of Zion are silent.
They cast dust on their head,
they have put on sackcloth;
the young women of Jerusalem
have bowed their head down to the ground.
11 My eyes have spent all their tears;[k]
my stomach[l] is in torment,
my heart[m] is poured out on the earth
because of the destruction of the daughter of my people,
because child and babe faint
in the public squares of a city.
12 To their mothers they say,
“Where is the bread and wine?”
as they faint like the wounded
in the public squares of a city,
as their life is being poured out
onto the bosom of their mothers.
13 What can I say for you? What can I compare to you,
O daughter of Jerusalem?
To what can I liken you so that I can comfort you,
O virgin daughter of Zion?
For your destruction is as vast as the sea;
who can heal you?
14 Your prophets had a vision for you,
false and worthless;
they have not exposed your sin,
to restore your fortune;
they have seen oracles for you,
false and misleading.
15 They clap hands over you,
all who pass along the way;
they hiss and they shake their head,
at the daughter of Jerusalem.
Is this the city of which it is said,
“A perfection of beauty, a joy for all the earth?”
16 They have opened their mouths against you,
all your enemies.
They hiss and gnash a tooth,
and they say, “We have destroyed her!
Surely this is the day we have hoped for;
we have found it, we have seen it!”
17 Yahweh has done what he has planned;
he has fulfilled his promise
that he ordained from the days of old;
he has demolished and not shown mercy;
he has made an enemy rejoice over you,
he has exalted the might[n] of your foes.
18 Their heart cried to the Lord,
“O wall of the daughter of Zion,
let tears stream down like a river;
day and night,
do not give yourself relief,
do not give your eyes rest.
19 “Arise, cry out in the night,
at the beginning of the night watches;
pour out your heart like water,
before the face of the Lord.
Lift to him your hands,
for the life of your children,
who faint in starvation,
at the head of all streets.”
20 See, Yahweh, and take note!
With whom have you dealt thus?
Should women eat their young
children of tender care?
Should priest and prophet be slain
in the sanctuary of the Lord?
21 They lie in the soil of the streets,
young and old;
my young women[o] and young men,
they have fallen by the sword;
you have slain on the day of your anger,[p]
you have slaughtered and not shown mercy.
22 You have summoned my horror from all around,
as if for a feast day;
no one on the day of Yahweh’s anger
is a fugitive and a survivor;
whoever I have cared for and reared,
my enemy has destroyed.
Footnotes
- Lamentations 2:1 Literally “in his nose”
- Lamentations 2:1 Literally “his nose”
- Lamentations 2:2 Or “her commanders”
- Lamentations 2:3 Literally “in a fierce nose”
- Lamentations 2:4 NRSV translates “all in whom we took pride”
- Lamentations 2:5 Or “her citadel fortresses”
- Lamentations 2:6 Literally “his booth”; or “his tabernacle”
- Lamentations 2:6 Literally “appointed time”
- Lamentations 2:7 Or “her citadel fortress”
- Lamentations 2:9 Hebrew torah
- Lamentations 2:11 Literally “finished with the weeping”
- Lamentations 2:11 Literally “my inward parts”
- Lamentations 2:11 Literally “my liver”
- Lamentations 2:17 Literally “horn”
- Lamentations 2:21 Or “my virgins”
- Lamentations 2:21 Literally “your nose”
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