Lamentations 2:1-3:38

New American Standard Bible 1995

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)glory of Israel,
And has not remembered His ^(D)footstool
In the day of His anger.
² The Lord has ^(E)swallowed up; He has not spared
All the habitations of Jacob.
In His wrath He has ^(F)thrown 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.
³ In fierce anger He has cut off
^[a]All the ^(I)strength of Israel;
He has ^(J)drawn back His right hand
From before the enemy.
And He has ^(K)burned in Jacob like a flaming fire
Consuming round about.
⁴ He has bent His ^(L)bow like an enemy;
He has set His right hand like an adversary
And slain all that were ^(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)swallowed up Israel;
He has swallowed up all its ^(Q)palaces,
He has destroyed its strongholds
And ^(R)multiplied in the daughter of Judah
Mourning and moaning.
⁶ And He has violently treated His ^[b]tabernacle like a garden booth;
He has ^(S)destroyed His appointed ^[c]meeting place.
The Lord has ^(T)caused to be forgotten
The appointed feast and sabbath in Zion,
And He has ^(U)despised king and priest
In the indignation of His anger.
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 the Lord
As in the day of an appointed feast.
⁸ The Lord ^[d]determined to destroy
The wall of the daughter of Zion.
He has ^(Y)stretched out a line,
He has not restrained His hand from ^[e]destroying,
And He has ^(Z)caused rampart and wall to lament;
They have languished together.
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 the Lord.
¹⁰ The elders of the daughter of Zion
^(AD)Sit on the ground, they ^(AE)are silent.
They have thrown ^(AF)dust on their heads;
They have girded themselves with ^(AG)sackcloth.
The ^(AH)virgins of Jerusalem
Have bowed their heads to the ground.
¹¹ My ^(AI)eyes fail because of tears,
My ^[f](AJ)spirit is greatly troubled;
My ^[g](AK)heart is poured out on the earth
^(AL)Because of the ^[h]destruction of the daughter of my people,
When ^(AM)little ones and infants faint
In the streets of the city.
¹² They say to their mothers,
“^(AN)Where is grain and wine?”
As they faint like a wounded man
In the streets of the city,
As their ^(AO)life is poured out
On their mothers’ bosom.
¹³ How shall I admonish you?
To what ^(AP)shall I compare you,
O daughter of Jerusalem?
To what shall I liken you as I comfort you,
O ^(AQ)virgin daughter of Zion?
For your ^[i]ruin is as vast as the sea;
Who can ^(AR)heal you?
¹⁴ Your ^(AS)prophets have seen for you
False and foolish visions;
And they have not ^(AT)exposed your iniquity
So as to restore you from captivity,
But they have ^(AU)seen for you false and misleading ^[j]oracles.
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)A joy to all the earth’?”
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 waited;
We have reached it, we have seen it.”
¹⁷ The Lord has ^(BD)done what He purposed;
He has accomplished His word
Which He commanded from days of old.
He has thrown down ^(BE)without sparing,
And He has caused the enemy to ^(BF)rejoice over you;
He has ^(BG)exalted the ^[k]might of your adversaries.
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 ^[l]your eyes have no rest.
¹⁹ “Arise, cry aloud in the ^(BK)night
At the beginning 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 little ones
Who are ^(BN)faint because of hunger
At the head of every street.”
²⁰ See, O Lord, and look!
With ^(BO)whom have You dealt thus?
Should women ^(BP)eat their ^[m]offspring,
The little ones who were ^[n]born healthy?
Should ^(BQ)priest and prophet be slain
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 slain them in the day of Your anger,
You have slaughtered, ^(BT)not sparing.
²² You called as in the day of an appointed feast
My ^(BU)terrors on every side;
And there was ^(BV)no one who escaped or survived
In the day of the Lord’s anger.
Those ^(BW)whom I ^[o]bore and reared,
My enemy annihilated them.

3 I am the man who has ^(BX)seen affliction
Because of the rod of His wrath.
² He has driven me and made me walk
In ^(BY)darkness and not in light.
³ Surely against me He has ^(BZ)turned His hand
Repeatedly all the day.
⁴ He has caused my ^(CA)flesh and my skin to waste away,
He has ^(CB)broken my bones.
⁵ He has ^(CC)besieged and encompassed me with ^(CD)bitterness and hardship.
⁶ In ^(CE)dark places He has made me dwell,
Like those who have long been dead.
⁷ He has ^(CF)walled me in so that I cannot go out;
He has made my ^[p](CG)chain heavy.
⁸ Even when I cry out and call for help,
He ^(CH)shuts out my prayer.
⁹ He has ^(CI)blocked my ways with hewn stone;
He has made my paths crooked.
¹⁰ He is to me like a bear lying in wait,
Like a lion in secret places.
¹¹ He has turned aside my ways and ^(CJ)torn me to pieces;
He has made me desolate.
¹² He ^(CK)bent His bow
And ^(CL)set me as a target for the arrow.
¹³ He made the ^[q]arrows of His ^(CM)quiver
To enter into my ^[r]inward parts.
¹⁴ I have become a ^(CN)laughingstock to all my people,
Their mocking ^(CO)song all the day.
¹⁵ He has ^(CP)filled me with bitterness,
He has made me drunk with wormwood.
¹⁶ He has ^(CQ)broken my teeth with ^(CR)gravel;
He has made me cower in the ^(CS)dust.
¹⁷ My soul has been rejected ^(CT)from peace;
I have forgotten ^[s]happiness.
¹⁸ So I say, “My strength has perished,
And so has my ^(CU)hope from the Lord.”

¹⁹ Remember my affliction and my ^[t]wandering, the ^(CV)wormwood and bitterness.
²⁰ Surely ^(CW)my soul remembers
And is ^(CX)bowed down within me.
²¹ This I recall to my mind,
Therefore I have ^(CY)hope.
²² The Lord’s ^(CZ)lovingkindnesses ^[u]indeed never cease,
^(DA)For His compassions never fail.
²³ They are new ^(DB)every morning;
Great is ^(DC)Your faithfulness.
²⁴ “The Lord is my ^(DD)portion,” says my soul,
“Therefore I ^(DE)have hope in Him.”
²⁵ The Lord is good to those who ^(DF)wait for Him,
To the ^[v]person who ^(DG)seeks Him.
²⁶ It is good that he ^(DH)waits silently
For the salvation of the Lord.
²⁷ It is good for a man that he should bear
The yoke in his youth.
²⁸ Let him ^(DI)sit alone and be silent
Since He has laid it on him.
²⁹ Let him ^[w]put his mouth in the ^(DJ)dust,
Perhaps there is ^(DK)hope.
³⁰ Let him give his ^(DL)cheek to ^[x]the smiter,
Let him be filled with reproach.
³¹ For the Lord will ^(DM)not reject forever,
³² For if He causes grief,
Then He will have ^(DN)compassion
According to His abundant lovingkindness.
³³ For He ^(DO)does not afflict ^[y]willingly
Or grieve the sons of men.
³⁴ To crush under His feet
All the prisoners of the ^[z]land,
³⁵ To ^[aa]deprive a man of ^(DP)justice
In the presence of the Most High,
³⁶ To ^[ab](DQ)defraud a man in his lawsuit—
Of these things the Lord does not ^[ac]approve.
³⁷ Who is ^[ad]there who speaks and it ^(DR)comes to pass,
Unless the Lord has commanded it?
³⁸ Is it not from the mouth of the Most High
That ^[ae](DS)both good and ill go forth?