Lamentations 2:18-22

New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised Catholic Edition

¹⁸ Cry aloud^[a] to the Lord!
    O wall of daughter Zion!
Let tears stream down like a torrent
    day and night!
Give yourself no rest,
    your eyes no respite!

¹⁹ Arise, cry out in the night,
    at the beginning of the watches!
Pour out your heart like water
    before the presence of the Lord!
Lift your hands to him
    for the lives of your children,
who faint for hunger
    at the head of every street.

²⁰ Look, O Lord, and consider!
    To whom have you done this?
Should women eat their offspring,
    the children they have borne?
Should priest and prophet be killed
    in the sanctuary of the Lord?

²¹ The young and the old are lying
    on the ground in the streets;
my young women and my young men
    have fallen by the sword;
on the day of your anger you have killed them,
    slaughtering without mercy.

²² You invited my enemies from all around
    as if for a day of festival;
and on the day of the anger of the Lord
    no one escaped or survived;
those whom I bore and reared
    my enemy has destroyed.