The Lord has rejected his altar
    and abandoned his sanctuary.(A)
He has given the walls of her palaces(B)
    into the hands of the enemy;
they have raised a shout in the house of the Lord
    as on the day of an appointed festival.(C)

Read full chapter

Turn your steps toward these everlasting ruins,(A)
    all this destruction the enemy has brought on the sanctuary.

Your foes roared(B) in the place where you met with us;
    they set up their standards(C) as signs.
They behaved like men wielding axes
    to cut through a thicket of trees.(D)
They smashed all the carved(E) paneling
    with their axes and hatchets.
They burned your sanctuary to the ground;
    they defiled(F) the dwelling place(G) of your Name.(H)
They said in their hearts, “We will crush(I) them completely!”
    They burned(J) every place where God was worshiped in the land.

Read full chapter

21 Say to the people of Israel, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am about to desecrate my sanctuary(A)—the stronghold in which you take pride,(B) the delight of your eyes,(C) the object of your affection. The sons and daughters(D) you left behind will fall by the sword.(E)

Read full chapter

20 They took pride in their beautiful jewelry
    and used it to make(A) their detestable idols.
They made it into vile images;(B)
    therefore I will make it a thing unclean for them.(C)
21 I will give their wealth as plunder(D) to foreigners
    and as loot to the wicked of the earth,
    who will defile it.(E)
22 I will turn my face(F) away from the people,
    and robbers will desecrate the place I treasure.
They will enter it
    and will defile it.(G)

Read full chapter

13 He set fire(A) to the temple(B) of the Lord, the royal palace and all the houses(C) of Jerusalem. Every important building he burned down.

Read full chapter

59 When God heard(A) them, he was furious;(B)
    he rejected Israel(C) completely.
60 He abandoned the tabernacle of Shiloh,(D)
    the tent he had set up among humans.(E)
61 He sent the ark of his might(F) into captivity,(G)
    his splendor into the hands of the enemy.

Read full chapter

13 They produced false witnesses,(A) who testified, “This fellow never stops speaking against this holy place(B) and against the law. 14 For we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place(C) and change the customs Moses handed down to us.”(D)

Read full chapter

“Do you see all these things?” he asked. “Truly I tell you, not one stone here will be left on another;(A) every one will be thrown down.”

Read full chapter

12 Therefore because of you,
    Zion will be plowed like a field,
Jerusalem will become a heap of rubble,(A)
    the temple(B) hill a mound overgrown with thickets.(C)

Read full chapter

I will send fire(A) on Judah
    that will consume the fortresses(B) of Jerusalem.(C)

Read full chapter

24 I will bring the most wicked of nations
    to take possession of their houses.
I will put an end to the pride of the mighty,
    and their sanctuaries(A) will be desecrated.(B)

Read full chapter

The Lord is like an enemy;(A)
    he has swallowed up Israel.
He has swallowed up all her palaces
    and destroyed her strongholds.(B)
He has multiplied mourning and lamentation(C)
    for Daughter Judah.(D)

Read full chapter

[a]How the Lord has covered Daughter Zion
    with the cloud of his anger[b]!(A)
He has hurled down the splendor of Israel
    from heaven to earth;
he has not remembered his footstool(B)
    in the day of his anger.(C)

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. Lamentations 2:1 This chapter is an acrostic poem, the verses of which begin with the successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet.
  2. Lamentations 2:1 Or How the Lord in his anger / has treated Daughter Zion with contempt

Bible Gateway Recommends