Lamentations 2
Christian Standard Bible
Judgment on Jerusalem
א Aleph
2 How the Lord has overshadowed
Daughter Zion with his anger!
He has thrown down Israel’s glory
from heaven to earth.
He did not acknowledge his footstool(A)
in the day of his anger.(B)
ב Beth
2 Without compassion(C) the Lord has swallowed up
all the dwellings of Jacob.
In his wrath he has demolished
the fortified cities(D) of Daughter Judah.
He brought them to the ground
and defiled the kingdom and its leaders.(E)
ג Gimel
3 He has cut off every horn(F) of Israel
in his burning anger
and withdrawn his right hand(G)
in the presence of the enemy.
He has blazed against Jacob like a flaming fire
that consumes everything.(H)
ד Daleth
4 He has strung his bow like an enemy;(I)
his right hand is positioned like an adversary.
He has killed everyone who was the delight to the eye,(J)
pouring out his wrath like fire
on the tent of Daughter Zion.
ה He
5 The Lord is like an enemy;
he has swallowed up Israel.
He swallowed up all its palaces
and destroyed its fortified cities.
He has multiplied mourning and lamentation
within Daughter Judah.(K)
ו Waw
6 He has wrecked his temple[a]
as if it were merely a shack in a field,[b]
destroying his place of meeting.(L)
The Lord has abolished
appointed festivals and Sabbaths in Zion.
He has despised king and priest
in his fierce anger.
ז Zayin
7 The Lord has rejected his altar,
repudiated his sanctuary;(M)
he has handed the walls of her palaces
over to the enemy.
They have raised a shout in the house of the Lord
as on the day of an appointed festival.
ח Cheth
8 The Lord determined to destroy
the wall of Daughter Zion.
He stretched out a measuring line(N)
and did not restrain himself from destroying.
He made the ramparts and walls grieve;
together they waste away.
ט Teth
9 Zion’s gates have fallen to the ground;(O)
he has destroyed and shattered the bars on her gates.
Her king and her leaders live among the nations,
instruction[c] is no more,
and even her prophets receive
no vision from the Lord.(P)
י Yod
10 The elders of Daughter Zion
sit on the ground in silence.
They have thrown dust on their heads(Q)
and put on sackcloth.
The young women of Jerusalem
have bowed their heads to the ground.(R)
כ Kaph
11 My eyes are worn out from weeping;(S)
I am churning within.
My heart is poured out in grief[d](T)
because of the destruction of my dear people,(U)
because infants and nursing babies faint
in the streets of the city.(V)
ל Lamed
12 They cry out to their mothers,
“Where is the grain and wine?” (W)
as they faint like the wounded
in the streets of the city,
as their life pours out
in the arms of their mothers.
מ Mem
13 What can I say on your behalf?
What can I compare you to, Daughter Jerusalem?
What can I liken you to,
so that I may console you, Virgin Daughter Zion?
For your ruin is as vast as the sea.
Who can heal you?(X)
נ Nun
14 Your prophets saw visions for you
that were empty and deceptive;[e](Y)
they did not reveal your iniquity
and so restore your fortunes.(Z)
They saw pronouncements for you
that were empty and misleading.
ס Samek
15 All who pass by
scornfully clap their hands(AA) at you.
They hiss(AB) and shake their heads(AC)
at Daughter Jerusalem:
Is this the city that was called
the perfection of beauty,(AD)
the joy of the whole earth?(AE)
פ Pe
16 All your enemies
open their mouths against you.(AF)
They hiss and gnash their teeth,(AG)
saying, “We have swallowed her up.(AH)
This is the day we have waited for!
We have lived to see it.”
ע Ayin
17 The Lord has done what he planned;
he has accomplished his decree,
which he ordained in days of old.
He has demolished without compassion,(AI)
letting the enemy gloat over you
and exalting the horn of your adversaries.
צ Tsade
18 The hearts of the people cry out to the Lord.
Wall of Daughter Zion,(AJ)
let your tears run down like a river
day and night.(AK)
Give yourself no relief
and your[f] eyes no rest.
ק Qoph
19 Arise, cry out in the night
from the first watch of the night.
Pour out your heart like water
before the Lord’s presence.(AL)
Lift up your hands to him
for the lives of your children
who are fainting from hunger
at the head of every street.(AM)
ר Resh
20 Lord, look and consider
to whom you have done this.
Should women eat their own children,(AN)
the infants they have nurtured?[g]
Should priests and prophets
be killed in the Lord’s sanctuary?
שׁ Shin
21 Both young and old
are lying on the ground in the streets.
My young women and young men
have fallen by the sword.
You have killed them in the day of your anger,
slaughtering without compassion.(AO)
ת Taw
Lamentations 2
The Voice
2 Aaghh! How could the Lord surround Zion in a cloud of His anger
as if He has cast the beauty of Israel down from heaven to earth?
Majestic Israel, God’s footstool,
is debased by God’s anger in a moment of wrath.
2 Buried beneath the dust,
Jacob’s houses have been swallowed.
The Lord did this without mercy,
shattering her fortresses.
God brought down to the ground daughter Judah,
and defiled her kingdom and her leaders.
3 Cut down by God’s anger,
the pride and strength of Israel falls;
He withdrew His right hand and stood back and allowed Israel’s enemies
to wreak havoc in the land.
God has burned and consumed Jacob
in an insatiable fire.
4 Deployed like an enemy, God stood poised against Judah—
bow bent, right hand clinched—crashing down
On everything that we admired
among daughter Zion’s tents.
The anger of the Lord whipped like flickering flames to reduce it to ashes.
5 Enemy of ours—our God—who would have thought?
Yet the Lord chewed up Israel,
Swallowed its mighty palaces;
He spit out fortresses and reduced them to dust.
God increased suffering and sorrow
to a fever pitch in daughter Judah.
6 Felling His own dwelling like a garden hut,
God destroyed His meeting place;
He did away with the sacred festivals and Sabbaths in Zion,
and in fierce anger
He ignored and spurned our leaders—
our king and priests alike.
7 God disdained the most sacred religious spots—
His altar, His sanctuary, the centerpiece of our tradition.
The Lord gave our enemy full charge of the city,
palaces and all.
And in the temple itself, the Eternal’s house,
they hoot and holler as if it’s one of our sacred festivals.
For generations the Judeans have looked upon the temple in their midst as a comfort and even a protection. Jeremiah stood before the temple and preached to these same people that they should not trust in the lying words of others: “Change your ways and stop what you are doing, and I will let you live in this land. Do not rely on the misguided words, ‘The temple of the Eternal, the temple of the Eternal, the temple of the Eternal,’ as if the temple’s presence alone will protect you” (Jeremiah 7:3–4). Even good things from God can be misconstrued to turn us away from Him. Now the temple itself will be brought low because of the hard hearts of the people.
8 Hesitating not for one moment,
the Eternal measured across the city of daughter Zion;
Unrelenting, He was determined to destroy,
to bring the city down with rampart and wall
To its knees in rubble and grief.
9 Into the earth, Jerusalem’s defenses, the bars and gates, are sunk—
her leaders, both king and prince, scattered among surrounding nations,
Gone to foreign places.
Now there is no law, no wise instruction;
The prophets receive no divine visions;
who can see the Eternal’s way?
10 Jerusalem elders of daughter Zion are mute,
dispensing no precious wisdom.
They sit on the ground distraught, clad in sackcloth;
they hurl dust on their heads.
The young maidens of Jerusalem hang their heads
down to the ground.
11 Knowing the fate of Zion, my insides are in turmoil and pour out
for Jerusalem, the devastation of the daughter of my people.
I can’t see because of the tears for the children in the streets—
I can’t stop crying for infants and toddlers too weak to wail.
My people are destroyed.
12 Little Children: Mother, grain and wine—where is it?
Like the wounded,
collapsing in the city streets,
They pine and die
on their mother’s breast.
13 My dear daughter Jerusalem,
how can I tell your tragedy?
To what can I liken this disgrace?
O virgin daughter Zion, would that I could comfort you.
Who can heal your massive injury
that is as deep and wide as the sea?
14 Nothing but vanity from your prophets—
nothing but worthlessness from them;
They never warned and exposed you to correct your wicked ways
so that things would go well again with no captivity.
Instead, they told divine oracles of lies and deceit,
that everything was fine.
15 On your head, now, passersby heap scorn;
they wag their fingers, shake their heads at daughter Jerusalem.
Passersby: Is this the city everyone thought was so great—
a city of perfect beauty and
Earth’s pride and joy?
16 Pursuing you, your enemies cut you down.
Enemies: Ha! Would the day ever come? We’ve got her now!
Look, we’ve swallowed her whole, destroyed her.
We waited anxiously for today,
and we made it happen!
17 Question the Eternal One about what He has done.
He determined—punished according to the term and tenets
He laid down so long ago.
He executed fierce destruction without pity
And made your enemy glad.
He has made them prevail with might.
18 Raise your cry to the Lord with all your might!
Take no relief; be ceaseless in grief.
Lady Jerusalem: Oh walls, may your stones cry out,
cry out for daughter Zion;
Make rivers with tears of sorrow, rushing.
Do not cease from your weeping.
19 Stand up and yell in the night with all your heart;
call to God even while the city sleeps during the night watch;
Pour out your heart like water in the presence of the Lord!
Lift your hands and plead to Him for the lives of your children,
For the babies weak with hunger
dying on every street corner.
20 Take heed, Eternal One!
Look what You’ve done and to whom you have done this.
Can it be—women eat their offspring, even their tender newborns;
and in the most sacred places of the Eternal,
Priests and prophets are slaughtered?
21 Unable to go on, young and old fall,
lying in the dusty streets.
My strong young men and women, all unmarried,
are attacked and killed by Your sword in Your anger.
You are responsible for this mayhem and misery.
You, God, slew without pity.
22 Victims all, You summoned those terrors surrounding me
as if You were calling together a sacred festival.
On the day of Your divine wrath there was no escapee,
not even one survivor.
The ones whom I raised up and made numerous,
my enemy made a complete end of them.
The Christian Standard Bible. Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible®, and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers, all rights reserved.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.