How hath the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger, and cast down from heaven unto the earth the beauty of Israel, and remembered not his footstool in the day of his anger!

The Lord hath swallowed up all the habitations of Jacob, and hath not pitied: he hath thrown down in his wrath the strong holds of the daughter of Judah; he hath brought them down to the ground: he hath polluted the kingdom and the princes thereof.

He hath cut off in his fierce anger all the horn of Israel: he hath drawn back his right hand from before the enemy, and he burned against Jacob like a flaming fire, which devoureth round about.

He hath bent his bow like an enemy: he stood with his right hand as an adversary, and slew all that were pleasant to the eye in the tabernacle of the daughter of Zion: he poured out his fury like fire.

The Lord was as an enemy: he hath swallowed up Israel, he hath swallowed up all her palaces: he hath destroyed his strong holds, and hath increased in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation.

And he hath violently taken away his tabernacle, as if it were of a garden: he hath destroyed his places of the assembly: the Lord hath caused the solemn feasts and sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion, and hath despised in the indignation of his anger the king and the priest.

The Lord hath cast off his altar, he hath abhorred his sanctuary, he hath given up into the hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces; they have made a noise in the house of the Lord, as in the day of a solemn feast.

The Lord hath purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion: he hath stretched out a line, he hath not withdrawn his hand from destroying: therefore he made the rampart and the wall to lament; they languished together.

Her gates are sunk into the ground; he hath destroyed and broken her bars: her king and her princes are among the Gentiles: the law is no more; her prophets also find no vision from the Lord.

10 The elders of the daughter of Zion sit upon the ground, and keep silence: they have cast up dust upon their heads; they have girded themselves with sackcloth: the virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground.

11 Mine eyes do fail with tears, my bowels are troubled, my liver is poured upon the earth, for the destruction of the daughter of my people; because the children and the sucklings swoon in the streets of the city.

12 They say to their mothers, Where is corn and wine? when they swooned as the wounded in the streets of the city, when their soul was poured out into their mothers' bosom.

13 What thing shall I take to witness for thee? what thing shall I liken to thee, O daughter of Jerusalem? what shall I equal to thee, that I may comfort thee, O virgin daughter of Zion? for thy breach is great like the sea: who can heal thee?

14 Thy prophets have seen vain and foolish things for thee: and they have not discovered thine iniquity, to turn away thy captivity; but have seen for thee false burdens and causes of banishment.

15 All that pass by clap their hands at thee; they hiss and wag their head at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying, Is this the city that men call The perfection of beauty, The joy of the whole earth?

16 All thine enemies have opened their mouth against thee: they hiss and gnash the teeth: they say, We have swallowed her up: certainly this is the day that we looked for; we have found, we have seen it.

17 The Lord hath done that which he had devised; he hath fulfilled his word that he had commanded in the days of old: he hath thrown down, and hath not pitied: and he hath caused thine enemy to rejoice over thee, he hath set up the horn of thine adversaries.

18 Their heart cried unto the Lord, O wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears run down like a river day and night: give thyself no rest; let not the apple of thine eye cease.

19 Arise, cry out in the night: in the beginning of the watches pour out thine heart like water before the face of the Lord: lift up thy hands toward him for the life of thy young children, that faint for hunger in the top of every street.

20 Behold, O Lord, and consider to whom thou hast done this. Shall the women eat their fruit, and children of a span long? shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord?

21 The young and the old lie on the ground in the streets: my virgins and my young men are fallen by the sword; thou hast slain them in the day of thine anger; thou hast killed, and not pitied.

22 Thou hast called as in a solemn day my terrors round about, so that in the day of the Lord's anger none escaped nor remained: those that I have swaddled and brought up hath mine enemy consumed.

The Lord is Angry

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]
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]
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.

Notas al pie

  1. Lamentations 2:1 Literally “in his nose”
  2. Lamentations 2:1 Literally “his nose”
  3. Lamentations 2:2 Or “her commanders”
  4. Lamentations 2:3 Literally “in a fierce nose”
  5. Lamentations 2:4 NRSV translates “all in whom we took pride”
  6. Lamentations 2:5 Or “her citadel fortresses”
  7. Lamentations 2:6 Literally “his booth”; or “his tabernacle”
  8. Lamentations 2:6 Literally “appointed time”
  9. Lamentations 2:7 Or “her citadel fortress”
  10. Lamentations 2:9 Hebrew torah
  11. Lamentations 2:11 Literally “finished with the weeping”
  12. Lamentations 2:11 Literally “my inward parts”
  13. Lamentations 2:11 Literally “my liver”
  14. Lamentations 2:17 Literally “horn”
  15. Lamentations 2:21 Or “my virgins”
  16. Lamentations 2:21 Literally “your nose”