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The Condition of Israel

How the Lord in his wrath
    shamed[a] cherished[b] Zion!
He cast down from heaven to earth
    the glory of Israel,
He did not remember his footstool[c]
    in the time of his anger.

The Lord swallowed up without pity
    all of Jacob’s habitations.
In his wrath he tore down
    the strongholds of fair Judah.[d]
He cast to the ground in dishonor
    both her kingdom and its rulers.

In his fierce wrath he cut off
    all the strength[e] of Israel.
He withdrew his protection[f]
    as the enemy approached.[g]
He burned Jacob like a blazing fire
    consumes everything around it.

He bent his bow against us[h] as would an enemy,
    his right hand cocked as would an adversary.
He has killed everyone in whom we took pride;
    in the tent of cherished[i] Zion he poured out
        his anger like fire.

The Lord has become like an enemy—
    he has devoured Israel.
He has devoured all of her palaces,
    destroying her fortresses.
He filled cherished Judah[j]
    with mourning and lament.

He plowed under his Temple[k] like a garden,
    spoiling his tent.
The Lord abolished in Zion
    both festivals and Sabbaths.
In his fierce wrath he despised
    both king and priest.

The Lord rejected his altar,
    disavowing his sanctuary.
He gave up her palace walls
    to the control of the enemy.
They shouted in the Lord’s Temple,
    as though they were attending a day of celebration.

The Lord planned to destroy
    the walls of cherished[l] Zion.
He measured them with his line.
    He did not withhold his hand from destruction.
He made both ramparts and defensive walls mourn;
    they languish together.

Jerusalem’s[m] gates collapsed to the ground;
    he destroyed and broke the bars of her gates.[n]
Both king and prince have gone into captivity.[o]
    There is no instruction,[p]
and the prophets receive
    no vision from the Lord.

10 The leaders of cherished[q] Zion
    sit silently on the ground;
they throw dust on their heads
    and dress in mourning clothes.
The young women of Jerusalem
    bow their heads in sorrow.[r]

11 My eyes are worn out from crying,
    my insides are churning,
My emotions pour out in grief[s]
    because my people are destroyed—
Children and infants faint
    in the streets of the city.

12 They ask their mothers,
    “Is there anything to eat or drink?”[t]
They faint in the streets of the city
    like wounded men.
Their life ebbs away
    while they lie on their mother’s bosom.

13 What can be said about you?
    To what should you be compared, fair[u] Jerusalem?
To what may I liken you,
    so I may comfort you, fair one[v] of Zion?
Indeed, your wound is as deep as the sea—
    who can heal you?

14 Your prophets look on your behalf;
    they see false and deceptive visions.
They did not expose your sins
    in order to restore what had been captured.[w]
Instead, they crafted oracles for you
    that are false and misleading.

15 Everyone who passes by on the road
    shake their fists[x] at you.
They hiss and shake their heads
    at cherished[y] Jerusalem:
“Is this the city men used to call ‘The Perfection of Beauty,’
    and ‘The Joy of the Entire Earth’”?

16 All of your enemies
    insult you with gaping mouths.
They hiss and grind their teeth while saying,
    “We have devoured her completely.
Yes, this is the day that we anticipated!
    We found it at last;[z] we have seen it!”

17 The Lord did what he planned.
    He carried out his threat.
Just as he commanded long ago,
    he has torn down without pity;
He let the enemy boast about you
    and has exalted the power[aa] of your enemies.

18 Cry out from your heart to the Lord,
    wall of fair[ab] Zion!
Let your tears run down like a river
    day and night.
Allow yourself no rest,
    and don’t stop crying.

19 Get up and cry aloud in the night,
    at the beginning of every hour.[ac]
Pour out your heart like water
    in the presence of the Lord!
Lift up your hands toward him
    for the lives of your children,
who are fainting away
    at every street corner.

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Footnotes

  1. Lamentations 2:1 Or enveloped
  2. Lamentations 2:1 Lit. the daughter of
  3. Lamentations 2:1 I.e. the Temple
  4. Lamentations 2:2 Lit. of the daughter of Judah
  5. Lamentations 2:3 Lit. every horn
  6. Lamentations 2:3 Lit. his right hand
  7. Lamentations 2:3 Lit. in front of the enemy
  8. Lamentations 2:4 The Heb. lacks against us
  9. Lamentations 2:4 Lit. of the daughter of
  10. Lamentations 2:5 Lit. the daughters of Judah
  11. Lamentations 2:6 Lit. tent
  12. Lamentations 2:8 Lit. of the daughter of
  13. Lamentations 2:9 Lit. Her
  14. Lamentations 2:9 The Heb. lacks gates
  15. Lamentations 2:9 Lit. into the nations
  16. Lamentations 2:9 Or Law; or The priests do not give their guidance
  17. Lamentations 2:10 Lit. of the daughter of
  18. Lamentations 2:10 Lit. heads to the ground
  19. Lamentations 2:11 Lit. my liver empties upon the ground
  20. Lamentations 2:12 Lit. any grain and wine
  21. Lamentations 2:13 Lit. daughter of
  22. Lamentations 2:13 Lit. virgin daughter
  23. Lamentations 2:14 Lit. restore your captivity
  24. Lamentations 2:15 Or road clap their hands
  25. Lamentations 2:15 Lit. at the daughter
  26. Lamentations 2:16 The Heb. lacks at last
  27. Lamentations 2:17 Lit. horn
  28. Lamentations 2:18 Lit. of the daughter of
  29. Lamentations 2:19 Lit. of the night watches

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.”

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  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”