Old/New Testament
Jerusalem Cries over Her Destruction
1 Jerusalem once was full of people.
But now the city is empty.
Jerusalem once was a great city among the nations.
But now she[a] has become like a widow.
She was like a queen of all the other cities.
But now she is a slave.
2 She cries loudly at night.
Tears are on her cheeks.
There is no one to comfort her.
All her lovers are gone.
All her friends have turned against her.
They have become her enemies.
3 Judah has gone into captivity.
She has suffered and worked hard.
She lives among other nations.
But she has found no rest.
Those who chased her caught her.
They caught her when she was in trouble.
4 The roads to Jerusalem are sad.
No one comes to Jerusalem for the feasts.
No one passes through her gates.
And her priests groan.
Her young women are suffering.
And Jerusalem suffers terribly.
5 Her enemies have become her masters.
Her enemies enjoy the wealth they have won.
The Lord is punishing her
for her many sins.
Her children have gone away.
They are captives of the enemy in a foreign land.
6 The beauty of Jerusalem
has gone away.
Her rulers are like deer
that cannot find food.
They are weak and have run away
from those who chased them.
7 Jerusalem is suffering and homeless.
She remembers all the precious things
she had in the past.
She remembers when her people were defeated by the enemy.
There was no one to help her.
When her enemies saw her,
they laughed to see her ruined.
8 Jerusalem sinned terribly.
So she has become unclean.
Those who honored her hate her now
because they have seen her nakedness.
Jerusalem groans
and turns away.
9 Jerusalem made herself unclean by her sins.
She did not think about what would happen to her.
Her defeat was surprising.
There was no one to comfort her.
She says, “Lord, see how I suffer.
The enemy has won.”
10 The enemy reached out and took
all her precious things.
She even saw foreigners
enter her Temple.
Lord, you had commanded
that they should not enter the meeting of your people.
11 All of Jerusalem’s people are groaning.
They are looking for bread.
They are giving away their precious things for food
so they can stay alive.
The city says, “Look, Lord, and see.
I am hated.”
12 Jerusalem says, “You who pass by on the road don’t seem to care.
Come, look at me and see.
Is there any pain like mine?
Is there any pain like that he has caused me?
The Lord has punished me
on the day of his great anger.
13 “The Lord sent fire from above.
It went down into my bones.
He stretched out a net for my feet.
He turned me back.
He made me sad and lonely.
I am weak all day.
14 “He has noticed my sins.
They are tied together by his hands.
They hang around my neck.
He has turned my strength into weakness.
The Lord has let me be defeated
by those who are stronger than I am.
15 “The Lord has rejected
all my mighty men inside my walls.
He brought an army against me
to destroy my young men.
As if in a winepress, the Lord has crushed
the capital city of Judah.
16 “I cry about these things.
My eyes overflow with tears.
There is no one near to comfort me.
There is no one who can give me strength again.
My children are left sad and lonely
because the enemy has won.”
17 Jerusalem reaches out her hands,
but there is no one to comfort her.
The Lord has commanded for the people of Jacob
that their enemies surround them.
Jerusalem has become unclean
like those around her.
18 Jerusalem says, “The Lord is right.
But I refused to obey him.
Listen, all you people.
Look at my pain.
My young women and men
have gone into captivity.
19 “I called out to my friends,
but they turned against me.
My priests and my elders
have died in the city.
They were looking for food
so they could stay alive.
20 “Look at me, Lord. I am upset.
I am troubled.
My heart is troubled
because I have been so stubborn.
Out in the streets, the sword kills.
Inside the houses, death destroys.
21 “People have heard my groaning.
There is no one to comfort me.
All my enemies have heard of my trouble.
They are happy that you have done this to me.
Now bring that day you have announced.
Let my enemies be like me.
22 “Look at all their evil.
Do to them what you have done to me
because of all my sins.
I groan over and over again,
and I am afraid.”
The Lord Destroyed Jerusalem
2 Look how the Lord in his anger
has brought Jerusalem to shame.
He has thrown down the greatness of Israel
from the sky to the earth.
He did not remember the Temple, his footstool,
on the day of his anger.
2 The Lord swallowed up without mercy
all the houses of the people of Jacob.
In his anger he pulled down
the strong places of Judah.
He threw her kingdom and its rulers
down to the ground in dishonor.
3 In his anger the Lord has removed
all the strength of Israel.
He took away his power from Israel
when the enemy came.
He burned against the people of Jacob like a flaming fire
that burns up everything around it.
4 Like an enemy, the Lord prepared to shoot his bow.
He took hold of his sword.
Like an enemy, he killed
all the good-looking people.
He poured out his anger like fire
on the tents of Jerusalem.
5 The Lord has become like an enemy.
He has swallowed up Israel.
He has swallowed up all her palaces.
He has destroyed all her strong places.
He has caused more moaning and groaning
for Judah.
6 He has destroyed his Temple as if it were a garden tent.
He has destroyed the place where he met with his people.
The Lord has made Jerusalem forget
the set feasts and Sabbath days.
He has rejected the king and the priest
in his great anger.
7 The Lord has rejected his altar
and abandoned his Temple.
He has given to the enemy
the walls of Jerusalem’s palaces.
The enemy shouted in the Lord’s Temple
as if it were a feast day.
8 The Lord planned to destroy
the wall around Jerusalem.
He marked the wall off with a measuring line.
He did not stop himself from destroying it.
He made the walls and defenses sad.
Together they have fallen.
9 Jerusalem’s gates have fallen to the ground.
He destroyed and smashed the bars of the gates.
Her king and her princes are sent away among the nations.
The teaching of the Lord has stopped.
The prophets have not had
any visions from the Lord.
10 The elders of Jerusalem
sit on the ground and are silent.
They pour dust on their heads
and put on rough cloth to show how sad they are.
The young women of Jerusalem
bow their heads to the ground in sorrow.
11 My eyes are weak from crying.
I am troubled.
I feel as if I have been poured out on the ground
because my people have been destroyed.
Children and babies are fainting
in the streets of the city.
12 They say to their mothers,
“Where is some bread and wine?”
They faint like wounded soldiers
in the streets of the city.
They die in their mothers’ arms.
13 What can I say about you, Jerusalem?
What can I compare you to?
What can I say you are like?
How can I comfort you, Jerusalem?
Your ruin is as big as the sea.
No one can heal you.
14 Your prophets saw visions about you.
But they were false and worth nothing.
They did not expose your sins.
They did not keep you from being captured.
The messages they preached to you were false.
They fooled you.
15 All who pass by on the road
clap their hands at you.
They make fun and shake their heads
at Jerusalem.
They ask, “Is this the city that people called
the most beautiful city,
the happiest city on earth?”
16 All your enemies open their mouths
to say things against you.
They make fun and grind their teeth in anger.
They say, “We have swallowed her up.
This is the day we were waiting for.
We have finally seen it happen.”
17 The Lord has done what he planned.
He has carried out the order
that he commanded long ago.
He has destroyed without mercy.
He has made your enemies happy because of what happened to you.
He has strengthened your enemies.
18 The people
cry out to the Lord.
Wall of Jerusalem,
let your tears flow
like a river day and night.
Do not stop.
Do not let your eyes rest.
19 Get up, cry out in the night.
Cry all through the night.
Pour out your heart like water
in prayer to the Lord.
Lift up your hands in prayer to him.
Pray for the life of your children.
They are fainting with hunger
on every street corner.
20 Jerusalem says: “Look, Lord, and see.
You have never done this to anyone else.
Women eat their own babies,
the children they have cared for.
Priests and prophets
are killed in the Temple of the Lord.
21 “Young men and old men
lie on the ground in the streets of the city.
My young women and young men
have been killed by the sword.
You, Lord, killed them on the day of your anger.
You killed them without mercy.
22 “You invited terrors to come against me on every side.
It was as if you were inviting them to a feast.
No one escaped or remained alive
on the day of the Lord’s anger.
My enemy has killed
those whom I gave birth to and brought up.”
10 The law is only an unclear picture of the good things coming in the future. It is not a perfect picture of the real things. The people under the law offered the same sacrifices every year. These sacrifices can never make perfect those who come near to worship God. 2 If the law could make them perfect, the sacrifices would have already stopped. The worshipers would be made clean, and they would no longer feel guilty for their sins. 3 These sacrifices remind them of their sins every year, 4 because it is not possible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
5 So when Christ came into the world, he said:
“You do not want sacrifices and offerings.
But you have prepared a body for me.
6 You do not ask for burnt offerings
and offerings to take away sins.
7 Then I said, ‘Look, I have come.
It is written about me in the book.
My God, I have come to do what you want.’” Psalm 40:6-8
8 In this Scripture he first said, “You do not want sacrifices and offerings. You do not ask for burnt offerings and offerings to take away sins.” (These are all sacrifices that the law commands.) 9 Then he said, “Here I am. I have come to do what you want.” So God ends the first system of sacrifices so that he can set up the new system. 10 Jesus Christ did what God wanted him to do. And because of this, we are made holy through the sacrifice of his body. Christ made this sacrifice only once, and for all time.
11 Every day the priests stand and do their religious service. Again and again they offer the same sacrifices. But those sacrifices can never take away sins. 12 But Christ offered one sacrifice for sins, and it is good forever. Then he sat down at the right side of God. 13 And now Christ waits there for his enemies to be put under his power. 14 With one sacrifice he made perfect forever those who are being made holy.
15 The Holy Spirit also tells us about this. First he says:
16 “In the future I will make this agreement[a]
with the people of Israel, says the Lord.
I will put my teachings in their hearts.
And I will write them on their minds.” Jeremiah 31:33
17 Then he says:
“Their sins and the evil things they do—
I will not remember anymore.” Jeremiah 31:34
18 And when these have been forgiven, there is no more need for a sacrifice for sins.
The Holy Bible, International Children’s Bible® Copyright© 1986, 1988, 1999, 2015 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission.