Lamentations 2

¹ Oh, how Yahweh in his wrath has brought darkness on the daughter of Zion! He has flung the glory of Israel from heaven to the ground, no more remembering his footstool[*a] on the day of his wrath.

² The Lord has pitilessly destroyed all the homes of Jacob; in his displeasure he has shattered the strongholds of the daughter of Judah; he has thrown to the ground, he has left accursed the kingdom and its rulers.

³ In his burning anger he has broken every horn in Israel, withdrawn the strength of his right hand at the coming of the enemy, and kindled in Jacob a fire that burns up everything near it.

⁴ Like an enemy he has bent his bow, holding his right hand steady; like a foe, he has slaughtered everything that delights the eye; on the tent of the daughter of Zion he has poured his anger out like fire.

⁵ The Lord has been like an enemy; he has destroyed Israel; he has destroyed every one of her palaces, laid low her strongholds, and for the daughters of Judah has multiplied wailing on wailing.

⁶ He has wrecked his own domain like a garden, shattered his own gathering place; Yahweh has wiped out the memory of festivals and sabbaths in Zion; in the heat of his wrath he has repudiated king and priest.

⁷ The Lord has grown weary of his altar, has come to loathe his sanctuary, and handed her palace walls over to the enemy; from the uproar in the Temple of Yahweh it might have been a day of festival.

⁸ Yahweh resolved to ruin the city wall of the daughter of Zion; with a line he measured it, and did not withdraw his hand until he had completely overthrown it, bringing mourning on city wall and rampart; now they are crumbling down together.

⁹ Her gates have sunk into the ground; he has shattered their bars. Her king, her nobles, are now with the pagans, the Law is no more. Even her prophets receive no further vision from Yahweh.

¹⁰ Mutely they sit on the ground, the elders of the daughter of Zion; they have put dust on their heads, and wrapped themselves in sackcloth. The virgins of Jerusalem hang their heads down to the ground.

¹¹ My eyes wasted away with weeping, my entrails shuddered, my liver spilled on the ground at the ruin of the daughters of my people, as children, mere infants, fainted in the squares of the Citadel.

¹² They kept saying to their mothers, ‘Where is the bread?’ as they fainted like wounded men in the squares of the City, as they poured out their souls on their mothers’ breasts.

¹³ How can I describe you, to what compare you, daughter of Jerusalem? Who can rescue and comfort you, virgin daughter of Zion? For huge as the sea is your affliction; who can possibly cure you?

¹⁴ The visions your prophets had on your behalf were delusive, tinsel things, they never pointed out your sin, to ward off your exile. The visions they proffered you were false, fallacious, misleading.

¹⁵ All who pass your way clap their hands at the sight; they whistle and shake their heads over the daughter of Jerusalem. ‘Was this the loveliest of all, this, the joy of the whole world?’

¹⁶ Your enemies open their mouths in chorus against you; they whistle and grind their teeth; they say, ‘We have swallowed her up. This is the day we were waiting for; now we can touch it, see it.’

¹⁷ Yahweh has accomplished his intention, he has carried out his word decreed in the days of old; he has destroyed without pity, giving your enemy cause to gloat over you and raising his horn.

¹⁸ Cry aloud, then, to the Lord, groan, daughter of Zion; let your tears flow like a torrent, day and night; give yourself no relief, grant your eyes no rest.

¹⁹ Up, cry out in the night-time, in the early hours of darkness; pour your heart out like water before Yahweh. Stretch out your hands to him for the lives of your children.

²⁰ Look, Yahweh, and consider: whom have you ever treated like this? Why, women have eaten their little ones, the children they had nursed in their arms! Why, priest and prophet have been slaughtered in the sanctuary of Yahweh!

²¹ Children and old men are lying on the ground in the streets; my virgins and my young men have fallen by the sword; you have killed on the day of your wrath, you have slaughtered pitilessly.

²² As though to a festival you have summoned terrors from every side; on the day of your wrath, no one escaped, no one survived. Those whom I had nursed and reared, my enemy has murdered them all.