[1] How the Lord in his anger has set the daughter of Zion under a cloud!
He has cast down from heaven to earth the splendor of Israel; he has not
remembered his footstool in the day of his anger. [2] The Lord has
destroyed without mercy all the habitations of Jacob; in his wrath he has
broken down the strongholds of the daughter of Judah; he has brought down
to the ground in dishonor the kingdom and its rulers. [3] He has cut down
in fierce anger all the might of Israel; he has withdrawn from them his
right hand in the face of the enemy; he has burned like a flaming fire in
Jacob, consuming all around. [4] He has bent his bow like an enemy, with
his right hand set like a foe; and he has slain all the pride of our eyes
in the tent of the daughter of Zion; he has poured out his fury like fire.
[5] The Lord has become like an enemy, he has destroyed Israel; he has
destroyed all its palaces, laid in ruins its strongholds; and he has
multiplied in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation. [6] He has
broken down his booth like that of a garden, laid in ruins the place of his
appointed feasts; the LORD has brought to an end in Zion appointed feast
and sabbath, and in his fierce indignation has spurned king and priest. [7]
The Lord has scorned his altar, disowned his sanctuary; he has delivered
into the hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces; a clamor was raised in
the house of the LORD as on the day of an appointed feast. [8] The LORD
determined to lay in ruins the wall of the daughter of Zion; he marked it
off by the line; he restrained not his hand from destroying; he caused
rampart and wall to lament, they languish together. [9] Her gates have sunk
into the ground; he has ruined and broken her bars; her king and princes
are among the nations; the law is no more, and her prophets obtain no
vision from the LORD. [10] The elders of the daughter of Zion sit on the
ground in silence; they have cast dust on their heads and put on sackcloth;
the maidens of Jerusalem have bowed their heads to the ground. [11] My eyes
are spent with weeping; my soul is in tumult; my heart is poured out in
grief because of the destruction of the daughter of my people, because
infants and babes faint in the streets of the city. [12] They cry to their
mothers, "Where is bread and wine?" as they faint like wounded men in the
streets of the city, as their life is poured out on their mothers' bosom.
[13] What can I say for you, to what compare you, O daughter of Jerusalem?
What can I liken to you, that I may comfort you, O virgin daughter of Zion?
For vast as the sea is your ruin; who can restore you? [14] Your prophets
have seen for you false and deceptive visions; they have not exposed your
iniquity to restore your fortunes, but have seen for you oracles false and
misleading. [15] All who pass along the way clap their hands at you; they
hiss and wag their heads at the daughter of Jerusalem; "Is this the city
which was called the perfection of beauty, the joy of all the earth?" [16]
All your enemies rail against you; they hiss, they gnash their teeth, they
cry: "We have destroyed her! Ah, this is the day we longed for; now we have
it; we see it!" [17] The LORD has done what he purposed, has carried out
his threat; as he ordained long ago, he has demolished without pity; he has
made the enemy rejoice over you, and exalted the might of your foes. [18]
Cry aloud to the Lord! O daughter of Zion! Let tears stream down like a
torrent day and night! Give yourself no rest, your eyes no respite! [19]
Arise, cry out in the night, at the beginning of the watches! Pour out your
heart like water before the presence of the Lord! Lift your hands to him
for the lives of your children, who faint for hunger at the head of every
street. [20] Look, O LORD, and see! With whom hast thou dealt thus? Should
women eat their offspring, the children of their tender care? Should priest
and prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord? [21] In the dust of the
streets lie the young and the old; my maidens and my young men have fallen
by the sword; in the day of thy anger thou hast slain them, slaughtering
without mercy. [22] Thou didst invite as to the day of an appointed feast
my terrors on every side; and on the day of the anger of the LORD none
escaped or survived; those whom I dandled and reared my enemy destroyed.
