1
How the Lord has covered the daughter of Zion With a cloud in His anger! He has cast from heaven to earth The glory of Israel, And has not remembered His footstool* In the day of His anger.
2
The Lord has swallowed up; He has not sparedAll the habitations of Jacob. In His wrath He has throwndown The strongholds of the daughter of Judah; He has brought them down to the ground; He has profaned the kingdom and its princes.
3
In fierceanger He has cutoffAll the strength of Israel; He has drawnback His righthand From before the enemy. And He has burned in Jacob like a flamingfireConsumingroundabout.
4
He has bent His bow like an enemy; He has set His righthand like an adversary And slainall that were pleasant to the eye; In the tent of the daughter of Zion He has poured out His wrath like fire.
5
The Lord has become like an enemy. He has swallowed up Israel; He has swallowed up all its palaces, He has destroyed its strongholds And multiplied in the daughter of JudahMourning and moaning.
6
And He has violentlytreated His tabernacle like a garden booth; He has destroyed His appointedmeetingplace. The LORD has caused to be forgotten The appointedfeast and sabbath in Zion, And He has despisedking and priest In the indignation of His anger.
7
The Lord has rejected His altar, He has abandoned His sanctuary; He has delivered 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 an appointedfeast.
8
The LORDdetermined to destroy The wall of the daughter of Zion. He has stretched out a line, He has not restrained His hand from destroying, And He has caused rampart and wall to lament; They have languishedtogether.
9
Her gates have sunk into the ground, He has destroyed and broken her bars. Her king and her princes are among the nations; The law is nomore. Also, her prophetsfindNovision from the LORD.
10
The elders of the daughter of ZionSit on the ground, they are silent. They have throwndust on their heads; They have girded themselves with sackcloth. The virgins of Jerusalem Have bowed their heads to the ground.
11
My eyesfail because of tears, My spirit is greatlytroubled; My heart is poured out on the earthBecause of the destruction of the daughter of my people, When littleones and infantsfaint In the streets of the city.
12
They say to their mothers, "Where is grain and wine?" As they faint like a woundedman In the streets of the city, As their life is poured out On their mothers'bosom.
13
How shall I admonish you? To what shall I compare you, O daughter of Jerusalem? To what shall I liken you as I comfort you, O virgindaughter of Zion? For your ruin is as vast as the sea; Who can heal you?
14
Your prophets have seen for you False and foolish visions; And they have not exposed your iniquity So as to restore you from captivity, But they have seen for you false and misleadingoracles.
15
All who passalong the wayClap their hands in derision at you; They hiss and shake their heads At the daughter of Jerusalem, "Is this the city of which they said, 'The perfection of beauty, A joy to all the earth '?"
16
All your enemies Have opened their mouths wide against you; They hiss and gnash their teeth. They say, "We have swallowed her up! Surelythis is the day for which we waited; We have reached it, we have seen it."
17
The LORD has donewhat He purposed; He has accomplished His wordWhich He commanded from days of old. He has throwndownwithoutsparing, And He has caused the enemy to rejoiceover you; He has exalted the might of your adversaries.
18
Their heartcried out to the Lord, "O wall of the daughter of Zion, Let your tearsrundown like a riverday and night; Give yourself norelief, Let your eyeshavenorest.
19
"Arise, cryaloud in the night At the beginning of the night watches; Pour out your heart like waterBefore the presence of the Lord; Lift up your hands to Him For the life of your littleones Who are faint because of hunger At the head of everystreet."
20
See, O LORD, and look! With whom have You dealtthus? Should womeneat their offspring, The littleoneswho were bornhealthy? Should priest and prophet be slain In the sanctuary of the Lord?
21
On the ground in the streetsLieyoung and old; My virgins and my youngmen Have fallen by the sword. You have slain them in the day of Your anger, You have slaughtered, not sparing.
22
You called as in the day of an appointedfeast My terrors on everyside; And there was no one whoescaped or survived In the day of the LORD'Sanger. Those whom I bore and reared, My enemyannihilated them.