9
Her gates are sunk into the ground; He hath destroyed and broken her bars. Her king and her princes are among the Gentiles; the law is no more; her prophets also find no vision from the LORD.
10
The elders of the daughter of Zion sit upon the ground and keep silence; they have cast up dust upon their heads. They have girded themselves with sackcloth; the virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground.
11
Mine eyes do fail with tears, my soul is troubled; my passion is poured upon the earth, because of the destruction of the daughter of my people, because the children and the sucklings swoon in the streets of the city.
12
They say to their mothers, "Where is corn and wine?" when they swooned as the wounded in the streets of the city, when their soul was poured out into their mothers' bosom.
13
What thing shall I take to witness for thee? What thing shall I liken to thee, O daughter of Jerusalem? What shall I equal to thee, that I may comfort thee, O virgin daughter of Zion? For thy breach is great like the sea. Who can heal thee?
14
Thy prophets have seen vain and foolish things for thee; and they have not exposed thine iniquity, to return you from captivity, but have seen for thee false burdens and causes of banishment.
15
All that pass by clap their hands at thee; they hiss and wag their head at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying, "Is this the city that men call `The perfection of beauty, the joy of the whole earth'?"
16
All thine enemies have opened their mouth against thee; they hiss and gnash their teeth. They say, "We have swallowed her up. Certainly this is the day that we looked for; we have found, we have seen it."
17
The LORD hath done that which He had devised; He hath fulfilled His word that He had commanded in the days of old. He hath thrown down, and hath not pitied; and He hath caused thine enemy to rejoice over thee; He hath set up the horn of thine adversaries.
18
Their heart cried unto the Lord. O wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears run down like a river day and night. Give thyself no rest; let not the apple of thine eye cease.
19
Arise, cry out in the night; in the beginning of the watches pour out thine heart like water before the face of the Lord. Lift up thy hands toward Him for the life of thy young children, that faint for hunger on top of every street.