3
Gimel He has cut off in
his fierce anger all the horn of Israel; he has caused his right hand to draw back in the presence of the enemy, and he burned in Jacob like a flaming fire,
which devours round about.
4
Daleth He has bent his bow like an enemy; he strengthened his right hand as an adversary and slew everything of beauty that could be seen in the tent of the daughter of Zion; he poured out his fury like fire.
5
He The Lord was as an enemy, he has destroyed Israel; he has destroyed all her palaces; he has dissipated his strong holds and has multiplied in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation.
6
Vau And he has violently taken away his tabernacle as
if it were of a garden; he has destroyed his congregation; the LORD has caused the solemnities and sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion and has rejected in the indignation of his anger the king and the priest.
7
Zain The Lord has cast off his altar; he has abhorred his sanctuary; he has given up into the hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces; they have shouted in the house of the LORD as in the day of a feast.
8
Cheth The LORD has purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion; he has stretched out the line; he has not withdrawn his hand from destroying; therefore he made the rampart and the wall to lament; they were destroyed together.
9
Teth Her gates were thrown to the ground; he has destroyed and broken her bars; her king and her princes
are carried off among the Gentiles; there is no law; nor have her prophets found vision from the LORD.
10
Jod The elders of the daughter of Zion sat upon the ground
and are silent: they have cast up dust upon their heads; they have girded themselves with sackcloth; the daughters of Jerusalem hung their heads down to the ground.
11
Caph My eyes fail with tears; my bowels are troubled; my liver is poured upon the earth, for the destruction of the daughter of my people because the children and the sucklings faint in the streets of the city.
12
Lamed They said to their mothers, Where
is the wheat and the wine? fainting as the dead in the streets of the city, pouring out their souls into their mothers’ bosom.
13
Mem What witness shall I take to thee? Or unto whom shall I liken thee, O daughter of Jerusalem? Unto whom shall I compare thee, that I may comfort thee, O virgin daughter of Zion? for thy breach
is as great as the sea: who shall heal thee?