CHAPTER 2
1How has the Master beclouded in His wrath ℵ
the daughter of Zion,
has flung from the heavens to the ground
the splendor of Israel,
nor did He recall His footstool
on the day of His wrath.
2The Master obliterated, had no mercy, ב
all of Jacob’s dwellings,
brought to the ground, profaned,
a kingdom and its nobles.
3He hacked down in smoldering wrath ג
pulled back His right hand
from before the enemy,
and burned in Jacob like a white-hot fire
consuming all around.
4Like an enemy He bent His bow, ד
poised with right hand like a foe
and slayed all precious to the eye
in the tent of Zion’s Daughter,
poured forth like fire His fury.
5The Master became like an enemy, ה
obliterated Israel,
obliterated all her citadels,
laid in ruins her fortresses,
and made abundant in Judah’s Daughter
6And He stripped bare His shelter like a garden, ו
laid in ruins His appointed place.
The LORD wiped out the memory in Zion
of festival and sabbath,
and spurned in His raging wrath
king and priest.
7The Master abandoned His altar, ז
cast aside His sanctuary,
handed over to enemies
the wall of her citadels.
They raised a sound in the house of the LORD
as on a festival day.
8The LORD contrived to lay in ruins ח
the wall of Zion’s Daughter.
He stretched out the measuring line,
did not pull His hand back from obliteration,
and rampart and wall did mourn,
together they were bleak.
9Her gates sunk into the ground, ט
He destroyed and shattered her bolts.
Her king and her nobles were among the nations,
Her prophets, too, were not vouchsafed
vision from the LORD.
10They sat on the ground, were silent, י
the elders of Zion’s Daughter.
They covered their heads with dust,
they girded sackcloth.
They lowered their heads to the ground,
Jerusalem’s virgins.
11My eyes were worn out with tears, כ
my innards were roiled.
My bile spilled out on the ground
for the breaking of my People’s Daughter
when the babe and the suckling grew faint
in the squares of the city.
12To their mothers they say, ל
“Where is grain and wine?”
as they faint like the slain
in the squares of the city.
13How can I bear witness for you, what can I liken to you, מ
O Daughter of Jerusalem?
What can I compare to you and console you,
O Virgin, Zion’s Daughter?
For great as the sea is your breaking.
Who can heal you?
14Your prophets saw visions for you— נ
empty and insipid,
and did not lay bare your crime
to restore your fortunes
and saw visions for you
of emptiness and delusion.
15They clapped their hands over you, ס
all passersby.
They hissed and wagged their heads
over Jerusalem’s Daughter:
“Is this the city of which was said
‘The perfection of beauty,
the joy of all the earth’?”
16They opened wide their mouths to mock you, פ
all your enemies.
They hissed, they gnashed their teeth,
they said, “We obliterated her.
Why, this day for which we hoped
we have attained it, we have seen it.”
17The LORD has done what He had planned, ע
that He charged in days of old.
He destroyed and had no mercy,
and the enemy rejoiced over you—
He raised the horn of your foes.
18Their heart cried out to the Master. צ
O wall of Zion’s Daughter,
shed like a brook your tears
day and night.
Give yourself no respite,
19Arise, sing out in the night ק
at the beginning of the watches.
Pour out your heart like water
before the presence of the LORD.
Raise your palms to Him
over the life of your babes
faint with famine
at the corner of every street.
20See, O LORD, and look: ר
To whom have you acted thus?
the dandled babes?
Should priest and prophet be slain
in the sanctuary of the Master?
21They lay on the ground in the streets, ש
lad and elder.
My virgins and my young men
fell by the sword.
You slew on the day of Your wrath,
You slaughtered, had no mercy.
22You called in as on festival days ת
my neighbors from all around,
and on the day of the LORD’s wrath
there was neither refuge nor survivor.
Those whom I dandled and raised up
my enemy destroyed.