The Lord Has Destroyed Without Pity
LAMENTATIONS 2 [†] How the Lord in his anger
has set the daughter of Zion j under a cloud!
k He has cast down from heaven to earth
the splendor of Israel;
he has not remembered l his footstool
in the day of his anger.
2[†] The Lord m has swallowed up n without mercy
all the habitations of Jacob;
in his wrath o he has broken down
the strongholds of the daughter of Judah;
he has brought p down to the ground p in dishonor
the kingdom q and its rulers.
3[†] He has cut down in r fierce anger
all s the might of Israel;
t he has withdrawn from them his right hand
in the face of the enemy;
u he has burned like a flaming fire in Jacob,
consuming all around.
4[†] v He has bent his bow like an enemy,
with his right hand set w like a foe;
and he has killed all who were delightful in our eyes
in the tent of the daughter of Zion;
he has poured out his fury like fire.
5 w The Lord has become like an enemy;
x he has swallowed up Israel;
y he has swallowed up all its palaces;
he has laid in ruins its strongholds,
and he has multiplied in the daughter of Judah
z mourning and lamentation.
6[†] He has laid waste his booth like a garden,
laid in ruins a his meeting place;
a the LORD has made Zion forget
festival and b Sabbath,
and in his fierce indignation has spurned king and priest.
7[†] c The Lord has scorned his altar,
d disowned his sanctuary;
e he has delivered into the hand of the enemy
the walls of her palaces;
f they raised a clamor in the house of the LORD
as on the day of festival.
8[†] g The LORD determined to lay in ruins
h the wall of the daughter of Zion;
i he stretched out the measuring line;
he did not restrain his hand from destroying;
j he caused rampart and wall to lament;
j they languished together.
9[†] Her gates have sunk into the ground;
k he has ruined k and broken her bars;
l her king and princes are among the nations;
the law is no more,
and m her prophets find
no vision from the LORD.
10[†] The elders of the daughter of Zion
n sit on the ground o in silence;
p they have thrown dust on their heads
and q put on sackcloth;
the young women of Jerusalem
have bowed their heads to the ground.
11[†] r My eyes are spent with weeping;
s my stomach churns;
t my bile is poured out to the ground
u because of the destruction of the daughter of my people,
v because infants and babies w faint
in the streets of the city.
12[†] They cry to their mothers,
x “Where is bread and wine?”
w as they faint like a wounded man
in the streets of the city,
as their life is poured out
on their mothers’ bosom.
13 What can I say for you, y to what compare you,
O daughter of Jerusalem?
y What can I liken to you, that I may comfort you,
O virgin daughter of Zion?
z For your ruin is vast as the sea;
who can heal you?
14[^][†] a Your prophets have seen for you
false and deceptive visions;
b they have not exposed your iniquity
to c restore your fortunes,
d but have seen for you e oracles
that are false and misleading.
15[†] All who pass along the way
clap their hands at you;
f they hiss and wag their heads
at the daughter of Jerusalem:
“Is this the city that was called
g the perfection of beauty,
g the joy of all the earth?”
rail against you;
they hiss, they gnash their teeth,
they cry: “We i have swallowed her!
Ah, this is the day we longed for;
now we have it; j we see it!”
17[^][†] The LORD has done what he purposed;
he has carried out k his word,
which he commanded l long ago;
m he has thrown down n without pity;
o he has made the enemy rejoice over you
and exalted the p might of your foes.
18[†] Their heart cried to the Lord.
O q wall of the daughter of Zion,
r let tears stream down like a torrent
s day and night!
t Give yourself no rest,
u your eyes no respite!
19 “Arise, v cry out in the night,
at the beginning of the night watches!
w Pour out your heart like water
before the presence of the Lord!
x Lift your hands to him
for the lives of your children,
y who faint for hunger
at the head of every street.”
20[†] Look, O LORD, and see!
z With whom have you dealt thus?
a Should women eat the fruit of their womb,
the children of b their tender care?
Should c priest and prophet be killed
in the sanctuary of the Lord?
21 In the dust of the streets
d lie the young and the old;
d my young women and my young men
have fallen by the sword;
e you have killed them in the day of your anger,
slaughtering f without pity.
22[†] You summoned as if to g a festival day
h my terrors on every side,
i and on the day of the anger of the LORD
no one escaped or survived;
j those whom I held and raised
my enemy destroyed.