Chapter 2
1 How has the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger! He has cast the beauty of Israel down from heaven to the earth , and hasn’t remembered his footstool in the day of his anger.
2 The Lord has swallowed up all the dwellings of Jacob without pity . He has thrown down in his wrath the strongholds of the daughter of Judah . He has brought them down to the ground. He has profaned the kingdom and its princes .
3 He has cut off all the horn of Israel in fierce anger . He has drawn back his right hand from before the enemy. He has burnt up Jacob like a flaming fire, which devours all around .
4 He has bent his bow like an enemy . He has stood with his right hand as an adversary . He has killed all 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 as an enemy. He has swallowed up Israel . He has swallowed up all her palaces. He has destroyed his strongholds . He has multiplied mourning and lamentation in the daughter of Judah .
6 He has violently taken away his tabernacle , as if it were a garden . He has destroyed his place of assembly . The LORD has caused solemn assembly and Sabbath to be forgotten in Zion . In the indignation of his anger , he has despised the king and the priest .
7 The Lord has cast off his altar . He has abhorred his sanctuary . He has given the walls of her palaces into the hand of the enemy. They have made a noise in the LORD ’s house , as in the day of a solemn assembly .
8 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 He has not withdrawn his hand from destroying ; He has made the rampart and wall lament. They languish together .
9 Her gates have sunk into the ground. He has destroyed and broken her bars . Her king and her princes are amongst the nations where the law is not . Yes , her prophets find no vision from the LORD .
10 The elders of the daughter of Zion sit on the ground . They keep silence . They have cast up dust on their heads . They have clothed themselves with sackcloth . The virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground .
11 My eyes fail with tears . My heart is troubled . My bile is poured on the earth, because of the destruction of the daughter of my people , because the young children and the infants swoon in the streets of the city .
12 They ask their mothers, "Where is grain and wine ?" when they swoon as the wounded in the streets of the city , when their soul is poured out into their mothers’ bosom .
13 What shall I testify to you ? What shall I liken to you , daughter of Jerusalem ? What shall I compare to you , that I may comfort you , virgin daughter of Zion ? For your breach is as big as the sea . Who can heal you ?
14 Your prophets have seen false and foolish visions for you . They have not uncovered your iniquity , to reverse your captivity , but have seen for you false revelations and causes of banishment .
15 All that pass by clap their hands at you . They hiss and wag their head at the daughter of Jerusalem , saying, " Is this the city that men called ‘ The perfection of beauty , the joy of the whole earth’?"
16 All your enemies have opened their mouth wide against you . 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 it . We have seen it ."
17 The LORD has done that which he planned . He has fulfilled his word that he commanded in the days of old . He has thrown down , and has not pitied . He has caused the enemy to rejoice over you . He has exalted the horn of your adversaries .
18 Their heart cried to the Lord. O wall of the daughter of Zion , let tears run down like a river day and night . Give yourself no relief . Don’t let your eyes rest .
19 Arise , cry out in the night , at the beginning of the watches! Pour out your heart like water before the face of the Lord. Lift up your hands towards him for the life of your young children , who faint for hunger at the head of every street .
20 " Look , LORD , and see to whom you have done thus ! Should the women eat their offspring , the children that they held and bounced on their knees? Should the priest and the prophet be killed in the sanctuary of the Lord ?
21 " The youth and the old man lie on the ground in the streets . My virgins and my young men have fallen by the sword . You have killed them in the day of your anger. You have slaughtered , and not pitied .
22 " You have called , as in the day of a solemn assembly , my terrors on every side . There was no one that escaped or remained in the day of the LORD ’s anger. My enemy has consumed those whom I have cared for and brought up .