1 How the Lord has covered the daughter of Zionwith a cloud in His anger!He has cast down from heaven to the earththe beauty of Israel;He has not remembered His footstoolin the day of His anger.
2 The Lord has swallowed up without mercyall the habitations of Jacob; In His wrath He has thrown downthe 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 in fierce angerall the might of Israel;He has drawn back His right handfrom before the enemy.He has burned against Jacoblike a flaming fire, devouring all around.
4 He has bent His bow like an enemy,with his right hand set like an adversary;He has killed all who were pleasant to His eye;in the tabernacle of the daughter of Zion,He has poured out His fury like fire.
5 The Lord has become like an enemy;He has swallowed up Israel,He has swallowed up all her palaces;He has destroyed her strongholds,and has increased mourning and lamentationin 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 the solemn feasts and Sabbathsto be forgotten in Zion.In his fierce indignation He has despised the king and the priest.
7 The Lord has scorned His altar,He has disowned His sanctuary;He has given up the walls of her palacesinto the hand of the enemy.They have made a noise in the house of the Lordas on the day of a solemn feast.
8 The Lord has purposed to destroythe wall of the daughter of Zion.He has stretched out a line;He has not withdrawn His hand from destroying;therefore He caused the rampart and the wall to lament;they languished together.
9 Her gates have sunk into the ground;He has destroyed and broken her bars.Her king and her princes are among the nations;the Law is no more,and her prophets findno vision from the Lord.
10 The elders of the daughter of Zionsit on the ground in silence;they throw dust on their headsand gird themselves with sackcloth.The virgins of Jerusalembow their heads to the ground.
11 My eyes fail with tears,my spirit is greatly troubled;my bile is poured on the groundbecause of the destruction of the daughter of my people,because the children and infants faintin the streets of the city.
12 They say to their mothers,“Where is grain and wine?”when they faint like a wounded manin the streets of the city,as their life is poured outon their mothers’ bosom.
13 What can I say for you,to what shall I liken you,O daughter of Jerusalem?What shall I compare with you,that I may comfort you,O virgin daughter of Zion?For your devastation is great like the sea;who can heal you?
14 Your prophets have seen for youfalse and deceptive visions;they have not revealed your iniquity,to bring back your captives,but have seen for you oraclesthat are false and misleading.
15 All who pass byclap their hands at you;they hiss and shake their headsat the daughter of Jerusalem, saying,“Is this the city that men callthe perfection of beauty,the joy of the whole earth?”
16 All your enemieshave opened their mouth against you;they hiss and gnash their teeth.They say, “We have swallowed her up!Certainly this is the day that we longed for;we have found it; we have seen it.”
17 The Lord has done what He planned;He has fulfilled His wordthat He had commanded in the days of old.He has thrown down and has not pitied,and He has caused the enemy to rejoice over you;He has exalted the power of your adversaries.
18 Their heart cried to the Lord:O wall of the daughter of Zion,let your tears run downlike a river day and night;give yourself no rest,your eyes no respite!
19 Arise, cry out in the night,at the beginning of the watches;pour out your heart like waterbefore the face of the Lord.Lift your hands to Himfor the lives of your young children,who faint for hungerat the head of every street.
20 Look, O Lord, and consider!To whom have You done this?Should the women eat their offspring,the children who were born healthy?Should the priest and the prophet be killedin the sanctuary of the Lord?
21 The young and the old lieon the ground in the streets;my virgins and my young menhave fallen by the sword;You have killed them in the day of Your anger,You have slaughtered and not pitied.
22 You have invited as to a feast day the terrors all around;in the day of the Lord’s angerno one escaped or survived;those whom I held and raisedmy enemy destroyed.