2 How the Lord has ^[a](A)covered the daughter of Zion
With a cloud in His anger!
He has ^(B)hurled
The ^(C)glory of Israel from heaven to earth,
And has not remembered His ^(D)footstool
In the day of His anger.
² The Lord has ^[b](E)destroyed; He has not spared
All the settlements of Jacob.
In His wrath He has ^(F)overthrown
The strongholds of the daughter of Judah,
He has ^(G)hurled them down to the ground;
He has ^(H)profaned the kingdom and its leaders.
³ In fierce anger He has cut off
^[c]All the ^(I)strength of Israel;
He has ^(J)pulled back His right hand
From the enemy.
And He has ^(K)burned in Jacob like a flaming fire
Consuming on all sides.
⁴ He has bent His ^(L)bow like an enemy;
His right hand is positioned like an adversary,
And He has killed everything that was ^(M)pleasant to the eye.
In the tent of the daughter of Zion
He has ^(N)poured out His wrath like fire.
⁵ The Lord has become like an ^(O)enemy.
He has ^(P)engulfed Israel;
He has engulfed all its ^(Q)palaces,
He has destroyed its strongholds
And ^(R)caused great mourning and grieving in the daughter of Judah.
⁶ And He has treated His ^[d]tabernacle violently, like a despised garden;
He has ^(S)destroyed His appointed ^[e]meeting place.
The Lord has ^(T)caused
The appointed feast and Sabbath in Zion to be forgotten,
And He has ^(U)despised king and priest
In the indignation of His anger.
⁷ The Lord has ^(V)rejected His altar,
He has ^[f]repudiated His sanctuary;
He ^(W)has handed over
The walls of her palaces to the enemy.
They have made a ^(X)noise in the house of the Lord
As on the day of an appointed feast.
⁸ The Lord determined to destroy
The wall of the daughter of Zion.
He has ^(Y)stretched out a line,
He has not restrained His hand from ^[g]destroying,
And He has ^(Z)caused rampart and wall to mourn;
They have languished together.
⁹ Her ^(AA)gates have sunk into the ground,
He has destroyed and broken her bars.
Her king and her leaders are among the nations;
The ^(AB)Law is gone.
Her prophets, too, find
^(AC)No vision from the Lord.
¹⁰ The elders of the daughter of Zion
^(AD)Sit on the ground and ^[h](AE)are silent.
They have thrown ^(AF)dust on their heads;
They have put on ^(AG)sackcloth.
The ^(AH)virgins of Jerusalem
Have bowed their heads to the ground.
¹¹ My ^(AI)eyes fail because of tears,
My ^[i](AJ)spirit is greatly troubled;
My ^[j](AK)heart is poured out on the earth
^(AL)Because of the ^[k]destruction of the daughter of my people,
When ^(AM)little ones and infants languish
In the streets of the city.
¹² They say to their mothers,
“^(AN)Where is grain and wine?”
As they faint like a wounded person
In the streets of the city,
As their ^(AO)lives are poured out
^[l]In their mothers’ arms.
¹³ How shall I admonish you?
What ^(AP)shall I compare to you,
Daughter of Jerusalem?
What shall I liken to you as I comfort you,
^(AQ)Virgin daughter of Zion?
For your collapse is as vast as the sea;
Who can ^(AR)heal you?
¹⁴ Your ^(AS)prophets have seen for you
Worthless and deceptive visions;
And they have not ^(AT)exposed your wrongdoing
So as to restore you from captivity,
But they have ^(AU)seen for you worthless and misleading pronouncements.
¹⁵ All who pass along the way
^(AV)Clap their hands in ridicule at you;
They ^(AW)[m]hiss and shake their heads
At the daughter of Jerusalem:
“Is this the city of which they said,
‘^(AX)Perfect in beauty,
^(AY)A joy to all the earth’?”
¹⁶ All ^(AZ)your enemies
Have opened their mouths wide against you;
They ^[n]hiss and ^(BA)gnash their teeth.
They say, “We have ^(BB)engulfed her!
This certainly is the ^(BC)day which we awaited;
We have reached it, we have seen it!”
¹⁷ The Lord has ^(BD)done what He determined;
He has accomplished His word
Which He commanded from days of old.
He has torn down ^(BE)without sparing,
And He has helped the enemy to ^(BF)rejoice over you;
He has ^(BG)exalted the ^[o]might of your adversaries.
¹⁸ Their ^(BH)heart cried out to the Lord:
“You ^(BI)wall of the daughter of Zion,
Let your ^(BJ)tears stream down like a river day and night;
Give yourself no relief,
Let ^[p]your eyes have no rest.
¹⁹ Arise, whimper in the ^(BK)night
At the beginning of the night watches;
^(BL)Pour out your heart like water
Before the presence of the Lord;
Raise your hands to Him
For the ^(BM)life of your little ones
Who ^(BN)languish because of hunger
At the head of every street.
²⁰ See, Lord, and look!
With ^(BO)whom have You dealt this way?
Should women really ^(BP)eat their ^[q]children,
The little ones who were ^[r]born healthy?
Should ^(BQ)priest and prophet really be killed
In the sanctuary of the Lord?
²¹ On the ground in the streets
Lie ^(BR)young and old;
My ^(BS)virgins and my young men
Have fallen by the sword.
You have put them to death on the day of Your anger,
You have slaughtered, ^(BT)without sparing.
²² You called as on the day of an appointed feast
My ^(BU)terrors on every side;
And there was ^(BV)no one who survived or escaped
On the day of the Lord’s anger.
As for those ^(BW)whom I brought forth healthy and whom I raised,
My enemy annihilated them.”