Lamentations 2
1. How hath the Lord covered * the daughter of Zion with a cloud * in his anger, and cast down * from heaven unto the earth the beauty of Israel, and remembered * not his footstool in the day of his anger !
2. The Lord hath swallowed up * all the habitations of Jacob, and hath not pitied * : he hath thrown down * in his wrath the strong holds of the daughter of Judah; he hath brought them down * to the ground: he hath polluted * the kingdom and the princes thereof.
3. He hath cut off * in his fierce anger all the horn of Israel: he hath drawn * back his right hand from before the enemy * , and he burned * against Jacob like a flaming fire, which devoureth * round about.
4. He hath bent * his bow like an enemy * : he stood * with his right hand as an adversary, and slew * all that were pleasant to the eye in the tabernacle of the daughter of Zion: he poured out * his fury like fire.
5. The Lord was as an enemy * : he hath swallowed up * Israel, he hath swallowed up * all her palaces: he hath destroyed * his strong holds, and hath increased * in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation.
6. And he hath violently taken away * his tabernacle, as if it were of a garden: he hath destroyed * his places of the assembly: the LORD hath caused the solemn feasts and sabbaths to be forgotten * in Zion, and hath despised * in the indignation of his anger the king and the priest.
7. The Lord hath cast off * his altar, he hath abhorred * his sanctuary,he hath given up * into the hand of the enemy * the walls of her palaces; they have made * a noise in the house of the LORD, as in the day of a solemn feast.
8. The LORD hath purposed * to destroy * the wall of the daughter of Zion: he hath stretched out * a line, he hath not withdrawn * his hand from destroying * : therefore he made the rampart and the wall to lament * ; they languished * together.
9. Her gates are sunk * into the ground; he hath destroyed * and broken * her bars: her king and her princes are among the Gentiles: the law is no more; her prophets also find * no vision from the LORD.
10. The elders of the daughter of Zion sit * upon the ground, and keep silence * : they have cast up * dust upon their heads; they have girded * themselves with sackcloth: the virgins of Jerusalem hang down * their heads to the ground.
11. Mine eyes do fail * with tears,my bowels are troubled * , my liver is poured * upon the earth, for the destruction of the daughter of my people;because the children and the sucklings * swoon * in the streets of the city.
12. They say * to their mothers, Where is corn and wine? when they swooned * as the wounded in the streets of the city, when their soul was poured out * into their mothers' bosom.
13. What thing shall I take to witness * for thee? what thing shall I liken * to thee, O daughter of Jerusalem? what shall I equal * to thee, that I may comfort * thee, O virgin daughter of Zion?for thy breach is great like the sea:who can heal * thee?
14. Thy prophets have seen * vain and foolish things for thee: and they have not discovered * thine iniquity, to turn away * thy captivity * ; but have seen * for thee false burdens and causes of banishment.
15. All that pass * by clap * their hands at thee; they hiss * and wag * their head at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying, Is this the city that men call * The perfection of beauty, The joy of the whole earth?
16. All thine enemies * have opened * their mouth against thee: they hiss * and gnash * the teeth: they say * , We have swallowed her up * : certainly this is the day that we looked for * ; we have found * , we have seen * it.
17. The LORD hath done * that which he had devised * ; he hath fulfilled * his word that he had commanded * in the days of old: he hath thrown down * , and hath not pitied * : and he hath caused thine enemy * to rejoice * over thee, he hath set up * the horn of thine adversaries.
18. Their heart cried * unto the Lord, O wall of the daughter of Zion,let tears run down * like a river day and night: give * thyself no rest; let not the apple of thine eye cease * .
19. Arise * , cry out * in the night: in the beginning of the watches pour out * thine heart like water before the face of the Lord: lift up * thy hands toward him for the life of thy young children, that faint * for hunger in the top of every street.
20. Behold * , O LORD, and consider * to whom thou hast done * this. Shall the women eat * their fruit, and children of a span long? shall the priest and the prophet be slain * in the sanctuary of the Lord?
21. The young and the old lie * on the ground in the streets: my virgins and my young men are fallen * by the sword; thou hast slain * them in the day of thine anger; thou hast killed * , and not pitied * .
22. Thou hast called * as in a solemn day my terrors round about, so that in the day of the LORD'S anger none escaped nor remained: those that I have swaddled * and brought up * hath mine enemy * consumed * .
