God’s Anger with Jerusalem
1 How the Lord has covered the daughter of Zion
# With acloud in His anger!
# He cast down from heaven to the earth
# The beauty of Israel,
# And did not rememberHis footstool
In the day of His anger.
2 The Lord has swallowed up and hasnot pitied
All the dwelling places of Jacob.
He has thrown down in His wrath
The strongholds of the daughter of Judah;
He has broughtthemdown to the ground;
# He has profaned the kingdom and its princes.
3 He has cut off in fierce anger
Every horn of Israel;
# He has drawn back His right hand
From before the enemy.
# He has blazed against Jacob like a flaming fire
Devouring all around.
4 Standing like an enemy, He has bent His bow;
With His right hand, like an adversary,
# He has slainallwhowerepleasing to His eye;
On the tent of the daughter of Zion,
He has poured out His fury like fire.
5 The Lord was 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 lamentation
In the daughter of Judah.
6 He has done violenceto His tabernacle,
# Asifitwerea garden;
He has destroyed His place of assembly;
TheLordhas caused
The appointed feasts and Sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion.
# In His burning indignation He hasspurned the king and the priest.
7 The Lord has spurned His altar,
# He hasabandoned His sanctuary;
He has given up the walls of her palaces
Into the hand of the enemy.
# They have made a noise in the house of theLord
As on the day of a set feast.
8 TheLordhas purposed to destroy
# Thewall of the daughter of Zion.
# He has stretched out a line;
He has not withdrawn His hand from destroying;
Therefore He has caused the rampart and wall to lament;
They languished together.
9 Her gates have sunk into the ground;
# He has destroyed andbroken her bars.
# Her king and her princesareamong the nations;
# The Lawisnomore,
# And herprophets find no vision from theLord.
10 The elders of the daughter of Zion
# Sit on the groundandkeep silence;
# Theythrow dust on their heads
# Andgird themselves with sackcloth.
The virgins of Jerusalem
Bow their heads to the ground.
11 My eyes fail with tears,
My heart is troubled;
# My bile is poured on the ground
Because of the destruction of the daughter of my people,
# Becausethe children and the infants
Faint in the streets of the city.
12 They say to their mothers,
“Whereisgrain and wine?”
As they swoon like the wounded
In the streets of the city,
As their life is poured out
In their mothers’ bosom.
13 How shall Iconsole 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 ruinisspread wide as the sea;
Who can heal you?
14 Yourprophets have seen for you
False and deceptive visions;
# They have notuncovered your iniquity,
To bring back your captives,
# But have envisioned for you falseprophecies and delusions.
15 All who pass byclaptheirhands at you;
# They hissand shake their heads
At the daughter of Jerusalem:
“Isthis the city that is called
# ‘The perfection of beauty,
The joy of the whole earth’?”
16 All your enemies have opened their mouth against you;
They hiss and gnashtheirteeth.
# They say,“We have swallowedherup!
# Surely thisistheday we have waited for;
# We have foundit,we have seenit!”
17 TheLordhas done what Hepurposed;
He has fulfilled His word
Which He commanded in days of old.
He has thrown down and has not pitied,
# And He has caused an enemy torejoice over you;
He has exalted the horn of your adversaries.
18 Their heart cried out to the Lord,
“O wall of the daughter of Zion,
# Let tears run down like a river day and night;
Give yourself no relief;
Give your eyes no 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 your hands toward Him
For the life of your young children,
# Who faint from hungerat the head of every street.”
20 “See, OLord, and consider!
To whom have You done this?
# Should the women eat their offspring,
The children they have cuddled?
Should the priest and prophet be slain
In the sanctuary of the Lord?
21 “Youngand old lie
On the ground in the streets;
My virgins and my young men
# Have fallen by thesword;
You have slainthemin the day of Your anger,
You have slaughteredandnot pitied.
22 “You have invited as to a feast day
# The terrors that surround me.
In the day of theLord’s anger
There was no refugee or survivor.
# Those whom I have borne and brought up
# My enemies havedestroyed.”