2 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stretched out a line, he hath not withdrawn his hand from destroying: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.
