Lamentations
Chapter 2
1 Why has God covered Zion’s people with darkness in his anger? He has thrown down Israel’s beauty from the sky to the ground and forgotten his footstool in his anger.
2 God has destroyed all of Jacob’s homes, without mercy. He has torn down Judah’s defenses in anger. He has brought them to the ground and dishonored the kingdom and its rulers.
3 God has cut off all of Israel’s strength in his fierce anger; he has pulled back his support facing the enemy, and he burned against Jacob like a fire that consumes everything around it.
4 He has aimed his bow like an enemy; he stood ready with his right hand like an opponent, and killed everything beautiful in Zion’s place of worship; he unleashed his anger like fire.
5 God was like an enemy: He swallowed up Israel, destroyed all its palaces, ruined its strongholds, and made the people of Judah mourn and cry.
6 He has forcefully taken away his shelter, as if from a garden; he has ruined the meeting places: God made the special feasts and rest days be forgotten in Zion, and has shown anger towards the king and the priest.
7 God has rejected his altar, hated his holy place, let enemies take over the palace walls; they are loud in God’s house, like during a big celebration.
8 God decided to tear down Zion’s wall: He marked it for destruction and didn’t stop. So, the defenses and wall mourn; they fall apart together.
9 Her gates have fallen into the ground; he has destroyed and broken her bars: her king and leaders are among the nations: there is no law anymore; her prophets also receive no visions from God.
10 The leaders of Zion’s people sit quietly on the ground. They have thrown dust on their heads and wear rough cloth. The young women of Jerusalem look down sadly.
11 I cry until I can cry no more, I am deeply upset, and I feel broken inside because my people are destroyed; even the children and babies are fainting in the city streets.
12 They ask their mothers, “Where is food and drink?” when they faint like those hurt in the city streets, when their life spills into their mothers’ laps.
13 What can I use to testify for you? What can I compare you to, O daughter of Jerusalem? What can I make equal to you to comfort you, O virgin daughter of Zion? Your wound is as big as the sea; who can heal you?
14 Your prophets have seen useless and foolish visions for you; they have not revealed your sins to free you from captivity; instead, they have presented you with false troubles and reasons for exile.
15 Everyone who goes by claps at you; they hiss and shake their heads at the city of Jerusalem, asking, “Is this the city people say is so beautiful, the joy of the whole world?”
16 All your enemies have spoken against you: they hiss and grind their teeth: they say, We have swallowed her up: surely this is the day we waited for; we have found it, we have seen it.
17 God did what he planned; he completed his word from long ago: he destroyed without mercy; he let your enemies celebrate over you, he gave strength to your rivals.
18 Their heart called out to God, O wall of Zion’s people, let tears flow like a river day and night: do not stop; do not let your eyes stop crying.
19 Get up, yell out at night: at the start of the guard shifts, pour out your feelings like water before God: raise your hands to him for the lives of your young children, who are weak from hunger on every street corner.
20 Look, God, and see who you have done this to. Will women eat their own children, those a hand’s breadth long? Will the priest and prophet be killed in God’s holy place?
21 Both young and old are lying on the streets; my young women and men have been killed by the sword. You have killed them in your anger; you showed no mercy.
22 You called my fears around me like on a special day, so that when God was angry, no one escaped or was left: my enemy destroyed those I cared for and raised.