God’s Anger over Israel
2 How the Lord has (A)covered the daughter of Zion
With a cloud in His anger!
He has (B)cast from heaven to earth
The (C)glory of Israel,
And has not remembered His (D)footstool
In the day of His anger.
2 The Lord has (E)swallowed up; He has not spared
All the habitations of Jacob.
In His wrath He has (F)thrown down
The strongholds of the daughter of Judah;
He has (G)brought them down to the ground;
He has (H)profaned the kingdom and its princes.
3 In fierce anger He has cut off
[a]All the (I)strength of Israel;
He has (J)drawn back His right hand
From before the enemy.
And He has (K)burned in Jacob like a flaming fire
Consuming round about.
4 He has bent His (L)bow like an enemy;
He has set His right hand like an adversary
And slain all that were (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)swallowed up Israel;
He has swallowed up all its (Q)palaces,
He has destroyed its strongholds
And (R)multiplied in the daughter of Judah
Mourning and moaning.
6 And He has violently treated His [b]tabernacle like a garden booth;
He has (S)destroyed His appointed [c]meeting place.
The Lord has (T)caused to be forgotten
The appointed feast and sabbath in Zion,
And He has (U)despised king and priest
In the indignation of His anger.
7 The Lord has (V)rejected His altar,
He has abandoned His sanctuary;
He (W)has delivered into the hand of the enemy
The walls of her palaces.
They have made a (X)noise in the house of the Lord
As in the day of an appointed feast.
8 The Lord [d]determined to destroy
The wall of the daughter of Zion.
He has (Y)stretched out a line,
He has not restrained His hand from [e]destroying,
And He has (Z)caused rampart and wall to lament;
They have languished together.
9 Her (AA)gates have sunk into the ground,
He has destroyed and broken her bars.
Her king and her princes are among the nations;
The (AB)law is no more.
Also, her prophets find
(AC)No vision from the Lord.
10 The elders of the daughter of Zion
(AD)Sit on the ground, they (AE)are silent.
They have thrown (AF)dust on their heads;
They have girded themselves with (AG)sackcloth.
The (AH)virgins of Jerusalem
Have bowed their heads to the ground.
11 My (AI)eyes fail because of tears,
My [f](AJ)spirit is greatly troubled;
My [g](AK)heart is poured out on the earth
(AL)Because of the [h]destruction of the daughter of my people,
When (AM)little ones and infants faint
In the streets of the city.
12 They say to their mothers,
“(AN)Where is grain and wine?”
As they faint like a wounded man
In the streets of the city,
As their (AO)life is poured out
On their mothers’ bosom.
13 How shall I admonish you?
To what (AP)shall I compare you,
O daughter of Jerusalem?
To what shall I liken you as I comfort you,
O (AQ)virgin daughter of Zion?
For your [i]ruin is as vast as the sea;
Who can (AR)heal you?
14 Your (AS)prophets have seen for you
False and foolish visions;
And they have not (AT)exposed your iniquity
So as to restore you from captivity,
But they have (AU)seen for you false and misleading [j]oracles.
15 All who pass along the way
(AV)Clap their hands in derision at you;
They (AW)hiss and shake their heads
At the daughter of Jerusalem,
“Is this the city of which they said,
‘(AX)The perfection of beauty,
(AY)A joy to all the earth’?”
16 All (AZ)your enemies
Have opened their mouths wide against you;
They hiss and (BA)gnash their teeth.
They say, “We have (BB)swallowed her up!
Surely this is the (BC)day for which we waited;
We have reached it, we have seen it.”
17 The Lord has (BD)done what He purposed;
He has accomplished His word
Which He commanded from days of old.
He has thrown down (BE)without sparing,
And He has caused the enemy to (BF)rejoice over you;
He has (BG)exalted the [k]might of your adversaries.
18 Their (BH)heart cried out to the Lord,
“O (BI)wall of the daughter of Zion,
Let your (BJ)tears run down like a river day and night;
Give yourself no relief,
Let [l]your eyes have no rest.
19 “Arise, cry aloud in the (BK)night
At the beginning of the night watches;
(BL)Pour out your heart like water
Before the presence of the Lord;
Lift up your hands to Him
For the (BM)life of your little ones
Who are (BN)faint because of hunger
At the head of every street.”
20 See, O Lord, and look!
With (BO)whom have You dealt thus?
Should women (BP)eat their [m]offspring,
The little ones who were [n]born healthy?
Should (BQ)priest and prophet be slain
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 slain them in the day of Your anger,
You have slaughtered, (BT)not sparing.
22 You called as in the day of an appointed feast
My (BU)terrors on every side;
And there was (BV)no one who escaped or survived
In the day of the Lord’s anger.
Those (BW)whom I [o]bore and reared,
My enemy annihilated them.
Footnotes
- Lamentations 2:3 Lit Every horn
- Lamentations 2:6 Lit booth
- Lamentations 2:6 Or feast
- Lamentations 2:8 Lit thought
- Lamentations 2:8 Lit swallowing up
- Lamentations 2:11 Lit inward parts are in ferment
- Lamentations 2:11 Lit liver
- Lamentations 2:11 Lit breaking
- Lamentations 2:13 Lit breaking
- Lamentations 2:14 Lit burdens
- Lamentations 2:17 Lit horn
- Lamentations 2:18 Lit the daughter of your eye
- Lamentations 2:20 Lit fruit
- Lamentations 2:20 Or tenderly cared for
- Lamentations 2:22 Lit bore healthy or, tenderly cared for
Cross references
- Lamentations 2:1 : Ezek 30:18
- Lamentations 2:1 : Is 14:12-15; Ezek 28:14-16
- Lamentations 2:1 : Is 64:11
- Lamentations 2:1 : Ps 99:5; 132:7
- Lamentations 2:2 : Ps 21:9; Lam 3:43
- Lamentations 2:2 : Lam 2:5; Mic 5:11, 14
- Lamentations 2:2 : Is 25:12; 26:5
- Lamentations 2:2 : Ps 89:39, 40; Is 43:28
- Lamentations 2:3 : Ps 75:5, 10; Jer 48:25
- Lamentations 2:3 : Ps 74:11; Jer 21:4, 5
- Lamentations 2:3 : Is 42:25; Jer 21:14
- Lamentations 2:4 : Job 6:4; 16:13; Lam 3:12, 13
- Lamentations 2:4 : Ezek 24:25
- Lamentations 2:4 : Is 42:25; Jer 7:20
- Lamentations 2:5 : Jer 30:14
- Lamentations 2:5 : Lam 2:2
- Lamentations 2:5 : Jer 52:13; Lam 2:2
- Lamentations 2:5 : Jer 9:17-20
- Lamentations 2:6 : Jer 52:13
- Lamentations 2:6 : Jer 17:27; Lam 1:4; Zeph 3:18
- Lamentations 2:6 : Lam 4:16
- Lamentations 2:7 : Ps 78:59-61; Is 64:11; Ezek 7:20-22
- Lamentations 2:7 : Jer 33:4, 5; 52:13
- Lamentations 2:7 : Ps 74:3-8
- Lamentations 2:8 : 2 Kin 21:13; Is 34:11; Amos 7:7-9
- Lamentations 2:8 : Is 3:26; Jer 14:2
- Lamentations 2:9 : Neh 1:3
- Lamentations 2:9 : Hos 3:4
- Lamentations 2:9 : Jer 14:14; 23:16; Ezek 7:26
- Lamentations 2:10 : Job 2:13; Is 3:26; 47:1
- Lamentations 2:10 : Amos 8:3
- Lamentations 2:10 : Job 2:12; Ezek 27:30
- Lamentations 2:10 : Is 15:3; Jon 3:6-8
- Lamentations 2:10 : Lam 1:4
- Lamentations 2:11 : Lam 1:16; 3:48, 51
- Lamentations 2:11 : Jer 4:19
- Lamentations 2:11 : Job 16:13
- Lamentations 2:11 : Is 22:4; Lam 4:10
- Lamentations 2:11 : Jer 44:7; Lam 2:19
- Lamentations 2:12 : Jer 5:17
- Lamentations 2:12 : Job 30:16; Ps 42:4; 62:8
- Lamentations 2:13 : Lam 1:12
- Lamentations 2:13 : Is 37:22
- Lamentations 2:13 : Jer 8:22; 30:12-15
- Lamentations 2:14 : Jer 23:25-29; 29:8, 9
- Lamentations 2:14 : Is 58:1; Ezek 23:36; Mic 3:8
- Lamentations 2:14 : Jer 23:36; Ezek 22:25, 28
- Lamentations 2:15 : Job 27:23; Ezek 25:6
- Lamentations 2:15 : Ps 22:7; Is 37:22; Jer 18:16; 19:8; Zeph 2:15
- Lamentations 2:15 : Ps 50:2
- Lamentations 2:15 : Ps 48:2
- Lamentations 2:16 : Job 16:10; Ps 22:13; Lam 3:46
- Lamentations 2:16 : Job 16:9; Ps 35:16; 37:12
- Lamentations 2:16 : Ps 56:2; 124:3; Jer 51:34
- Lamentations 2:16 : Obad 12-15
- Lamentations 2:17 : Jer 4:28
- Lamentations 2:17 : Lam 2:1, 2; Ezek 5:11; 7:8, 9; 8:18
- Lamentations 2:17 : Ps 35:24, 26; 89:42; Is 14:29
- Lamentations 2:17 : Deut 28:43, 44; Lam 1:5
- Lamentations 2:18 : Ps 119:145; Hos 7:14
- Lamentations 2:18 : Lam 2:8; Hab 2:11
- Lamentations 2:18 : Ps 119:136; Jer 9:1; Lam 1:2, 16; 3:48, 49
- Lamentations 2:19 : Ps 42:3; Is 26:9
- Lamentations 2:19 : 1 Sam 1:15; Ps 42:4; 62:8
- Lamentations 2:19 : Lam 2:11
- Lamentations 2:19 : Is 51:20
- Lamentations 2:20 : Ex 32:11; Deut 9:26
- Lamentations 2:20 : Jer 19:9; Lam 4:10
- Lamentations 2:20 : Ps 78:64; Jer 14:15; 23:11, 12
- Lamentations 2:21 : 2 Chr 36:17; Jer 6:11
- Lamentations 2:21 : Ps 78:62, 63
- Lamentations 2:21 : Jer 13:14; Zech 11:6
- Lamentations 2:22 : Ps 31:13; Is 24:17; Jer 6:25
- Lamentations 2:22 : Jer 11:11
- Lamentations 2:22 : Jer 16:2-4; 44:7