1How hath the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger! He hath cast down from heaven unto the earth the beauty of Israel , And hath not remembered his footstool in the day of his anger. 2The Lord hath swallowed up all the habitations of Jacob , and hath not pitied : He hath thrown down in his wrath the strongholds of the daughter of Judah ; He hath brought them down to the ground; he hath profaned the kingdom and the princes thereof. 3He hath cut off in fierce anger all the horn of Israel ; He hath drawn back his right hand from before the enemy: And he hath burned up Jacob like a flaming fire, which devoureth round about . 4He hath bent his bow like an enemy , he hath stood with his right hand as an adversary , And hath slain all that were pleasant to the eye : In the tent of the daughter of Zion he hath poured out his wrath like fire. 5The Lord is become as an enemy, he hath swallowed up Israel ; He hath swallowed up all her palaces, he hath destroyed his strongholds ; And he hath multiplied in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation. 6And he hath violently taken away his tabernacle , as if it were of a garden ; he hath destroyed his place of assembly : Jehovah hath caused solemn assembly and sabbath to be forgotten in Zion , And hath despised in the indignation of his anger the king and the priest . 7The 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 Jehovah , as in the day of a solemn assembly . 8Jehovah hath purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion ; He hath stretched out the line , he hath not withdrawn his hand from destroying ; And he hath made the rampart and wall to lament; they languish together . 9Her gates are sunk into the ground; he hath destroyed and broken her bars : Her king and her princes are among the nations where the law is not ; Yea , her prophets find no vision from Jehovah . 10The elders of the daughter of Zion sit upon the ground , they 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 .
The Suffering of the People
11Mine eyes do fail with tears , my heart is troubled ; My liver is poured upon the earth, because of the destruction of the daughter of my people , Because the young children and the sucklings swoon in the streets of the city . 12They say to their mothers, Where is grain and wine ? When they swoon as the wounded in the streets of the city , When their soul is poured out into their mothers’ bosom . 13What shall I testify unto thee? what shall I liken to thee, O daughter of Jerusalem ? What shall I compare to thee, that I may comfort thee, O virgin daughter of Zion ? For thy breach is great like the sea : who can heal thee? 14Thy prophets have seen for thee false and foolish visions ; And they have not uncovered thine iniquity , to bring back thy captivity , But have seen for thee false oracles and causes of banishment . 15All 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 called The perfection of beauty , The joy of the whole earth? 16All thine enemies have opened their mouth wide 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 . 17Jehovah hath done that which he purposed ; he hath fulfilled his word that he commanded in the days of old ; He hath thrown down , and hath not pitied : And he hath caused the enemy to rejoice over thee ; he hath exalted the horn of thine adversaries . 18Their 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 respite; let not the apple of thine eye cease . 19Arise , cry out in the night , at the beginning of the watches; Pour out thy 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 at the head of every street .
The Call to God
20See , O Jehovah , and behold to whom thou hast done thus ! Shall the women eat their fruit , the children that are dandled in the hands? Shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord ? 21The youth and the old man 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 slaughtered , and not pitied . 22Thou hast called , as in the day of a solemn assembly , my terrors on every side ; And there was none that escaped or remained in the day of Jehovah ’s anger: Those that I have dandled and brought up hath mine enemy consumed .