Lamentations 2
2
The Lord Destroyed Jerusalem
1Look how the Lord in his anger
has brought Jerusalem to shame.
He has thrown down the greatness of Israel
from the sky to the earth.
He did not remember the Temple, his footstool,
on the day of his anger.
2The Lord swallowed up without mercy
all the houses of the people of Jacob.
In his anger he pulled down
the strong places of Judah.
He threw her kingdom and its rulers
down to the ground in dishonor.
3In his anger the Lord has removed
all the strength of Israel.
He took away his power from Israel
when the enemy came.
He burned against the people of Jacob like a flaming fire
that burns up everything around it.
4Like an enemy, the Lord prepared to shoot his bow.
He took hold of his sword.
Like an enemy, he killed
all the good-looking people.
He poured out his anger like fire
on the tents of Jerusalem.
5The Lord has become like an enemy.
He has swallowed up Israel.
He has swallowed up all her palaces.
He has destroyed all her strong places.
He has caused more moaning and groaning
for Judah.
6He has destroyed his Temple as if it were a garden tent.
He has destroyed the place where he met with his people.
The Lord has made Jerusalem forget
the set feasts and Sabbath days.
He has rejected the king and the priest
in his great anger.
7The Lord has rejected his altar
and abandoned his Temple.
He has given to the enemy
the walls of Jerusalem’s palaces.
The enemy shouted in the Lord’s Temple
as if it were a feast day.
8The Lord planned to destroy
the wall around Jerusalem.
He marked the wall off with a measuring line.
He did not stop himself from destroying it.
He made the walls and defenses sad.
Together they have fallen.
9Jerusalem’s gates have fallen to the ground.
He destroyed and smashed the bars of the gates.
Her king and her princes are sent away among the nations.
The teaching of the Lord has stopped.
The prophets have not had
any visions from the Lord.
10The elders of Jerusalem
sit on the ground and are silent.
They pour dust on their heads
and put on rough cloth to show how sad they are.
The young women of Jerusalem
bow their heads to the ground in sorrow.
11My eyes are weak from crying.
I am troubled.
I feel as if I have been poured out on the ground
because my people have been destroyed.
Children and babies are fainting
in the streets of the city.
12They say to their mothers,
“Where is some bread and wine?”
They faint like wounded soldiers
in the streets of the city.
They die in their mothers’ arms.
13What can I say about you, Jerusalem?
What can I compare you to?
What can I say you are like?
How can I comfort you, Jerusalem?
Your ruin is as big as the sea.
No one can heal you.
14Your prophets saw visions about you.
But they were false and worth nothing.
They did not expose your sins.
They did not keep you from being captured.
The messages they preached to you were false.
They fooled you.
15All who pass by on the road
clap their hands at you.
They make fun and shake their heads
at Jerusalem.
They ask, “Is this the city that people called
the most beautiful city,
the happiest city on earth?”
16All your enemies open their mouths
to say things against you.
They make fun and grind their teeth in anger.
They say, “We have swallowed her up.
This is the day we were waiting for.
We have finally seen it happen.”
17The Lord has done what he planned.
He has carried out the order
that he commanded long ago.
He has destroyed without mercy.
He has made your enemies happy because of what happened to you.
He has strengthened your enemies.
18The people
cry out to the Lord.
Wall of Jerusalem,
let your tears flow
like a river day and night.
Do not stop.
Do not let your eyes rest.
19Get up, cry out in the night.
Cry all through the night.
Pour out your heart like water
in prayer to the Lord.
Lift up your hands in prayer to him.
Pray for the life of your children.
They are fainting with hunger
on every street corner.
20Jerusalem says: “Look, Lord, and see.
You have never done this to anyone else.
Women eat their own babies,
the children they have cared for.
Priests and prophets
are killed in the Temple of the Lord.
21“Young men and old men
lie on the ground in the streets of the city.
My young women and young men
have been killed by the sword.
You, Lord, killed them on the day of your anger.
You killed them without mercy.
22“You invited terrors to come against me on every side.
It was as if you were inviting them to a feast.
No one escaped or remained alive
on the day of the Lord’s anger.
My enemy has killed
those whom I gave birth to and brought up.”
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Lamentations 2: ICB
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Lamentations 2
2
The Lord is Angry
1How, in his anger,#Literally “in his nose”
the Lord has covered the daughter of Zion in a cloud!
He has thrown down from heavens to earth
the splendor of Israel,
and he has not remembered his footstool
in the day of his anger.#Literally “his nose”
2The Lord has devoured; he has not shown mercy
to all the dwellings of Jacob;
he has broken down in his wrath
the fortifications of the daughter of Judah;
he has leveled to the ground, he has dishonored
the kingdom and its commanders.#Or “her commanders”
3He has cut down in fierce anger#Literally “in a fierce nose”
all the might of Israel;
he has withdrawn his right hand
from the faces of the enemy,
and he has burned in Jacob like a flaming fire,
it has consumed all around.
4He has bent his bow like an enemy;
he has set his right hand
like a foe, and he has slain
all the treasures of the eye;#NRSV translates “all in whom we took pride”
in the tent of the daughter of Zion,
he has poured out his anger like fire.
5The Lord has become like an enemy;
he has destroyed Israel;
he has destroyed all its citadel fortresses;#Or “her citadel fortresses”
he has ruined all its fortifications
and multiplied lamentation and mourning
in the daughter of Judah.
6He has broken down his dwelling#Literally “his booth”; or “his tabernacle” place like the garden;
he has ruined his appointed feasts;
Yahweh has made them forget in Zion
festival#Literally “appointed time” and Sabbath,
and he has despised in his anger
king and priest.
7The Lord has rejected his altar;
he has rejected his sanctuary;
he has delivered into the hands of the enemy
the walls of its citadel fortresses.#Or “her citadel fortress”
They have cried out in the house of Yahweh
like a day of an appointed feast.
8Yahweh has planned to destroy
the wall of the daughter of Zion.
He measured with a line; he has not restrained
his hand from destroying;
he caused rampart and wall to mourn;
together they have languished away.
9Her gates have sunk into the earth;
he has ruined and broken her bars,
her kings and its princes are among the nations;
there is no more law.#Hebrew torah
Also, her prophets have not found
a revelation from Yahweh.
10They sit on the ground,
the elders of the daughter of Zion are silent.
They cast dust on their head,
they have put on sackcloth;
the young women of Jerusalem
have bowed their head down to the ground.
11My eyes have spent all their tears;#Literally “finished with the weeping”
my stomach#Literally “my inward parts” is in torment,
my heart#Literally “my liver” is poured out on the earth
because of the destruction of the daughter of my people,
because child and babe faint
in the public squares of a city.
12To their mothers they say,
“Where is the bread and wine?”
as they faint like the wounded
in the public squares of a city,
as their life is being poured out
onto the bosom of their mothers.
13What can I say for you? What can I compare to you,
O daughter of Jerusalem?
To what can I liken you so that I can comfort you,
O virgin daughter of Zion?
For your destruction is as vast as the sea;
who can heal you?
14Your prophets had a vision for you,
false and worthless;
they have not exposed your sin,
to restore your fortune;
they have seen oracles for you,
false and misleading.
15They clap hands over you,
all who pass along the way;
they hiss and they shake their head,
at the daughter of Jerusalem.
Is this the city of which it is said,
“A perfection of beauty, a joy for all the earth?”
16They have opened their mouths against you,
all your enemies.
They hiss and gnash a tooth,
and they say, “We have destroyed her!
Surely this is the day we have hoped for;
we have found it, we have seen it!”
17Yahweh has done what he has planned;
he has fulfilled his promise
that he ordained from the days of old;
he has demolished and not shown mercy;
he has made an enemy rejoice over you,
he has exalted the might#Literally “horn” of your foes.
18Their heart cried to the Lord,
“O wall of the daughter of Zion,
let tears stream down like a river;
day and night,
do not give yourself relief,
do not give your eyes rest.
19“Arise, cry out in the night,
at the beginning of the night watches;
pour out your heart like water,
before the face of the Lord.
Lift to him your hands,
for the life of your children,
who faint in starvation,
at the head of all streets.”
20See, Yahweh, and take note!
With whom have you dealt thus?
Should women eat their young
children of tender care?
Should priest and prophet be slain
in the sanctuary of the Lord?
21They lie in the soil of the streets,
young and old;
my young women#Or “my virgins” and young men,
they have fallen by the sword;
you have slain on the day of your anger,#Literally “your nose”
you have slaughtered and not shown mercy.
22You have summoned my horror from all around,
as if for a feast day;
no one on the day of Yahweh’s anger
is a fugitive and a survivor;
whoever I have cared for and reared,
my enemy has destroyed.
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