Lamentations 2
2
Judgment on Jerusalem
א Aleph
1How the Lord has overshadowed
Daughter Zion with his anger!
He has thrown down Israel’s glory
from heaven to earth.
He did not acknowledge his footstool#1Ch 28:2; Ps 99:5; 132:7
in the day of his anger.#Jb 20:28; Ps 110:5; Zph 2:2–3
ב Beth
2Without compassion#Jb 16:13; Lm 3:43; Ezk 8:18 the Lord has swallowed up
all the dwellings of Jacob.
In his wrath he has demolished
the fortified cities#Is 2:12,15 of Daughter Judah.
He brought them to the ground
and defiled the kingdom and its leaders.#Ps 89:39; Is 43:28; 47:6
ג Gimel
3He has cut off every horn#Ps 75:5,10; Jr 48:25 of Israel
in his burning anger
and withdrawn his right hand#Ex 6:6; Dt 4:34
in the presence of the enemy.
He has blazed against Jacob like a flaming fire
that consumes everything.#Dt 4:24; Heb 12:29
ד Daleth
4He has strung his bow like an enemy;#Ps 7:12; Lm 3:12
his right hand is positioned like an adversary.
He has killed everyone who was the delight to the eye,#1Kg 20:6; Ezk 24:16,21,25
pouring out his wrath like fire
on the tent of Daughter Zion.
ה He
5The Lord is like an enemy;
he has swallowed up Israel.
He swallowed up all its palaces
and destroyed its fortified cities.
He has multiplied mourning and lamentation
within Daughter Judah.#Is 29:2
ו Waw
6He has wrecked his temple#2:6 Lit booth
as if it were merely a shack in a field,#2:6 Lit it were a garden
destroying his place of meeting.#Ps 74:4
The Lord has abolished
appointed festivals and Sabbaths in Zion.
He has despised king and priest
in his fierce anger.
ז Zayin
7The Lord has rejected his altar,
repudiated his sanctuary;#Ps 89:39
he has handed the walls of her palaces
over to the enemy.
They have raised a shout in the house of the Lord
as on the day of an appointed festival.
ח Cheth
8The Lord determined to destroy
the wall of Daughter Zion.
He stretched out a measuring line#2Kg 21:13; Is 28:17; 34:11,17
and did not restrain himself from destroying.
He made the ramparts and walls grieve;
together they waste away.
ט Teth
9Zion’s gates have fallen to the ground;#Neh 1:3; Jr 14:2
he has destroyed and shattered the bars on her gates.
Her king and her leaders live among the nations,
instruction#2:9 Or the law is no more,
and even her prophets receive
no vision from the Lord.#Ezk 7:26; Mc 3:6
י Yod
10The elders of Daughter Zion
sit on the ground in silence.
They have thrown dust on their heads#Gn 37:34; Jos 7:6; Neh 9:1; Jb 2:12–13; Ezk 27:30
and put on sackcloth.
The young women of Jerusalem
have bowed their heads to the ground.#Jb 10:15; Is 58:5
כ Kaph
11My eyes are worn out from weeping;#Ps 69:3; Jr 9:1; 14:17; Lm 3:48–49
I am churning within.
My heart is poured out in grief#2:11 Lit My liver is poured out on the ground#Ps 22:14; Jr 4:19
because of the destruction of my dear people,#Lm 3:48
because infants and nursing babies faint
in the streets of the city.#Jr 44:7
ל Lamed
12They cry out to their mothers,
“Where is the grain and wine?” #Dt 28:51; Hs 2:8–9; 7:14
as they faint like the wounded
in the streets of the city,
as their life pours out
in the arms of their mothers.
מ Mem
13What can I say on your behalf?
What can I compare you to, Daughter Jerusalem?
What can I liken you to,
so that I may console you, Virgin Daughter Zion?
For your ruin is as vast as the sea.
Who can heal you?#Nah 3:19
נ Nun
14Your prophets saw visions for you
that were empty and deceptive;#2:14 Or insipid#Jr 5:12–13; 23:9–40; 28:1–4; 29:29–32; Ezk 13:8–16
they did not reveal your iniquity
and so restore your fortunes.#Dt 30:1–3; Jr 29:11–14; 30:1–3
They saw pronouncements for you
that were empty and misleading.
ס Samek
15All who pass by
scornfully clap their hands#Nm 24:10; Ezk 25:6 at you.
They hiss#1Kg 9:8; Jr 19:8 and shake their heads#Ps 22:7; 109:25; Mk 15:29
at Daughter Jerusalem:
Is this the city that was called
the perfection of beauty,#Ps 50:2
the joy of the whole earth?#Ps 48:2
פ Pe
16All your enemies
open their mouths against you.#Dt 28:37; Jb 16:10; Ps 22:13; Lm 3:46
They hiss and gnash their teeth,#Jb 16:9; Ps 35:16; 37:12
saying, “We have swallowed her up.#Lm 2:2,5,8
This is the day we have waited for!
We have lived to see it.”
ע Ayin
17The Lord has done what he planned;
he has accomplished his decree,
which he ordained in days of old.
He has demolished without compassion,#Lm 2:2,21; 3:43; Ezk 7:8–9
letting the enemy gloat over you
and exalting the horn of your adversaries.
צ Tsade
18The hearts of the people cry out to the Lord.
Wall of Daughter Zion,#Lm 2:8
let your tears run down like a river
day and night.#Jr 4:31; 14:17
Give yourself no relief
and your#2:18 Lit and the daughter of your eyes no rest.
ק Qoph
19Arise, cry out in the night
from the first watch of the night.
Pour out your heart like water
before the Lord’s presence.#Ps 42:4; 62:8; 77:2; 84:2; 142:2
Lift up your hands to him
for the lives of your children
who are fainting from hunger
at the head of every street.#Is 51:20
ר Resh
20 Lord, look and consider
to whom you have done this.
Should women eat their own children,#Lv 26:27–29; Dt 28:53–57; 2Kg 6:24–31; Jr 19:9; Lm 4:10
the infants they have nurtured?#2:20 Or infants in a healthy condition; Hb obscure
Should priests and prophets
be killed in the Lord’s sanctuary?
שׁ Shin
21Both young and old
are lying on the ground in the streets.
My young women and young men
have fallen by the sword.
You have killed them in the day of your anger,
slaughtering without compassion.#Lm 2:2,17; 3:43
ת Taw
22You summon those who terrorize me#2:22 Or terrors on every side,#Ps 31:13; Jr 6:25; 20:10
as if for an appointed festival day;
on the day of the Lord’s anger
no one escaped or survived.
My enemy has destroyed
those I nurtured#2:22 Or I bore healthy; Hb obscure and reared.
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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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