Lamentations 2
2
The Lord Has Destroyed Without Pity
1How the Lord in his anger
has set the daughter of Zion #[ch. 3:44] under a cloud!
# [Matt. 11:23]; See Isa. 14:15 He has cast down from heaven to earth
the splendor of Israel;
he has not remembered #1 Chr. 28:2his footstool
in the day of his anger.
2The Lord #ver. 16; [Ps. 35:25; 56:2; Ezek. 36:3] has swallowed up #ver. 17, 21; ch. 3:43; [Ezek. 9:5, 10] without mercy
all the habitations of Jacob;
in his wrath #Ps. 89:40 he has broken down
the strongholds of the daughter of Judah;
he has brought #Ps. 74:7 down to the ground #Ps. 74:7 in dishonor
the kingdom #Isa. 43:28and its rulers.
3He has cut down in #See Jer. 12:13 fierce anger
all #1 Sam. 2:1 the might of Israel;
#
Ps. 74:11 he has withdrawn from them his right hand
in the face of the enemy;
#
Ps. 79:5; 89:46 he has burned like a flaming fire in Jacob,
consuming all around.
4 # ch. 3:12 He has bent his bow like an enemy,
with his right hand set #See Jer. 30:14like a foe;
and he has killed all who were delightful in our eyes
in the tent of the daughter of Zion;
he has poured out his fury like fire.
5 # [See ver. 4 above] The Lord has become like an enemy;
# ver. 16; [Ps. 35:25; 56:2; Ezek. 36:3] he has swallowed up Israel;
# [2 Kgs. 25:9] he has swallowed up all its palaces;
he has laid in ruins its strongholds,
and he has multiplied in the daughter of Judah
#
Isa. 29:2
mourning and lamentation.
6He has laid waste his booth like a garden,
laid in ruins #ch. 1:4; Isa. 1:13; Zeph. 3:18 his meeting place;
# ch. 1:4; Isa. 1:13; Zeph. 3:18 the Lord has made Zion forget
festival and #Isa. 1:13Sabbath,
and in his fierce indignation has spurned king and priest.
7 # [Ps. 89:38] The Lord has scorned his altar,
# [Ezek. 24:21] disowned his sanctuary;
#
Deut. 32:30 he has delivered into the hand of the enemy
the walls of her palaces;
#
Ps. 74:4
they raised a clamor in the house of the Lord
as on the day of festival.
8 # [Jer. 5:10] The Lord determined to lay in ruins
# ver. 18 the wall of the daughter of Zion;
# See 2 Kgs. 21:13 he stretched out the measuring line;
he did not restrain his hand from destroying;
#
Jer. 14:2
he caused rampart and wall to lament;
#
Jer. 14:2
they languished together.
9Her gates have sunk into the ground;
#
Jer. 51:30; Nah. 3:13 he has ruined #Jer. 51:30; Nah. 3:13 and broken her bars;
# [Hos. 3:4] her king and princes are among the nations;
the law is no more,
and #Ps. 74:9her prophets find
no vision from the Lord.
10The elders of the daughter of Zion
# ch. 1:1; 3:28; Isa. 3:26 sit on the ground #Ezek. 3:15 in silence;
# See Josh. 7:6 they have thrown dust on their heads
and #Jer. 48:37; Ezek. 7:18; Amos 8:10; See Jer. 4:8put on sackcloth;
the young women of Jerusalem
have bowed their heads to the ground.
11 # [ver. 18; ch. 5:17; Ps. 6:7] My eyes are spent with weeping;
# See ch. 1:20 my stomach churns;
# [Job 16:13] my bile is poured out to the ground
# ch. 3:48 because of the destruction of the daughter of my people,
# [ch. 4:4; Jer. 44:7] because infants and babies #ver. 19; [Isa. 51:20]faint
in the streets of the city.
12They cry to their mothers,
# See ch. 1:11 “Where is bread and wine?”
# [See ver. 11 above] as they faint like a wounded man
in the streets of the city,
as their life is poured out
on their mothers’ bosom.
13What can I say for you, #[ch. 1:12] to what compare you,
O daughter of Jerusalem?
# [ch. 1:12] What can I liken to you, that I may comfort you,
O virgin daughter of Zion?
#
2 Sam. 5:20; [Ezek. 26:3] For your ruin is vast as the sea;
who can heal you?
14 # See Jer. 5:31 Your prophets have seen for you
false and deceptive visions;
# [Isa. 58:1] they have not exposed your iniquity
to #See Jer. 30:3 restore your fortunes,
# See Jer. 5:31 but have seen for you #[Jer. 23:33, 34]oracles
that are false and misleading.
15All who pass along the way
clap their hands at you;
# See 2 Chr. 29:8 they hiss and wag their heads
at the daughter of Jerusalem:
“Is this the city that was called
#
Ps. 48:2; Ezek. 16:14 the perfection of beauty,
#
Ps. 48:2; Ezek. 16:14 the joy of all the earth?”
16 # ch. 3:46; [Job 16:9, 10] All your enemies
rail against you;
they hiss, they gnash their teeth,
they cry: “We #See ver. 2 have swallowed her!
Ah, this is the day we longed for;
now we have it; #[Ps. 35:21]we see it!”
17The Lord has done what he purposed;
he has carried out #See Lev. 26:14-45; Deut. 28:15-68 his word,
which he commanded #ch. 1:7; Jer. 46:26 long ago;
# See ver. 2 he has thrown down #ver. 2, 21 without pity;
# [Ps. 38:16; 89:42] he has made the enemy rejoice over you
and exalted the #[ver. 3]might of your foes.
18Their heart cried to the Lord.
O #ver. 8 wall of the daughter of Zion,
# See ver. 11 let tears stream down like a torrent
#
Ps. 32:4; 42:3 day and night!
#
Ps. 77:2 Give yourself no rest,
#
Ps. 17:8
your eyes no respite!
19“Arise, #Ps. 119:147, 148 cry out in the night,
at the beginning of the night watches!
#
Ps. 62:8; [1 Sam. 7:6] Pour out your heart like water
before the presence of the Lord!
# [1 Tim. 2:8] Lift your hands to him
for the lives of your children,
# See ver. 11, 12 who faint for hunger
at the head of every street.”
20Look, O Lord, and see!
# ch. 1:22 With whom have you dealt thus?
# ch. 4:10; See Jer. 19:9 Should women eat the fruit of their womb,
the children of #ver. 22 their tender care?
Should #[ch. 4:13]priest and prophet be killed
in the sanctuary of the Lord?
21In the dust of the streets
# [2 Chr. 36:17] lie the young and the old;
# [2 Chr. 36:17] my young women and my young men
have fallen by the sword;
# ch. 3:43 you have killed them in the day of your anger,
slaughtering #ver. 2, 17without pity.
22You summoned as if to #[ver. 6] a festival day
# See Jer. 6:25 my terrors on every side,
# [Jer. 42:17; 44:14] and on the day of the anger of the Lord
no one escaped or survived;
# ver. 20 those whom I held and raised
my enemy destroyed.
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The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
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Lamentations 2
2
1 ALEPH. O how the Lord has covered the daughter of Zion with gloom in his fury! O how he has thrown down from heaven to earth the famous one of Israel, and he has not remembered his footstool in the day of his fury.
2 BETH. The Lord has cast down, and he has not been lenient, with all the beauties of Jacob. In his fury, he has destroyed the fortifications of the virgin of Judah, and he has thrown them down to the ground. He has polluted the kingdom and its leaders.
3 GHIMEL. In the anger of his fury, he has broken the entire horn of Israel. He has drawn back his right hand before the face of the enemy. And he has kindled within Jacob a flaming fire, devouring all around.
4 DALETH. He has bent his bow like an enemy. He has fixed his right hand like an adversary. And he has cut down all that was beautiful to behold in the tabernacle of the daughter of Zion. He has poured out his indignation like fire.
5 HE. The Lord has become like an enemy. He has thrown down Israel. He has thrown down all of his defenses. He has torn apart his fortifications. And he has filled the daughter of Judah with humbled men and humbled women.
6 VAU. And he has torn apart her tent like a garden. He has demolished her tabernacle. In Zion, the Lord has delivered feast and Sabbath into oblivion, and king and priest into disgrace, and into the indignation of his fury.
7 ZAIN. The Lord has pushed away his own altar. He has cursed his own sanctuary. He has delivered the walls of its towers into the hand of the enemy. They have made a noise in the house of the Lord, as if on the day of a solemnity.
8 HETH. The Lord has decided to tear down the wall of the daughter of Zion. He has stretched out his measuring line, and he has not turn away his hand from perdition. And the rampart has mourned, and with the wall it has been torn apart.
9 TETH. Her gates have been buried in the ground. He has ruined and crushed its bars. Her king and her princes are with the Gentiles. There is no law, and her prophets have found no vision from the Lord.
10 JOD. The elders of the daughter of Zion have become idle; they sit on the ground. They have sprinkled their heads with ashes. They have been wrapped with haircloth. The virgins of Jerusalem have cast their heads down to the ground.
11 CAPH. My eyes have exhausted their tears. My internal organs have become disturbed. My liver has been poured out on the earth, over the grief of the daughter of my people, when the little ones and the infants passed away in the streets of the town.
12 LAMED. They said to their mothers, "Where is the wheat and the wine?" when they fell like the wounded in the streets of the city, when they breathed out their lives into the bosoms of their mothers.
13 MEM. To what shall I compare you, or to what shall I liken you, O daughter of Jerusalem? To what shall I equate you, so as to console you, O virgin daughter of Zion? For your destruction is as great as the sea. Who will cure you?
14 NUN. Your prophets have seen false and foolish things for you. And they have not laid open your iniquity, so as to provoke you to repentance. Yet they have seen for you false revelations and banishments.
15 SAMECH. All those who passed by the way have clapped their hands over you. They have hissed and shook their heads over the daughter of Jerusalem, saying, "Is this the city of perfect dignity, the joy of all the earth?"
16 PHE. All your enemies have opened their mouth over you. They have hissed and gnashed their teeth, and they said: "We will devour her. Yes, this is the day we waited for. We have found it, we have seen it."
17 AIN. The Lord has done what he decided to do. He has fulfilled his word, which he instructed since the days of antiquity. He has destroyed, and he has not been lenient, and he has caused the enemy to rejoice over you, and he has exalted the horn of your adversaries.
18 SADE. Their heart cried out to the Lord from the walls of the daughter of Zion. Let tears run down like a torrent throughout the day and the night. Do not give rest to yourself, and do not allow the pupil of your eye to cease.
19 COPH. Rise up. Give praise in the night, in the first of the watches. Pour out your heart like water before the sight of the Lord. Lift up your hands to him on behalf of the souls of your little ones, who have passed away from famine at the head of all the crossroads.
20 RES. O Lord, see and consider those whom you have made into a such vintage. So then, shall women eat their own fruit, little ones measured by the palm of the hand? Shall priest and prophet be killed in the sanctuary of the Lord?
21 SIN. The boy and the old man lie down on the ground outside. My virgins and my youths have fallen by the sword. You have slain them in the day of your fury. You have struck down, and you have not shown pity.
22 THAU. You have called, as if to a day of solemnity, those who would terrify me all around. And there was no one, in the day of the fury of the Lord, who escaped or was left behind. Those whom I educated and nourished, my enemy has consumed.
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