How the Lord in his anger has clouded the daughter of Zion! He has thrown down from the heavens to the earth the beauty of Israel, and he did not remember his footstool in the day of his anger.
The Lord has swallowed up and has not spared all the pastures of Jacob. He has demolished in his fury the fortresses of the daughter of Judah; he has brought them down to the ground. He has profaned the kingdom and her princes.
He has cut down in burning anger every horn of Israel. He has turned back his right hand from before the enemy, and he has burned in Jacob like a flaming fire that devours all around.
He has bent his bow like an enemy; his right hand stood like a foe, and he has killed all that was desirable to the eye. In the tent of the daughter of Zion he has poured out his wrath like fire.
The Lord has become like an enemy; he has swallowed up Israel, he has swallowed up all her citadels, he has destroyed his fortresses. And he has multiplied in the daughter of Judah sorrow and sighing.
And he has broken down his booth like a garden; he has destroyed his appointed place. The LORD has made the appointed feast and the sabbath forgotten in Zion, and in the indignation of his anger he has spurned king and priest.
The Lord has cast off his altar, has disowned his sanctuary; he has shut up in the hand of the enemy the walls of her citadels. They have given voice in the house of the LORD as on the day of an appointed feast.
The LORD purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion; he stretched out a line, he did not turn back his hand from swallowing. And he made rampart and wall mourn; together they languished.
Her gates have sunk into the ground; he has destroyed and broken her bars. Her king and her princes are among the nations; there is no instruction, and her prophets too have found no vision from the LORD.
They sit on the ground and are silent, the elders of the daughter of Zion. They have brought up dust on their head; they have girded sackcloth. The virgins of Jerusalem have brought their head down to the ground.
My eyes are finished with tears; my bowels churn. My liver is poured out on the earth for the breaking of the daughter of my people, when child and suckling faint in the squares of the town.
To their mothers they say: Where is grain and wine? — as they faint like the slain in the squares of the city, as their soul is poured out into the bosom of their mothers.
What can I testify for you? What can I liken to you, daughter of Jerusalem? What can I match with you, that I may comfort you, virgin daughter of Zion? For your breaking is great as the sea; who can heal you?
Your prophets have seen for you emptiness and whitewash, and they have not uncovered your iniquity so as to restore your fortunes. And they have seen for you burdens of emptiness and enticements.
All who pass by on the way clap their hands at you; they hiss and shake their head at the daughter of Jerusalem: Is this the city they called the perfection of beauty, the rejoicing of all the earth?
All your enemies have opened their mouth against you; they hiss and gnash the teeth. They say: We have swallowed her up! Surely this is the day we hoped for; we have found it, we have seen it.
The LORD has done what he purposed; he has cut through his word that he commanded from the days of old. He has demolished and has not spared, and he has made the enemy glad over you; he has raised the horn of your foes.
Their heart cried out to the Lord. Wall of the daughter of Zion, bring down tears like a torrent day and night! Give yourself no relief; let the daughter of your eye not be still.
Arise, ring out in the night, at the head of the watches. Pour out your heart like water before the face of the Lord. Lift up your hands to him for the soul of your little ones, who faint with famine at the head of every street.
See, LORD, and look: to whom have you dealt out like this? Should women eat their fruit, the little ones they have cradled? Should priest and prophet be killed in the sanctuary of the Lord?
They lie on the ground in the streets, boy and elder; my virgins and my young men have fallen by the sword. You have killed in the day of your anger; you have slaughtered, you have not spared.
You called, as on the day of an appointed feast, my terrors all around; and there was not, in the day of the anger of the LORD, escapee or survivor. Those I cradled and brought up, my enemy has finished them.
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