2)
Without pity the Lord has swallowed up all the dwellings of Jacob; in his wrath he has torn down the strongholds of the Daughter of Judah. He has brought her kingdom and its princes down to the ground in dishonor.
3)
In fierce anger he has cut off every horn of Israel. He has withdrawn his right hand at the approach of the enemy. He has burned in Jacob like a flaming fire that consumes everything around it.
4)
Like an enemy he has strung his bow; his right hand is ready. Like a foe he has slain all who were pleasing to the eye; he has poured out his wrath like fire on the tent of the Daughter of Zion.
5)
The Lord is like an enemy; he has swallowed up Israel. He has swallowed up all her palaces and destroyed her strongholds. He has multiplied mourning and lamentation for the Daughter of Judah.
6)
He has laid waste his dwelling like a garden; he has destroyed his place of meeting. The LORD has made Zion forget her appointed feasts and her Sabbaths; in his fierce anger he has spurned both king and priest.
7)
The Lord has rejected his altar and abandoned his sanctuary. He has handed over to the enemy the walls of her palaces; they have raised a shout in the house of the LORD as on the day of an appointed feast.
8)
The LORD determined to tear down the wall around the Daughter of Zion. He stretched out a measuring line and did not withhold his hand from destroying. He made ramparts and walls lament; together they wasted away.
9)
Her gates have sunk into the ground; their bars he has broken and destroyed. Her king and her princes are exiled among the nations, the law is no more, and her prophets no longer find visions from the LORD.
10)
The elders of the Daughter of Zion sit on the ground in silence; they have sprinkled dust on their heads and put on sackcloth. The young women of Jerusalem have bowed their heads to the ground.
11)
My eyes fail from weeping, I am in torment within, my heart is poured out on the ground because my people are destroyed, because children and infants faint in the streets of the city.
12)
They say to their mothers, "Where is bread and wine?" as they faint like wounded men in the streets of the city, as their lives ebb away in their mothers' arms.
13)
What can I say for you? With what can I compare you, O Daughter of Jerusalem? To what can I liken you, that I may comfort you, O Virgin Daughter of Zion? Your wound is as deep as the sea. Who can heal you?
14)
The visions of your prophets were false and worthless; they did not expose your sin to ward off your captivity. The oracles they gave you were false and misleading.
15)
All who pass your way clap their hands at you; they scoff and shake their heads at the Daughter of Jerusalem: "Is this the city that was called the perfection of beauty, the joy of the whole earth?"
16)
All your enemies open their mouths wide against you; they scoff and gnash their teeth and say, "We have swallowed her up. This is the day we have waited for; we have lived to see it."
17)
The LORD has done what he planned; he has fulfilled his word, which he decreed long ago. He has overthrown you without pity, he has let the enemy gloat over you, he has exalted the horn of your foes.
18)
The hearts of the people cry out to the Lord. O wall of the Daughter of Zion, let your tears flow like a river day and night; give yourself no relief, your eyes no rest.
19)
Arise, cry out in the night, as the watches of the night begin; pour out your heart like water in the presence of the Lord. Lift up your hands to him for the lives of your children, who faint from hunger at the head of every street.
20)
"Look, O LORD, and consider: Whom have you ever treated like this? Should women eat their offspring, the children they have cared for? Should priest and prophet be killed in the sanctuary of the Lord?
21)
"Young and old lie together in the dust of the streets; my young men and maidens have fallen by the sword. You have slain them in the day of your anger; you have slaughtered them without pity.
22)
"As you summon to a feast day, so you summoned against me terrors on every side. In the day of the LORD's anger no one escaped or survived; those I cared for and reared, my enemy has destroyed."
Lamentations 4:1 How the gold has lost its luster, the fine gold become dull! The sacred gems are scattered at the head of every street.
2)
How the precious sons of Zion, once worth their weight in gold, are now considered as pots of clay, the work of a potter's hands!
3)
Even jackals offer their breasts to nurse their young, but my people have become heartless like ostriches in the desert.
4)
Because of thirst
5)
Those who once ate delicacies are destitute in the streets. Those nurtured in purple now lie on ash heaps.
6)
The punishment of my people is greater than that of Sodom, which was overthrown in a moment without a hand turned to help her.
7)
Their princes were brighter than snow and whiter than milk, their bodies more ruddy than rubies, their appearance like sapphires.
8)
But now they are blacker than soot; they are not recognized in the streets. Their skin has shriveled on their bones; it has become as dry as a stick.
9)
Those killed by the sword are better off than those who die of famine; racked with hunger, they waste away for lack of food from the field.
10)
With their own hands compassionate women have cooked their own children, who became their food when my people were destroyed.
11)
The LORD has given full vent to his wrath; he has poured out his fierce anger. He kindled a fire in Zion that consumed her foundations.
12)
The kings of the earth did not believe, nor did any of the world's people, that enemies and foes could enter the gates of Jerusalem.
13)
But it happened because of the sins of her prophets and the iniquities of her priests, who shed within her the blood of the righteous.
14)
Now they grope through the streets like men who are blind. They are so defiled with blood that no one dares to touch their garments.
15)
"Go away! You are unclean!" men cry to them. "Away! Away! Don't touch us!" When they flee and wander about, people among the nations say, "They can stay here no longer."
16)
The LORD himself has scattered them; he no longer watches over them. The priests are shown no honor, the elders no favor.
17)
Moreover, our eyes failed, looking in vain for help; from our towers we watched for a nation that could not save us.
18)
Men stalked us at every step, so we could not walk in our streets. Our end was near, our days were numbered, for our end had come.
19)
Our pursuers were swifter than eagles in the sky; they chased us over the mountains and lay in wait for us in the desert.
20)
The LORD's anointed, our very life breath, was caught in their traps. We thought that under his shadow we would live among the nations.
21)
Rejoice and be glad, O Daughter of Edom, you who live in the land of Uz. But to you also the cup will be passed; you will be drunk and stripped naked.
22)
O Daughter of Zion, your punishment will end; he will not prolong your exile. But, O Daughter of Edom, he will punish your sin and expose your wickedness.
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