Chapter 2

1Alas!The Lord in His wrathHas shameda Fair Zion,Has cast down from heaven to earthThe majesty of Israel.He did not remember His FootstoolbOn His day of wrath.

2The Lord has laid waste without pityAll the habitations of Jacob;He has razed in His angerFair Judah’s strongholds.He has brought low in dishonorThe kingdom and its leaders.

3In blazing anger He has cut downAll the might of Israel;He has withdrawn His right handIn the presence of the foe;He has ravaged Jacob like flaming fire,Consuming on all sides.

4He bent His bow like an enemy,Poised His right hand like a foe;He slew all who delighted the eye.He poured out His wrath like fireIn the Tent of Fair Zion.

5The Lord has acted like a foe,He has laid waste Israel,Laid waste all her citadels,Destroyed her strongholds.He has increased within Fair JudahMourning and moaning.

6He has stripped His Boothb like a garden,He has destroyed His Tabernacle;cThe LORD has ended in ZionFestival and sabbath;In His raging anger He has spurnedKing and priest.

7The Lord has rejected His altar,Disdained His Sanctuary.He has handed over to the foeThe walls of its citadels;They raised a shout in the House of the LORDAs on a festival day.

8The LORD resolved to destroyThe wall of Fair Zion;dHe measured with a line, refrained notFrom bringing destruction.He has made wall and rampart to mourn,Together they languish.

9Her gates have sunk into the ground,He has smashed her bars to bits;Her king and her leaders are ein exile,Instructionf is no more;Her prophets, too, receiveNo vision from the LORD.

10Silent sit on the groundThe elders of Fair Zion;They have strewn dust on their headsAnd girded themselves with sackcloth;The maidens of Jerusalem have bowedTheir heads to the ground.

11My eyes are spent with tears,My heart is in tumult,gMy being melts awayOver the ruin of hmy poor people,As babes and sucklings languishIn the squares of the city.

12They keep asking their mothers,“Where is bread and wine?”As they languish like battle-woundedIn the squares of the town,As their life runs outIn their mothers’ bosoms.

13What can I itake as witness or likenTo you, O Fair Jerusalem?What can I match with you to console you,O Fair Maiden Zion?For your ruin is vast as the sea:Who can heal you?

14Your seers prophesied to youDelusion and folly.They did not expose your iniquitySo as to restore your fortunes,But prophesied to you oraclesOf delusion and deception.

15All who pass your wayClap their hands at you;They hiss and wag their headAt Fair Jerusalem:j“Is this the city that was calledPerfect in Beauty,Joy of All the Earth?”

16All your enemiesJeer at you;They hiss and gnash their teeth,And cry: “We’ve ruined her!Ah, this is the day we hoped for;kWe have lived to see it!”

17The LORD has done what He purposed,Has carried out the decreeThat He ordained long ago;He has torn down without pity.He has let the foe rejoice over you,Has exalted the might of your enemies.

18lTheir heart cried out to the Lord.O wall of Fair Zion,Shed tears like a torrentDay and night!Give yourself no respite,Your eyes no rest.

19Arise, cry out in the nightAt the beginning of the watches,Pour out your heart like waterIn the presence of the Lord!Lift up your hands to HimFor the life of your infants,Who faint for hungerAt every street corner.

20See, O LORD, and behold,To whom You have done this!Alas, women eat their own fruit,Their new-bornm babes!Alas, priest and prophet are slainIn the Sanctuary of the Lord!

21Prostrate in the streets lieBoth young and old.My maidens and youthsAre fallen by the sword;You slew them on Your day of wrath,You slaughtered without pity.

22You summoned, as on a festival,My neighbors from round about.On the day of the wrath of the LORD,None survived or escaped;Those whom I borem and rearedMy foe has consumed.