Lamentations, 2

1. How hath the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger, [and] cast down from heaven unto the earth the beauty of Israel, and remembered not his footstool in the day of his anger!

1. Oh, how Yahweh in his anger has despised the daughter of Zion! Israel's glory he has flung from heaven down to earth; unmindful of his footstool on the day of his wrath.

2. The Lord hath swallowed up all the habitations of Jacob, and hath not pitied: he hath thrown down in his wrath the strong holds of the daughter of Judah; he hath brought [them] down to the ground: he hath polluted the kingdom and the princes thereof.

2. Without pity Yahweh has shattered in Jacob every dwelling. He has torn down in his anger the ramparts of Judah's daughter. He has thrown her rulers and her king to the ground, dishonored.

3. He hath cut off in [his] fierce anger all the horn of Israel: he hath drawn back his right hand from before the enemy, and he burned against Jacob like a flaming fire, [which] devoureth round about.

3. He has cut down in his anger the horn of Israel's might. He has withdrawn his right hand at the approach of the enemy. In Jacob, he has blazed like a fire, he has devoured all around.

4. He hath bent his bow like an enemy: he stood with his right hand as an adversary, and slew all [that were] pleasant to the eye in the tabernacle of the daughter of Zion: he poured out his fury like fire.

4. Like an enemy he has bent his bow, his right hand steadying the arrow. All our pride of manhood he slew as he took his stand as a foe, pouring out fury like fire upon the tent of Zion's daughter.

5. The Lord was as an enemy: he hath swallowed up Israel, he hath swallowed up all her palaces: he hath destroyed his strong holds, and hath increased in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation.

5. The Lord has become an enemy who has laid Israel in ruins. He has destroyed all her palaces and laid waste her fortresses. He has multiplied the tears of the daughter of Judah.

6. And he hath violently taken away his tabernacle, as [if it were of] a garden: he hath destroyed his places of the assembly: the LORD hath caused the solemn feasts and sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion, and hath despised in the indignation of his anger the king and the priest.

6. Yahweh has wrecked her dwelling, laid waste her place of meeting. He has made Zion forget her appointed feasts and sabbaths; he has spurned in his fierce wrath king and prophet and priest.

7. The Lord hath cast off his altar, he hath abhorred his sanctuary, he hath given up into the hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces; they have made a noise in the house of the LORD, as in the day of a solemn feast.

7. The Lord has rejected his altar, has forsaken his sanctuary. He has handed over the walls of her tower to the enemy, whose triumphant shouts are heard in the temple of Yahweh.

8. The LORD hath purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion: he hath stretched out a line, he hath not withdrawn his hand from destroying: therefore he made the rampart and the wall to lament; they languished together.

8. Yahweh resolved to tear down the ramparts of Zion's daughter. He stretched out the measuring line, and did not relent from bringing ruin. He made both wall and rampart mourn, till together they crumbled down.

9. Her gates are sunk into the ground; he hath destroyed and broken her bars: her king and her princes [are] among the Gentiles: the law [is] no [more]; her prophets also find no vision from the LORD.

9. Her gates have sunk into the ground; broken and removed are their bars. Her king and rulers live in exile among the nations. No more message for their prophets, no more visions from Yahweh.

10. The elders of the daughter of Zion sit upon the ground, [and] keep silence: they have cast up dust upon their heads; they have girded themselves with sackcloth: the virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground.

10. The elders of the daughter of Zion sit in silence upon the ground, their heads sprinkled with dust, their bodies wrapped in sackcloth, while Jerusalem's young women bow their heads to the ground.

11. Mine eyes do fail with tears, my bowels are troubled, my liver is poured upon the earth, for the destruction of the daughter of my people; because the children and the sucklings swoon in the streets of the city.

11. With weeping my eyes are spent; my soul is in torment because of the downfall of the daughter of my people, because children and infants faint in the open spaces of the town.

12. They say to their mothers, Where [is] corn and wine? when they swooned as the wounded in the streets of the city, when their soul was poured out into their mothers' bosom.

12. To their mothers they say, "Where is the bread and wine?" as they faint like wounded men in the streets and public squares, as their lives ebb away in their mothers' arms.

13. What thing shall I take to witness for thee? what thing shall I liken to thee, O daughter of Jerusalem? what shall I equal to thee, that I may comfort thee, O virgin daughter of Zion? for thy breach [is] great like the sea: who can heal thee?

13. To what can I compare you, O daughter of Jerusalem? Who can save or comfort you, O virgin daughter of Zion? Deep as the sea is your affliction, and who can possibly heal you?

14. Thy prophets have seen vain and foolish things for thee: and they have not discovered thine iniquity, to turn away thy captivity; but have seen for thee false burdens and causes of banishment.

14. Your prophets' visions were worthless and false. Had they warned of your sins, your fate might have been averted. But what they gave you instead were false, misleading signs.

15. All that pass by clap [their] hands at thee; they hiss and wag their head at the daughter of Jerusalem, [saying, Is] this the city that [men] call The perfection of beauty, The joy of the whole earth?

15. Passersby shudder; some clap their hands at the sight; others wag their heads at the fate of the daughter of Jerusalem. "Is this the city that was called the loveliest, the joy of the world?"

16. All thine enemies have opened their mouth against thee: they hiss and gnash the teeth: they say, We have swallowed [her] up: certainly this [is] the day that we looked for; we have found, we have seen [it].

16. All your enemies open wide their mouths against you; they gnash their teeth, they hiss, they crow: "We have destroyed her! This is the day we have waited for; we have lived to see it happen."

17. The LORD hath done [that] which he had devised; he hath fulfilled his word that he had commanded in the days of old: he hath thrown down, and hath not pitied: and he hath caused [thine] enemy to rejoice over thee, he hath set up the horn of thine adversaries.

17. Yahweh has accomplished his purpose; he has fulfilled his word which he decreed in the days of old; he overthrew you merciless. He made your enemies joyful and gave them power to crush you.

18. Their heart cried unto the Lord, O wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears run down like a river day and night: give thyself no rest; let not the apple of thine eye cease.

18. Cry out to the Lord, O wall of the daughter of Zion! Oh, let your tears flow day and night, like a river. Give yourself no relief; grant your eyes no respite.

19. Arise, cry out in the night: in the beginning of the watches pour out thine heart like water before the face of the Lord: lift up thy hands toward him for the life of thy young children, that faint for hunger in the top of every street.

19. Get up, cry out in the night, as the evening watches start; 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 with hunger at the corner of every street.

20. Behold, O LORD, and consider to whom thou hast done this. Shall the women eat their fruit, [and] children of a span long? shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord?

20. Look, Yahweh, and answer: Why have you treated us like this? Why must women eat their little ones, whom they have nursed in their arms? Why must priest and prophet be slaughtered in the sanctuary of the Lord?

21. The young and the old lie on the ground in the streets: my virgins and my young men are fallen by the sword; thou hast slain [them] in the day of thine anger; thou hast killed, [and] not pitied.

21. In the dust of the streets lie the young and the old, both virgins and young men - all fallen by the sword. You have killed on the day of your fury; you have slaughtered without mercy.

22. Thou hast called as in a solemn day my terrors round about, so that in the day of the LORD'S anger none escaped nor remained: those that I have swaddled and brought up hath mine enemy consumed.

22. As for a feast day, you bade terrors to come from every side. There was, on the day of your anger, neither fugitive nor survivor. My enemy has murdered all whom I bore and reared.