How the Lord has darkened the daughter of Zion in his anger; he has cast down from heaven to earth the glory of Israel, and he has not remembered the footstool of his feet in the day of his anger
The Lord has drowned, not sparing, all the lovely things of Jacob; in his wrath he has brought down the strongholds of the daughter of Judah, he has cast down to the ground, he has profaned her king and her princes.
He has broken every horn of Israel in his wrathful anger; he has turned back his right hand from before the enemy, and he has kindled in Jacob like fire a flame, and it has devoured all around.
He bent his bow like an enemy; he strengthened his right hand like an adversary and killed all the desires of my eyes in the tent of the daughter of Zion; he poured out his wrath like fire.
The Lord became as an enemy; he swallowed up Israel, he swallowed up all her towers, he destroyed his fortifications, and he multiplied humiliation for the daughter of Judah, humbled and brought low.
And he spread out his tent as a vine; he destroyed his feast; the Lord forgot what he had done in Zion, of feast and of sabbath, and he provoked with the indignation of his anger king and priest and ruler.
The Lord has rejected his altar, he has spurned his sanctuary; he has broken down into the hand of the enemy the wall of her strongholds. They gave a shout in the house of the Lord as in a day of feast.
And the Lord turned to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion; he stretched out a measuring line, he did not turn back his hand from trampling; and the rampart mourned, and wall alike grew weak.
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 law. Indeed, her prophets have not seen a vision from the Lord.
The elders of the daughter of Zion sat on the ground and were silent; they raised dust upon their heads, girded themselves with sackcloth, and brought down to the ground the heads of the virgins in Jerusalem.
My eyes failed in tears, my heart was troubled, my glory was poured out to the ground over the breaking of the daughter of my people, in the failing of infant and nursing child in the broad places of the city
They said to their mothers, Where are grain and wine? when they were fainting like wounded men in the broad places of the city, when their souls were poured out into the bosom of their mothers.
What shall I witness against you, or to what shall I liken you, O daughter of Jerusalem? Who shall save you and comfort you, virgin daughter of Zion? For your cup of destruction has been made great; who shall heal you?
Your prophets saw for you vain things and folly, and they did not reveal for you your iniquity, to turn back your captivity; and they saw for you vain burdens and cast-offs.
All who passed by the way clapped their hands over you; they whistled and shook their heads over the daughter of Jerusalem: Is this the city of which they will say, Crown of glory, joy of all the earth?
All your enemies have opened their mouth against you; they have hissed and gnashed their teeth. They said, We have swallowed her up; surely this is the day which we were waiting for; we have found it, we have seen it.
The Lord has done what he planned; he has completed his words that he commanded from days of old. He has pulled down and has not spared, and he has made the enemy rejoice over you; he has exalted the horn of your oppressor.
Their heart cried out to the Lord: walls of Zion, bring down tears like streams day and night; give yourself no respite, let not the daughter of your eye be silent.
Arise, rejoice in the night, at the beginning of your watches; pour out your heart like water before the face of the Lord; lift up your hands to him for the life of your little children, those fainting from hunger at the head of all the crossings out.
Look, O Lord, and consider to whom you have done thus. Shall women eat the fruit of their womb, little children? A cook has made a leaf; shall nursing infants be killed, those sucking breasts, in the sanctuary of the Lord? Priest and prophet you will kill.
The child and the elder lay down in the street; my virgins and my young men went into captivity. You killed by sword and by famine; you slaughtered in the day of your wrath, you did not spare.
He called around the day of my sojourning a day of feast, and there was none on the day of the Lord’s wrath escaping and left behind; as I prevailed and multiplied all my enemies.