1
How hath the Lord coveredThe daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger,And cast down from heaven unto the earthThe beauty of Israel,And remembered not his footstoolIn the day of his anger!
2
The Lord hath swallowed upAll the habitations of Jacob, and hath not pitied:He hath thrown down in his wrathThe strong holds of the daughter of Judah;He hath brought them down to the ground:He hath polluted the kingdom and the princes thereof.
3
He hath cut off in his fierce angerAll the horn of Israel:He hath drawn back his right handFrom before the enemy,And he burned against Jacob like a flaming fire,Which devoureth round about.
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 eyeIn the tabernacle of the daughter of Zion:He poured out his fury like fire.
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 JudahMourning and lamentation.
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 feastsAnd sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion,And hath despised in the indignation of his angerThe king and the priest.
7
The Lord hath cast off his altar,He hath abhorred his sanctuary,He hath given up into the hand of the enemyThe walls of her palaces;They have made a noise in the house of the LORD,As in the day of a solemn feast.
8
The LORD hath purposed to destroyThe wall of the daughter of Zion:He hath stretched out a line,He hath not withdrawn his hand from destroying:Therefore he made the rampart and the wall to lament;They languished together.
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 findNo vision from the LORD.
10
The elders of the daughter of ZionSit upon the ground, and keep silence:They have cast up dust upon their heads;They have girded themselves with sackcloth:The virgins of JerusalemHang down 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 swoonIn the streets of the city.
12
They say to their mothers,Where is corn and wine?When they swooned as the woundedIn the streets of the city,When their soul was poured outInto their mothers' bosom.
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?
14
Thy prophets have seen vainAnd foolish things for thee:And they have not discovered thine iniquity,To turn away thy captivity;But have seen for thee false burdensAnd causes of banishment.
15
All that pass by clapTheir hands at thee;They hiss and wag their headAt the daughter of Jerusalem, saying,Is this the city that men callThe perfection of beauty,The joy of the whole earth?
16
All thine enemiesHave 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.
17
The LORD hath done that which he had devised;He hath fulfilled his wordThat 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.
18
Their heart cried unto the Lord,O wall of the daughter of Zion,Let tears run down like a riverDay and night:Give thyself no rest;Let not the apple of thine eye cease.
19
Arise, cry out in the night:In the beginning of the watchesPour out thine heart like waterBefore the face of the Lord:Lift up thy hands toward him for the lifeOf thy young children,That faint for hungerIn the top 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 slainIn the sanctuary of the Lord?
21
The young and the old lieOn the ground in the streets:My virgins and my young menAre fallen by the sword;Thou hast slain them in the day of thine anger;Thou hast killed, and not pitied.
22
Thou hast called as in a solemn dayMy terrors round about,So that in the day of the LORD's angerNone escaped nor remained:Those that I have swaddled and brought up hathMine enemy consumed.