Second lamentation

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 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 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 He has withdrawn his right hand at the approach of the enemy.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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 slaugh tered in the sanctuary of the Lord?

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 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.