VerseAI

NIV

Lamentations 2

  1. 1<pb/><t><f>[4]</f>How the Lord has covered Daughter Zion</t> <t>with the cloud of his anger<f>[5]</f>!</t> <t>He has hurled down the splendor of Israel</t> <t>from heaven to earth;</t> <t>he has not remembered his footstool</t> <t>in the day of his anger. <pb/></t>
  2. 2<t>Without pity the Lord has swallowed up</t> <t>all the dwellings of Jacob;</t> <t>in his wrath he has torn down</t> <t>the strongholds of Daughter Judah.</t> <t>He has brought her kingdom and its princes</t> <t>down to the ground in dishonor. <pb/></t>
  3. 3<t>In fierce anger he has cut off</t> <t>every horn<f>[6]</f><f>[7]</f> of Israel.</t> <t>He has withdrawn his right hand</t> <t>at the approach of the enemy.</t> <t>He has burned in Jacob like a flaming fire</t> <t>that consumes everything around it. <pb/></t>
  4. 4<t>Like an enemy he has strung his bow;</t> <t>his right hand is ready.</t> <t>Like a foe he has slain</t> <t>all who were pleasing to the eye;</t> <t>he has poured out his wrath like fire</t> <t>on the tent of Daughter Zion. <pb/></t>
  5. 5<t>The Lord is like an enemy;</t> <t>he has swallowed up Israel.</t> <t>He has swallowed up all her palaces</t> <t>and destroyed her strongholds.</t> <t>He has multiplied mourning and lamentation</t> <t>for Daughter Judah. <pb/></t>
  6. 6<t>He has laid waste his dwelling like a garden;</t> <t>he has destroyed his place of meeting.</t> <t>The LORD has made Zion forget</t> <t>her appointed festivals and her Sabbaths;</t> <t>in his fierce anger he has spurned</t> <t>both king and priest. <pb/></t>
  7. 7<t>The Lord has rejected his altar</t> <t>and abandoned his sanctuary.</t> <t>He has given the walls of her palaces</t> <t>into the hands of the enemy;</t> <t>they have raised a shout in the house of the LORD</t> <t>as on the day of an appointed festival. <pb/></t>
  8. 8<t>The LORD determined to tear down</t> <t>the wall around Daughter Zion.</t> <t>He stretched out a measuring line</t> <t>and did not withhold his hand from destroying.</t> <t>He made ramparts and walls lament;</t> <t>together they wasted away. <pb/></t>
  9. 9<t>Her gates have sunk into the ground;</t> <t>their bars he has broken and destroyed.</t> <t>Her king and her princes are exiled among the nations,</t> <t>the law is no more,</t> <t>and her prophets no longer find</t> <t>visions from the LORD. <pb/></t>
  10. 10<t>The elders of Daughter Zion</t> <t>sit on the ground in silence;</t> <t>they have sprinkled dust on their heads</t> <t>and put on sackcloth.</t> <t>The young women of Jerusalem</t> <t>have bowed their heads to the ground. <pb/></t>
  11. 11<t>My eyes fail from weeping,</t> <t>I am in torment within;</t> <t>my heart is poured out on the ground</t> <t>because my people are destroyed,</t> <t>because children and infants faint</t> <t>in the streets of the city. <pb/></t>
  12. 12<t>They say to their mothers,</t> <t>“Where is bread and wine?”</t> <t>as they faint like the wounded</t> <t>in the streets of the city,</t> <t>as their lives ebb away</t> <t>in their mothers’ arms. <pb/></t>
  13. 13<t>What can I say for you?</t> <t>With what can I compare you,</t> <t>Daughter Jerusalem?</t> <t>To what can I liken you,</t> <t>that I may comfort you,</t> <t>Virgin Daughter Zion?</t> <t>Your wound is as deep as the sea.</t> <t>Who can heal you? <pb/></t>
  14. 14<t>The visions of your prophets</t> <t>were false and worthless;</t> <t>they did not expose your sin</t> <t>to ward off your captivity.</t> <t>The prophecies they gave you</t> <t>were false and misleading. <pb/></t>
  15. 15<t>All who pass your way</t> <t>clap their hands at you;</t> <t>they scoff and shake their heads</t> <t>at Daughter Jerusalem:</t> <t>“Is this the city that was called</t> <t>the perfection of beauty,</t> <t>the joy of the whole earth?” <pb/></t>
  16. 16<t>All your enemies open their mouths</t> <t>wide against you;</t> <t>they scoff and gnash their teeth</t> <t>and say, “We have swallowed her up.</t> <t>This is the day we have waited for;</t> <t>we have lived to see it.” <pb/></t>
  17. 17<t>The LORD has done what he planned;</t> <t>he has fulfilled his word,</t> <t>which he decreed long ago.</t> <t>He has overthrown you without pity,</t> <t>he has let the enemy gloat over you,</t> <t>he has exalted the horn<f>[8]</f> of your foes. <pb/></t>
  18. 18<t>The hearts of the people</t> <t>cry out to the Lord.</t> <t>You walls of Daughter Zion,</t> <t>let your tears flow like a river</t> <t>day and night;</t> <t>give yourself no relief,</t> <t>your eyes no rest. <pb/></t>
  19. 19<t>Arise, cry out in the night,</t> <t>as the watches of the night begin;</t> <t>pour out your heart like water</t> <t>in the presence of the Lord.</t> <t>Lift up your hands to him</t> <t>for the lives of your children,</t> <t>who faint from hunger</t> <t>at every street corner. <pb/></t>
  20. 20<t>“Look, LORD, and consider:</t> <t>Whom have you ever treated like this?</t> <t>Should women eat their offspring,</t> <t>the children they have cared for?</t> <t>Should priest and prophet be killed</t> <t>in the sanctuary of the Lord? <pb/></t>
  21. 21<t>“Young and old lie together</t> <t>in the dust of the streets;</t> <t>my young men and young women</t> <t>have fallen by the sword.</t> <t>You have slain them in the day of your anger;</t> <t>you have slaughtered them without pity. <pb/></t>
  22. 22<t>“As you summon to a feast day,</t> <t>so you summoned against me terrors on every side.</t> <t>In the day of the LORD’s anger</t> <t>no one escaped or survived;</t> <t>those I cared for and reared</t> <t>my enemy has destroyed.”</t>