1  How the Lord in his anger

has set the daughter of Zion under a cloud!

He has cast down from heaven to earth

the splendor of Israel;

he has not remembered his ^sfootstool

in the day of his anger.

2  The Lord has swallowed up ^twithout mercy

all the habitations of Jacob;

in his wrath he has broken down

the strongholds of the daughter of Judah;

he has brought down to the ground in dishonor

the kingdom and its rulers.

3  He has cut down in fierce anger

all the might of Israel;

he has ^uwithdrawn from them his right hand

in the face of the enemy;

he has burned like a flaming fire in Jacob,

consuming all around.

4  He has ^vbent his bow like an enemy,

with his right hand set like a foe;

and he has killed all who were delightful in our eyes;

in the tent of the daughter of Zion,

he has poured out his fury like fire.

5  The Lord has become like an enemy;

he has swallowed up Israel;

he has swallowed up all its palaces;

he has laid in ruins its ^wstrongholds,

and he has multiplied in the daughter of Judah

mourning and lamentation.

6  He has laid waste his booth like a garden,

laid in ruins his meeting place;

the Lord has made Zion forget

festival and Sabbath,

and in his fierce indignation has spurned king and priest.

7  The Lord has scorned his altar,

disowned his sanctuary;

he has ^xdelivered into the hand of the enemy

the walls of her palaces;

they raised a clamor in the house of the Lord

as on the day of festival.

8  The Lord determined to lay in ruins

the wall of the daughter of Zion;

he stretched out the ^ymeasuring line;

he did not restrain his hand from destroying;

he caused rampart and wall to lament;

they languished together.

9  Her gates have sunk into the ground;

he has ruined and broken her bars;

her king and princes are among the nations;

the law is no more,

and ^zher prophets find

no vision from the Lord.

10  The elders of the daughter of Zion

^asit on the ground in silence;

they have ^bthrown dust on their heads

and put on sackcloth;

the young women of Jerusalem

have bowed their heads to the ground.

11  My eyes are spent with weeping;

^cmy stomach churns;

my bile is poured out to the ground

^dbecause of the destruction of the daughter of my people,

because ^einfants and babies faint

in the streets of the city.

12  They cry to their mothers,

“Where is bread and wine?”

as they faint like a wounded man

in the streets of the city,

as their life is poured out

on their mothers’ bosom.

13  What can I say for you, to what compare you,

O daughter of Jerusalem?

What can I ^fliken to you, that I may comfort you,

O ^gvirgin daughter of Zion?

For your ruin is vast as the sea;

^hwho can heal you?

14  Your prophets have seen for you

ⁱfalse and deceptive visions;

they have not ^jexposed your iniquity

to restore your fortunes,

but have seen for you oracles

that are false and misleading.

15  All who pass along the way

clap their hands at you;

they hiss and ^kwag their heads

at the daughter of Jerusalem:

“Is this the city that was called

the ^lperfection of beauty,

^mthe joy of all the earth?”

16  All your enemies

rail against you;

they hiss, they gnash their teeth,

they cry: “We have swallowed her!

Ah, this is the day we longed for;

now we have it; we see it!”

17  ⁿThe Lord has done what he purposed;

he has carried out his word,

which he commanded long ago;

he has thrown down without pity;

he has made the enemy ^orejoice over you

and exalted the might of your foes.

18  Their heart cried to the Lord.

O wall of the daughter of Zion,

let tears stream down like a torrent

day and night!

Give yourself no rest,

your eyes no respite!

19  “Arise, cry out in the night,

at the beginning of the night watches!

^pPour out your heart like water

before the presence of the Lord!

Lift your hands to him

for the lives of your children,

who faint for hunger

^qat the head of every street.”

20  Look, O Lord, and see!

With whom have you dealt thus?

Should women ^reat the fruit of their womb,

the children of their tender care?

Should priest and prophet be killed

in the sanctuary of the Lord?

21  In the dust of the streets

lie the ^syoung and the old;

my young women and my young men

have fallen by the sword;

you have killed them in the day of your anger,

slaughtering without pity.

22  You summoned as if to a festival day

my ^tterrors on every side,

and on the day of the anger of the Lord

no one escaped or survived;

those whom I held and raised

my enemy destroyed.