Moff JOS 1 CHR 2 CHR EZRA NEH EST JOB PSA PROV ECC SNG JER LAM EZE DAN HOS JOEL AMOS OBA YNA MIC NAH HAB ZEP HAG ZEC MAL MAT MARK LUKE YHN ACTs ROM 1 COR 2 COR GAL EPH PHP COL 1 TH 2 TH 1 TIM 2 TIM TIT PHM HEB YAC 1 PET 2 PET 1 YHN 2 YHN 3 YHN YUD REV

LAM C1 C2 C3 C4 C5

Moff LAM Chapter 2

◄ LAM 2 ► ║ ═ ©

How the Lord has shamed in c% his anger

maiden Sion,

hurling from heaven to earth

the splendour of Israel,

remembering not, on the day of his fury,

his Footstool!

The Lord has ruined ruthlessly

the homesteads of Jacob,

lowering and levelling

the strongholds of Judah,

degrading in his wrath

her king and nobles.

He has shattered in fierce anger

all the force of Israel,

withdrawing his right hand from them

as they faced the foe.

He has burned in Jacob like a fire,

devouring all around.

Like a foe he has bent his 4 bow,

and fitted his arrows;

he slaughters and kills the children,

the delight of our eyes,

in the tent of maiden Sion he pours out

like fire his fury.

The Lord has become our enemy,

ruining Israel,

ruining all her citadels

and shattering her strongholds,

heaping upon maiden Sion

wails and woe.

He has torn the fence down like a robber,

demolished his own shrine,

abolished within Sion

feast and sabbath,

spurned aside in indignation

king and priest alike.

The Lord has discarded his own altar,

scorned his sanctuary,

and let the foe lay hands upon

the ark of the compact.

What shouts they raised in the Eternal’s house,

as in an orgy!

The Eternal was determined to destroy

the walls of maiden Sion;

he planned it all,

his hand was in the havoc;

rampart and wall--he made them all

lament and totter.

Her gates have sunk to the ground,

her bars are broken.

Her king and nobles are exiled;

there is no law;

her very prophets are without

a vision from the Eternal;

they sit in silence on the ground,

the sheikhs of maiden Sion;

and, with dust flung on their heads,

with sackcloth round their loins,

with head bowed to the ground,

there sit the maids of Jerusalem!

My eyes are worn with tears,

my soul is wretched,

my heart is melting

for the wreck of my people,

for babies and infants swooning

in the city-streets,

crying to their mothers

for their food,

swooning like men wounded

in the city-streets,

gasping out their lives

in their mothers’ bosom.

To what can I compare you,

dear Jerusalem?

To what can I liken you, for your comfort,

O maiden Sion?

Your wreck is vast as the ocean;

who can repair you?

Your prophets? ah, their dreams for you

were false and flattering;

they never made you see your sin,

to save you from captivity--

all the dreams they had for you

deceived you and misled you.

Now all who pass

clap their hands over you,

hissing and tossing their heads

over maiden Jerusalem;

“So this is the peerless Beauty,

the Joy of all the earth?”

Your foes, they are all yelling

against you,

hissing with clenched teeth,

“We have done for her!

This is the day we longed for!

It has come, we see it at last!”

The Eternal has done as he planned,

has carried out his word,

as he fixed long ago;

he wrecks you ruthlessly,

makes foemen rejoice over you,

and swells their forces.

Cry aloud to the Lord,

O maiden Sion!

let your tears stream down

by day and night,

give yourself no respite,

give your eyes no rest.

Rise and cry in the night,

as the night-watches come round,

pour out your heart like water

before the Lord,

lift hands of prayer

to him over what he has done to you:

“Consider, O Eternal,

whom thou art handling thus!

Are women to eat their children,

the babes they have fondled?

Are priests and prophets to be murdered

in thy sanctuary?

All over the street they lie,

both young and old,

my maidens and my youth

killed without quarter,

slain by thee, on thy day of anger,

slaughtered without pity;

thou hast summoned the terrors of war all around

to a triumph,

till all whom I nursed and nurtured

the foe has destroyed;

not a soul escaped, not one survived,

on the day of thine anger.”

LAM C1 C2 C3 C4 C5