UST GEN EXO LEV NUM DEU JOS JDG RUTH 1 SAM 2 SAM 1 KI 2 KI 1 CHR 2 CHR EZRA NEH EST JOB PSA PROV ECC SNG ISA 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 C3 C4 C5

UST LAM Chapter 2

◄ LAM 2 ► ║ ═ ©

2 ALEPH

2 The Lord was very angry with the people of Jerusalem,

so he brought darkness and judgment on them.

Jerusalem used to be a beautiful and glorious city,

but he humiliated it and brought it down to nothing.

When the day came for him to punish Israel,

he did not even spare his own temple.

BETH

2 The Lord completely destroyed all the homes of Jacob’s descendants

and was not merciful to them.

Because he was furious,

he tore the fortresses of the people of Judah down to the ground.

He disgraced their kingdom and its rulers.

GIMEL

3 Because he was extremely angry,

he took away all of Israel’s power.

He refused to protect his people

when their enemies attacked them.

He destroyed everything among Jacob’s descendants

like a raging fire that burns up everything around it.

DALETH

4 He got ready to shoot his bow at us, his own people,

as though we were his enemies.

He used his power to kill everyone we loved most

among the people of Jerusalem.

He was extremely angry with us;

his anger burned like a fire.

5 The Lord started treating us like an enemy;

he destroyed Israel.

He destroyed all of Jerusalem’s palaces

and turned its fortresses into ruins.

He caused the people of Judah

to grieve and weep even more.

WAW

6 He wrecked his own temple as easily as someone tears down a garden hut;

he destroyed the place where people gathered to worship him.

Yahweh caused the people of Zion to stop celebrating their sacred festivals and Sabbath days.

Because he was so furiously angry,

he rejected both the king and the priest.

ZAYIN

7 The Lord turned away from his own altar;

he abandoned his own holy place.

He let the enemies have power over the walls of Jerusalem’s palaces.

Those enemies shouted triumphantly inside Yahweh’s temple,

as if they were celebrating one of the sacred festivals.

HETH

8 Yahweh planned to destroy the wall of Jerusalem.

He carefully measured it out for destruction

and then he did not stop himself from devouring it.

He made the outer wall and the inner wall fall into ruin;

together they crumbled.

TETH

9 Jerusalem’s gates have sunk into the ground;

Yahweh smashed the bars that held them shut.

The enemy has taken the king and the officials away to foreign nations;

no one teaches them God’s instruction anymore.

The prophets also no longer receive any messages from Yahweh.

YODH

10 The old men of Jerusalem sit on the ground and say nothing.

They have thrown dust on their heads

and put on rough sackcloth to show how deeply they grieve.

The young women of Jerusalem bow their faces all the way down to the ground.

KAPH

11 I have cried until my eyes can produce no more tears;

my stomach is churning with anguish.

I feel as if my insides are spilling out on the ground,

because so many of my people have died.

Even children and babies are fainting

in the city streets because they have nothing to eat.

LAMEDH

12 The children cry out to their mothers,

“We need food and drink!”

They collapse in the city streets like fatally wounded soldiers,

and they die slowly

in the arms of their mothers.

MEM

13 People of Jerusalem,

there is nothing I can say to help you.

Nothing that has ever happened to anyone else compares to what has happened to you people who live on mount Zion;

I do not know how to comfort you.

The disaster that struck you is as vast as the sea;

no one can restore you.

NUN

14 The prophets among you claimed to hear messages from Yahweh,

but what they said was false and worthless.

They did not rebuke you when you sinned

so that you could have changed your ways and avoided disaster.

Instead, the messages they told you were lies that caused you to do wrong things.

SAMEKH

15 Everyone who passes by on the road

claps their hands to mock you.

They hiss with contempt and shake their heads

at Jerusalem:

“Can this really be the city that people used to say was

the perfectly beautiful city, the city that made all the earth rejoice?”

AYIN

16 All your enemies open their mouths wide against you to mock you.

They hiss with contempt and grind their teeth with hatred;

they say, “We have devoured her!

This is the very day we waited for;

we have lived to see it!”

17 Yahweh has done what he planned to do;

he has carried out the threat

that he announced long ago.

He has torn the city down and shown no mercy;

he has let your enemies celebrate over you,

and he has made those who attack you more powerful than ever.

TSADHE

18 The people of Jerusalem cried out to the Lord from deep within themselves.

People of Jerusalem,

let your tears flow like a river

all day and all night!

Do not stop weeping;

do not let your eyes rest from crying.

QOPH

19 Get up and cry out during the night,

right when the night watches begin!

Tell the Lord everything that is in your heart, holding nothing back, like water pouring out.

Raise your hands and pray to him

for your children to survive,

because they are fainting from hunger

on every street corner.

RESH

20 Yahweh, look at what you have done and pay attention!

Think about whom you have treated this way!

Women should never have to eat their own children,

the babies they lovingly cared for!

No one should kill priests and prophets

inside your own holy place!

SIN

21 People of every age lie dead on the ground in the streets.

The enemy has killed all our youth.

On the day you were angry, you let the enemy kill them;

you let them slaughter them mercilessly.

TAW

22 You called enemies to attack me from every direction,

as if you were summoning guests to come to a feast.

On the day Yahweh was angry,

no one escaped and no one survived.

The children I carried and raised,

my enemy has destroyed them all.

LAM C1 C3 C4 C5