Book of Lamentations, Chapter 2
Chapter 2 of Lamentations
¶ He hath cast down from heaven unto the earth the beauty of Israel,
¶ And hath not remembered his footstool in the day of his anger.
¶ He hath thrown down in his wrath the strongholds of the daughter of Judah;
¶ He hath brought them down to the ground; he hath profaned the kingdom and the princes thereof.
¶ He hath drawn back his right hand from before the enemy:
¶ And he hath burned up Jacob like a flaming fire, which devoureth round about.
¶ And hath slain all that were pleasant to the eye:
¶ [b]In the tent of the daughter of Zion he hath poured out his wrath like fire.
¶ He hath swallowed up all her palaces, he hath destroyed his strongholds;
¶ And he hath multiplied in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation.
¶ Jehovah hath caused [d]solemn assembly and sabbath to be forgotten in Zion,
¶ And hath despised in the indignation of his anger the king and the priest.
¶ He hath given up into the hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces:
¶ They have made a noise in the house of Jehovah, as in the day of a solemn assembly.
¶ He hath stretched out the line, he hath not withdrawn his hand from [e]destroying;
¶ And he hath made the rampart and wall to lament; they languish together.
¶ Her king and her princes are among the nations where the law is not;
¶ Yea, her prophets find no vision from Jehovah.
¶ They have cast up dust upon their heads; they have girded themselves with sackcloth:
¶ The virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground.
¶ My liver is poured upon the earth, because of the [f]destruction of the daughter of my people,
¶ Because the young children and the sucklings swoon in the streets of the city.
¶ When they swoon as the wounded in the streets of the city,
¶ When their soul is poured out into their mothers’ bosom.
¶ What shall I compare to thee, that I may comfort thee, O virgin daughter of Zion?
¶ For thy breach is great like the sea: who can heal thee?
¶ And they have not uncovered thine iniquity, to bring back thy captivity,
¶ But have seen for thee false [h]oracles and [i]causes of banishment.
¶ They hiss and wag their head at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying,
¶ Is this the city that men called The perfection of beauty, The joy of the whole earth?
¶ They hiss and gnash the teeth; they say, We have swallowed her up;
¶ Certainly this is the day that we looked for; we have found, we have seen it.
¶ He hath thrown down, and hath not pitied:
¶ And he hath caused the enemy to rejoice over thee; he hath exalted the horn of thine adversaries.
¶ O wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears run down like a river day and night;
¶ Give thyself no respite; let not the apple of thine eye cease.
¶ Pour out thy heart like water before the face of the Lord:
¶ Lift up thy hands toward him for the life of thy young children, that faint for hunger at the head of every street.
¶ Shall the women eat their fruit, the children that are dandled in the hands?
¶ Shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord?
¶ My virgins and my young men are fallen by the sword:
¶ Thou hast slain them in the day of thine anger; thou hast slaughtered, and not pitied.
¶ And there was none that escaped or remained in the day of Jehovah’s anger:
¶ Those that I have dandled and brought up hath mine enemy consumed.FOOTNOTES
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