Lamentations

How hath the LORD covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger, and cast down from heaven unto the earth the beauty of Israel, and remembered not his footstool in the day of his anger!

1See how the Lord has covered the city of Zion with the dark cloud of his anger. He has thrown Israel's glory down from heaven to the ground. On the day of his anger he turned away from his own footstool.

Note"Daughter of Zion" is a way of talking about Jerusalem and its people as if the city were one person. God's "footstool" here means the temple in Jerusalem, the place where people came to worship him.

2The LORD hath swallowed up all the habitations of Jacob, and hath not pitied: he hath thrown down in his wrath the strong holds of the daughter of Judah; he hath brought them down to the ground: he hath polluted the kingdom and the princes thereof.

2The Lord has swallowed up all the homes of Jacob, and he showed no pity. In his anger he tore down the walled cities of Judah. He brought her kingdom and her princes down to the ground in shame.

3He hath cut off in his fierce anger all the horn of Israel: he hath drawn back his right hand from before the enemy, and he burned against Jacob like a flaming fire, which devoureth round about.

3In fierce anger he broke off every horn of Israel, all her strength. When the enemy came, he pulled his right hand back and gave no help. He burned in Jacob like a fire that eats up everything around it.

NoteA "horn" is the horn of a strong animal, like a bull. In the Bible it stands for power and strength. Cutting off the horn means taking away the power.

4He hath bent his bow like an enemy: he stood with his right hand as an adversary, and slew all that were pleasant to the eye in the tabernacle of the daughter of Zion: he poured out his fury like fire.

4He bent his bow like an enemy. His right hand was ready to strike, like a foe. He killed everyone who was pleasing to look at. He poured out his anger like fire on the tent of Zion.

5The LORD was as an enemy: he hath swallowed up Israel, he hath swallowed up all her palaces: he hath destroyed his strong holds, and hath increased in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation.

5The Lord acted like an enemy. He swallowed up Israel. He swallowed up all her palaces and wrecked her strong places. He gave the people of Judah more and more sorrow and weeping.

6And he hath violently taken away his tabernacle, as if it were of a garden: he hath destroyed his places of the assembly: the LORD hath caused the solemn feasts and sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion, and hath despised in the indignation of his anger the king and the priest.

6He tore down his own tent as if it were a shed in a garden. He ruined the place where his people met with him. The LORD made Zion forget her feast days and her Sabbaths. In his hot anger he turned away from both king and priest.

7The LORD hath cast off his altar, he hath abhorred his sanctuary, he hath given up into the hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces; they have made a noise in the house of the LORD, as in the day of a solemn feast.

7The Lord turned away from his altar and refused his holy house. He handed the walls of her palaces over to the enemy. They shouted inside the LORD's house, as if it were a feast day.

8The LORD hath purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion: he hath stretched out a line, he hath not withdrawn his hand from destroying: therefore he made the rampart and the wall to lament; they languished together.

8The LORD decided to destroy the wall around Zion. He stretched out a measuring line and did not pull his hand back from destroying. He made the outer wall and the main wall mourn; together they crumbled away.

9Her gates are sunk into the ground; he hath destroyed and broken her bars: her king and her princes are among the Gentiles: the law is no more; her prophets also find no vision from the LORD.

9Her gates have sunk into the ground. He has smashed and broken the bars that locked them. Her king and her leaders live far away among other nations. God's teaching is gone, and her prophets get no visions from the LORD.

10The elders of the daughter of Zion sit upon the ground, and keep silence: 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.

10The elders of Zion sit on the ground and say nothing. They have thrown dust on their heads and put on rough sackcloth to show their grief. The young women of Jerusalem bow their heads to the ground.

11Mine eyes do fail with tears, my bowels are troubled, my liver is poured upon the earth, for the destruction of the daughter of my people; because the children and the sucklings swoon in the streets of the city.

11My eyes are worn out from crying. I ache deep inside. My heart is poured out on the ground because my people are destroyed. Children and babies faint in the streets of the city.

12They say to their mothers, Where is corn and wine? when they swooned as the wounded in the streets of the city, when their soul was poured out into their mothers’ bosom.

12They ask their mothers, "Where is the grain and the wine?" They faint like wounded men in the streets of the city. Their lives slip away in their mothers' arms.

NoteThe KJV says "corn." In 1611 that word meant grain of any kind, such as wheat or barley, not the yellow corn on the cob we eat today.

13What thing shall I take to witness for thee? what thing shall I liken to thee, O daughter of Jerusalem? what shall I equal to thee, that I may comfort thee, O virgin daughter of Zion? for thy breach is great like the sea: who can heal thee?

13What can I say for you? What can I compare you to, city of Jerusalem? What is like you, so that I can comfort you? Your wound is as deep as the sea. Who can heal you?

14Thy prophets have seen vain and foolish things for thee: and they have not discovered thine iniquity, to turn away thy captivity; but have seen for thee false burdens and causes of banishment.

14Your prophets saw visions that were empty and false. They did not point out your sin, which might have kept you from being carried away. The messages they saw for you were empty and led you the wrong way.

15All that pass by clap their hands at thee; they hiss and wag their head at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying, Is this the city that men call The perfection of beauty, The joy of the whole earth?

15Everyone who walks by claps their hands to make fun of you. They hiss and shake their heads at Jerusalem and say, "Is this the city people called the most beautiful of all, the joy of the whole earth?"

16All thine enemies have opened their mouth against thee: 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.

16All your enemies open their mouths wide against you. They hiss and grind their teeth and say, "We have swallowed her up. This is the day we waited for. We have lived to see it."

17The LORD hath done that which he had devised; he hath fulfilled his word that he had commanded in the days of old: he hath thrown down, and hath not pitied: and he hath caused thine enemy to rejoice over thee, he hath set up the horn of thine adversaries.

17The LORD has done what he planned. He has carried out the word he gave long ago. He tore you down and showed no pity. He let your enemy gloat over you and made your foes strong.

18Their heart cried unto the LORD, O wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears run down like a river day and night: give thyself no rest; let not the apple of thine eye cease.

18The hearts of the people cry out to the Lord. O wall of Zion, let your tears run down like a river, day and night. Give yourself no rest. Let your eyes never stop crying.

19Arise, cry out in the night: in the beginning of the watches pour out thine 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 in the top of every street.

19Get up and cry out in the night, when the first night watch begins. Pour out your heart like water before the Lord. Lift up your hands to him for the lives of your children, who faint from hunger on every street corner.

NoteThe night was divided into three or four "watches," like shifts for guards. "The beginning of the watches" means the start of the first shift, in the early part of the night.

20Behold, O LORD, and consider to whom thou hast done this. Shall the women eat their fruit, and children of a span long? shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord?

20Look, LORD, and think about whom you have treated this way. Should women eat their own children, the babies they cared for? Should priests and prophets be killed in the Lord's holy house?

21The young and the old lie on the ground in the streets: my virgins and my young men are fallen by the sword; thou hast slain them in the day of thine anger; thou hast killed, and not pitied.

21Young and old lie together in the dust of the streets. My young women and young men have fallen by the sword. You killed them on the day of your anger. You slaughtered them and showed no pity.

22Thou hast called as in a solemn day my terrors round about, so that in the day of the LORD’s anger none escaped nor remained: those that I have swaddled and brought up hath mine enemy consumed.

22You called in my terrors from every side, as if you were calling people to a feast day. On the day of the LORD's anger no one escaped and no one was left. My enemy destroyed the children I wrapped up and raised.