Lamentations 2

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 covered Jerusalem with a dark cloud of anger. The city is called "the daughter of Zion," like a much-loved daughter. He threw Israel's beauty down from the sky to the ground. On the day he was angry, he turned away from his footstool, the temple.

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 swallowed up all the homes of Jacob's people. He did not feel sorry for them. In his anger he tore down the strong walled towns of Judah. He knocked them to the ground. He put the kingdom and its leaders to 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 all of Israel's strength. He pulled his right hand back when the enemy came close. He did not help them fight. He burned through Jacob's land like fire that eats up everything around it.

NoteThe King James Bible says "horn" here and in verse 17. In Bible poems a horn means strength or power, like the strong horn of an animal.

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 shoot. Like a foe he killed everyone who was good to look at. He poured out his anger like fire on the tents of Jerusalem.

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 fine big houses. He wrecked her strong places. He gave the people of Judah more and more crying and sadness.

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 little garden shed. He wrecked the place where people met to worship him. The Lord made Zion forget her holy feast days and her Sabbaths, the special rest days. In his hot anger he pushed away both the king and the priest, the man who helped people worship God.

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 own altar, the table where gifts were burned for him. He would not stay in his holy house. He let enemies take the walls of her palaces. They shouted inside the Lord's house. It sounded like the noise of 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 planned to knock down the wall of Jerusalem. He stretched out a measuring line to mark it. He did not pull his hand back from wrecking it. He made the wall and the bank beside it cry. Together they fell apart.

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 smashed and broke the bars that locked them. Her king and her leaders live far away among other nations. God's teaching is not taught anymore. Her prophets, the people who told others what God said, get no messages 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 older leaders of Jerusalem sit on the ground and say nothing. They have thrown dust on their heads. They wear rough, scratchy cloth to show how sad they are. The young women of Jerusalem bow their heads down 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 hurt deep inside. My heart is poured out on the ground in grief. It is because my people have been destroyed. Children and babies faint in the streets of the city.

NoteThe King James Bible says "my bowels are troubled, my liver is poured upon the earth." Long ago people spoke of the insides of the body to mean deep feelings, the way we say "my heart is broken."

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 in the city streets like people who are badly hurt. Their lives slip away in their mothers' arms.

NoteThe King James Bible says "corn." In old English, corn meant any grain used for bread, not the yellow corn on a cob.

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 to you, Jerusalem? What can I compare you to? I want words that will comfort you, dear city of Zion. But your wound is as deep as the sea. Who can ever make you well?

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 things that were empty and untrue. They did not show you the wrong things you were doing. If they had, you might not have been taken away. The messages they gave you were false 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. They say, "Is this the city people called the most beautiful of all? Is this 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. They say, "We have swallowed her up. This is the day we waited for. We 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 kept the word he spoke long ago. He tore you down and did not feel sorry. He let your enemies be glad about it. He made your enemies 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 people cried out to the Lord from deep in their hearts. O wall of Jerusalem, let your tears run down like a river. Cry day and night. Do not stop and rest. Do not let your eyes rest.

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. Start when the first night watch begins. Pour out your heart like water in front of the Lord. Lift up your hands to him. Beg him for the lives of your children. They are fainting from hunger on every street corner.

NoteThe night was split into parts called watches, when guards took turns watching the city. "The beginning of the watches" means early in 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 who you have treated this way. Should mothers 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 people and old people lie in the dirt of the streets. My young women and young men have been killed by swords. You killed them on the day you were angry. You killed them and did not feel sorry.

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 my enemies to come at me from every side. It was like calling people to a feast day. On the day of the Lord's anger, no one got away. No one was left alive. My enemy destroyed the children I held and raised.