1 How hath the
Lord coveredthe
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 hadom#
in the
day of his
anger!
2 The
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.
3 He 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.
4 He 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.
5 The
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.
6 And 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.
7 The
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.
8 The
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withdrawn his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.
9 Her
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.
10 The
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.
11 Mine
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.
12 They
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.
13 What 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?
14 Thy
prophets have
seen vain and foolish
things for thee: and they have not
discovered thine
iniquity, to turn
away thy
captivity sh@
; but have
seen for thee
false burdens and causes of
banishment.
15 All 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?
16 All 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.
17 The
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.
18 Their
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.
19 Arise, 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.
20 Behold, 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?
21 The
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.
22 Thou hast
called as in a
solemn day my
terrors round
about, so that in the
day of the
LORDS anger none
escaped nor
remained: those that I have
swaddled and brought
up hath mine
enemy consumed.