King James VersionLamentations2

Lamentations

1 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! 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; 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 LORD'S anger none es­caped nor re­mained: those that I have swad­dled and brought up hath mine en­e­my con­sumed.