Lamentations 2:1-9

1How the Lord has overshadowed Daughter Zion with his anger! He has thrown down Israel’s glory from heaven to earth. He did not acknowledge his footstool in the day of his anger.

2Without compassion the Lord has swallowed up all the dwellings of Jacob. In his wrath he has demolished the fortified cities of Daughter Judah. He brought them to the ground and defiled the kingdom and its leaders.

3He has cut off every horn of Israel in his burning anger and withdrawn his right hand in the presence of the enemy. He has blazed against Jacob like a flaming fire that consumes everything.

4He has strung his bow like an enemy; his right hand is positioned like an adversary. He has killed everyone who was the delight to the eye, pouring out his wrath like fire on the tent of Daughter Zion.

5The Lord is like an enemy; he has swallowed up Israel. He swallowed up all its palaces and destroyed its fortified cities. He has multiplied mourning and lamentation within Daughter Judah.

6He has wrecked his temple as if it were merely a shack in a field, destroying his place of meeting. The Lord has abolished appointed festivals and Sabbaths in Zion. He has despised king and priest in his fierce anger.

7The Lord has rejected his altar, repudiated his sanctuary; he has handed the walls of her palaces over to the enemy. They have raised a shout in the house of the Lord as on the day of an appointed festival.

8The Lord determined to destroy the wall of Daughter Zion. He stretched out a measuring line and did not restrain himself from destroying. He made the ramparts and walls grieve; together they waste away.

9Zion’s gates have fallen to the ground; he has destroyed and shattered the bars on her gates. Her king and her leaders live among the nations, instruction is no more, and even her prophets receive no vision from the Lord.