How the Lord in his anger has darkened the daughter of Zion! He hurled the glory of Israel down from heaven to earth, and did not remember his footstool in the day of his anger.
The Lord, sparing nothing, has engulfed all the fair places of Jacob; in his wrath he tore down the strongholds of the daughter of Judah and brought them level with the ground; he profaned her king and her rulers.
In the heat of his anger he broke every horn of Israel; he drew back his right hand from before the enemy; he kindled in Jacob a flame like fire, and it devoured everything around.
He bent his bow like an enemy, he set his right hand firm like an adversary, and he killed everything desirable to my eyes; in the tent of the daughter of Zion he poured out his wrath like fire.
The Lord has become like an enemy: he engulfed Israel, he engulfed all her palaces, he ruined his strongholds, and he multiplied for the daughter of Judah humiliation upon humiliation.
He spread apart his dwelling as one does a vine; he ruined his own feast. The Lord forgot in Zion what he had appointed, both feast and sabbath, and in the fury of his anger he provoked king and priest and ruler.
The Lord rejected his altar and cast off his sanctuary; by the hand of the enemy he shattered the wall of her palaces. They raised a shout in the house of the Lord as on a day of festival.
The Lord turned to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion; he stretched out a measuring line and did not draw back his hand from trampling. The outer rampart mourned, and the wall together grew weak.
Her gates have sunk into the ground; he destroyed and broke her bars. Her king and her rulers are among the nations; there is no law, and her prophets have received no vision from the Lord.
The elders of the daughter of Zion sit on the ground in silence; they have put dust on their heads and girded themselves with sackcloth. The chief virgins in Jerusalem have been brought down to the ground.
My eyes are spent with tears, my heart is in turmoil, my glory is poured out on the ground, because of the ruin of the daughter of my people, as infant and nursing child faint in the streets of the city.
They said to their mothers, 'Where is grain and wine?' as they fainted like the wounded in the streets of the city, as their lives were poured out into their mothers' bosom.
What shall I testify for you, or to what shall I compare you, daughter Jerusalem? Who will save you and comfort you, virgin daughter Zion? For the cup of your ruin has grown great. Who will heal you?
Your prophets saw for you empty and foolish things; they did not expose your iniquity so as to turn back your captivity. They saw for you oracles that were empty and drove you out.
All who pass along the way clap their hands at you; they hiss and shake their heads at the daughter of Jerusalem: Is this the city they call the crown of glory, the joy of all the earth?
All your enemies have opened their mouths wide against you; they hissed and gnashed their teeth; they said, 'We have swallowed her up. Surely this is the day we waited for; we have found it, we have seen it.'
The Lord has done what he purposed; he has fulfilled his words, which he commanded from days of old. He tore down and did not spare; he made the enemy rejoice over you and exalted the horn of the one who afflicts you.
Their heart cried out to the Lord. O walls of Zion, let tears run down like torrents day and night; give yourself no relief, and let not your eye be still, O daughter.
Arise, exult in the night, at the beginning of your watches; pour out your heart like water before the face of the Lord. Lift up your hands to him for the life of your infants, who faint with hunger at the head of every street.
Look, O Lord, and see: whom have you gleaned like this? Shall women eat the fruit of their womb? The slaughterer has made a gleaning. Shall nursing infants be murdered? Will you kill priest and prophet in the sanctuary of the Lord?
Child and old man lie in the street; my virgins and my young men have gone into captivity. With sword and with famine you killed; in the day of your anger you slaughtered, you did not spare.
He summoned from all around, as to a day of festival, those among whom I sojourned; and in the day of the Lord's anger no one escaped or was left over — even as I strengthened and multiplied all my enemies.