Lamentations 2
Aleph
1 How hath the Lord darkened in his wrath
the daughter of Sion!
he hath cast down the glory of Israel
from heaven to earth,
and hath not remembered his footstool.
Beth
2 In the day of his wrath
the Lord hath overwhelmed her as in the sea,
and not spared:
he hath brought down in his fury
all the beautiful things of Jacob;
he hath [1]brought down to the ground
the strongholds of the daughter of Judah:
he hath profaned her king and her princes.
Gimel
3 He hath broken in his fierce anger
all the horn of Israel:
he hath turned back his right hand
from the face of the enemy,
and hath kindled a flame in Jacob as fire,
and it hath devoured all things round about.
Daleth
4 He hath bent his bow as an opposing enemy:
he hath strengthened his right hand as an adversary,
and hath destroyed all the desirable things of mine eyes
in the tabernacle of the daughter of Sion:
he hath poured forth his anger as fire.
He
5 The Lord is become as an enemy:
he hath overwhelmed Israel as in the sea,
he hath overwhelmed her palaces:
he hath destroyed his strongholds,
and hath multiplied the afflicted and humbled ones
to the daughter of Judah.
Vau
6 And he hath [2]scattered his tabernacle as a vine,
he hath marred his feast:
the Lord hath forgotten the feast
and the Sabbath which he appointed in Sion,
and in the fury of his wrath
hath vexed the king, and priest, and prince.
Zain
7 The Lord hath rejected his altar,
he hath cast off his sanctuary,
he hath broken by the hand of the enemy
the wall of her palaces;
they have uttered their voice in the house of the Lord
as on a feast day.
Heth
8 And he hath turned to destroy
the wall of the daughter of Sion:
he hath stretched out the measuring line,
he hath not turned back his hand from afflicting her:
therefore the bulwark mourned,
and the wall was weakened with it.
Teth
9 Her gates [3]are sunk into the ground:
he hath destroyed and broken to pieces her bars,
and her king and her prince among the Gentiles:
there is no law,
nay, her prophets have seen no vision from the Lord.
Jod
10 The elders of the daughter of Sion
have sat upon the ground,
they have kept silence:
they have cast up dust upon their heads;
they have girded themselves with sackcloths:
they have brought down to the ground
the chief virgins in Jerusalem.
Chaph
11 Mine eyes have failed with tears,
my heart is troubled,
my glory is [4]cast down to the ground,
for the destruction of the daughter of my people;
while the infant and suckling swoon
in the streets of the city.
Lamed
12 They said to their mothers,
Where is corn and wine?
while they fainted like wounded men
in the streets of the city,
while their souls were poured out
into their mother’s bosom.
Mem
13 What shall I testify to thee,
or what shall I compare to thee,
O daughter of Jerusalem?
who shall save and comfort thee,
O virgin daughter of Sion?
for the cup of thy destruction is enlarged:
who shall heal thee?
Nun
14 Thy prophets have seen for thee
vanities and folly:
and they have not discovered thine iniquity,
to turn back thy captivity;
but they have seen for thee vain burdens,
and worthless [5]visions.
Samech
15 All that go by the way
have clapped their hands at thee;
they have hissed and shaken their head
at the daughter of Jerusalem.
Is this the city, they say,
the crown of joy of all the earth?
Ain
16 All thine enemies have opened their mouth against thee:
they have hissed and gnashed their teeth,
and said, We have swallowed her up:
moreover this is the day which we looked for;
we have found it, we have seen it.
Phe
17 The Lord hath done that which he purposed;
he hath accomplished his word,
even the things which he commanded from the ancient days:
he hath thrown down, and hath not spared:
and he hath caused the enemy to rejoice over thee,
he hath exalted the horn of him that afflicted thee.
Tsade
18 Their heart cried to the Lord,
Ye walls of Sion,
pour down tears like torrents day and night:
give thyself no rest;
let not the [6]apple of thine eyes cease.
Koph
19 Arise, rejoice in the night
at the beginning of thy watch:
pour out thy heart as water
before the face of the Lord:
lift up thy hands to him
for the life of thine infants,
who faint for hunger
at the top of all the [7]streets.
Rhechs
20 Behold, O Lord,
and see for whom thou hast gathered thus.
Shall the women eat the fruit of their womb?
the cook hath made a gathering:
shall the infants sucking at the breasts be slain?
wilt thou slay the priest and prophet
in the sanctuary of the Lord?
Chsen
21 The child and old man
have lain down in the street:
my virgins and my young men
are gone into captivity:
thou hast slain them
with the sword and with famine;
in the day of thy wrath thou hast mangled them,
thou hast not spared.
Thau
22 He hath called my sojourners round about
to a solemn day,
and there was not in the day of the wrath of the Lord
anyone that escaped or was left;
whereas I have strengthened and multiplied all mine enemies.