Lamentações 2

God’s Anger with Jerusalem

1 How the Lord has covered the daughter of Zion

With a *(Lam. 3:44)cloud in His anger!

*Matt. 11:23He cast down from heaven to the earth

*2 Sam. 1:19The beauty of Israel,

And did not remember *1 Chr. 28:2; Ps. 99:5; Ezek. 43:7His footstool

In the day of His anger.

2 The Lord has swallowed up and has *Ps. 21:9; Lam. 3:43not pitied

All the dwelling places of Jacob.

He has thrown down in His wrath

The strongholds of the daughter of Judah;

He has brought them down to the ground;

*Ps. 89:39, 40; Is. 43:28He has profaned the kingdom and its princes.

3 He has cut off in fierce anger

Every horn of Israel;

*Ps. 74:11; Jer. 21:4, 5He has drawn back His right hand

From before the enemy.

*Ps. 89:46He has blazed against Jacob like a flaming fire

Devouring all around.

4 *Is. 63:10Standing like an enemy, He has bent His bow;

With His right hand, like an adversary,

He has slain *Ezek. 24:25all whowere pleasing to His eye;

On the tent of the daughter of Zion,

He has poured out His fury like fire.

5 *Jer. 30:14The Lord was like an enemy.

He has swallowed up Israel,

He has swallowed up all her palaces;

*2 Kin. 25:9; Jer. 52:13; Lam. 2:2He has destroyed her strongholds,

And has increased mourning and lamentation

In the daughter of Judah.

6 He has done violence *Ps. 80:12; 89:40; Is. 5:5; Jer. 7:14to His tabernacle,

*Is. 1:8; Jer. 52:13Asifitwere a garden;

He has destroyed His place of assembly;

The Lord has caused

The appointed feasts and Sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion.

In His burning indignation He has *Is. 43:28spurned the king and the priest.

7 The Lord has spurned His altar,

He has *Ezek. 24:21abandoned His sanctuary;

He has given up the walls of her palaces

Into the hand of the enemy.

*Ps. 74:3–8They have made a noise in the house of the Lord

As on the day of a set feast.

8 The Lord has purposed to destroy

The *Jer. 52:14wall of the daughter of Zion.

*(2 Kin. 21:13; Is. 34:11; Amos 7:7–9)He has stretched out a line;

He has not withdrawn His hand from destroying;

Therefore He has caused the rampart and wall to lament;

They languished together.

9 Her gates have sunk into the ground;

He has destroyed and *Jer. 51:30broken her bars.

*Deut. 28:36; 2 Kin. 24:15; 25:7; Lam. 1:3; 4:20Her king and her princes are among the nations;

*2 Chr. 15:3The Law is no more,

And her *Ps. 74:9; Mic. 3:6prophets find no vision from the Lord.

10 The elders of the daughter of Zion

*Job 2:13; Is. 3:26Sit on the ground and keep silence;

They *Job 2:12; Ezek. 27:30throw dust on their heads

And *Is. 15:3; Jon. 3:6–8gird themselves with sackcloth.

The virgins of Jerusalem

Bow their heads to the ground.

11 *Ps. 6:7; Lam. 3:48My eyes fail with tears,

My heart is troubled;

*Job 16:13; Ps. 22:14My bile is poured on the ground

Because of the destruction of the daughter of my people,

Because *Lam. 4:4the children and the infants

Faint in the streets of the city.

12 They say to their mothers,

"Where is grain and wine?"

As they swoon like the wounded

In the streets of the city,

As their life is poured out

In their mothers’ bosom.

13 How shall I *Lam. 1:12; Dan. 9:12console you?

To what shall I liken you,

O daughter of Jerusalem?

What shall I compare with you, that I may comfort you,

O virgin daughter of Zion?

For your ruin is spread wide as the sea;

Who can heal you?

14 Your *Jer. 2:8; 23:25–29; 29:8, 9; 37:19; Ezek. 13:2prophets have seen for you

False and deceptive visions;

They have not *Is. 58:1; Ezek. 23:36; Mic. 3:8uncovered your iniquity,

To bring back your captives,

But have envisioned for you false *Jer. 23:33–36; Ezek. 22:25, 28prophecies and delusions.

15 All who pass by *1 Kin. 9:8; Job 27:23; Jer. 18:16; Ezek. 25:6; Nah. 3:19clap their hands at you;

They hiss *2 Kin. 19:21; Ps. 44:14and shake their heads

At the daughter of Jerusalem:

"Is this the city that is called

*(Ps. 48:2; 50:2); Ezek. 16:14‘The perfection of beauty,

The joy of the whole earth’?"

16 *Job 16:9, 10; Ps. 22:13; Lam. 3:46All your enemies have opened their mouth against you;

They hiss and gnash their teeth.

They say, *Ps. 56:2; 124:3; Jer. 51:34"We have swallowed her up!

Surely this is the *Lam. 1:21; (Obad. 12–15)day we have waited for;

We have found it,*Ps. 35:21we have seen it!"

17 The Lord has done what He *Lev. 26:16purposed;

He has fulfilled His word

Which He commanded in days of old.

He has thrown down and has not pitied,

And He has caused an enemy to *Ps. 38:16rejoice over you;

He has exalted the horn of your adversaries.

18 Their heart cried out to the Lord,

"O wall of the daughter of Zion,

*Jer. 14:17; Lam. 1:16Let tears run down like a river day and night;

Give yourself no relief;

Give your eyes no rest.

19 "Arise, *Ps. 119:147cry out in the night,

At the beginning of the watches;

*1 Sam. 1:15; Ps. 42:4; 62:8Pour out your heart like water before the face of the Lord.

Lift your hands toward Him

For the life of your young children,

Who faint from hunger *Is. 51:20at the head of every street."

20 "See, O Lord, and consider!

To whom have You done this?

*Lev. 26:29; Deut. 28:53; Jer. 19:9; Lam. 4:10; Ezek. 5:10Should the women eat their offspring,

The children they have cuddled?

Should the priest and prophet be slain

In the sanctuary of the Lord?

21 "Young*2 Chr. 36:17; Jer. 6:11 and old lie

On the ground in the streets;

My virgins and my young men

Have fallen by the *Jer. 18:21sword;

You have slain them in the day of Your anger,

You have slaughtered and not pitied.

22 "You have invited as to a feast day

*Ps. 31:13; Is. 24:17; Jer. 6:25The terrors that surround me.

In the day of the Lord’s anger

There was no refugee or survivor.

*Hos. 9:12Those whom I have borne and brought up

My enemies have *Jer. 16:2–4; 44:7destroyed."