Lamentations 2

⁷Let us go to His dwelling place; let us worship at His footstool.

²Then King David rose to his feet and said, “Listen to me, my brothers and my people. It was in my heart to build a house as a resting place for the ark of the covenant of the Lord and as a footstool for our God. I had made preparations to build it,

¹⁴You were anointed as a guardian cherub, for I had ordained you. You were on the holy mountain of God; you walked among the fiery stones.

¹⁵From the day you were created you were blameless in your ways—until wickedness was found in you.

⁴³You have covered Yourself in anger and pursued us; You have killed without pity.

⁴⁴You have covered Yourself with a cloud that no prayer can pass through.

⁷Then a war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back.

⁸But the dragon was not strong enough, and no longer was any place found in heaven for him and his angels.

¹⁸So He told them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.

³⁹You have renounced the covenant with Your servant and sullied his crown in the dust.

⁴⁰You have broken down all his walls; You have reduced his strongholds to rubble.

¹⁷The Lord has done what He planned; He has accomplished His decree, which He ordained in days of old; He has overthrown you without pity. He has let the enemy gloat over you and exalted the horn of your foes.

⁴³You have covered Yourself in anger and pursued us; You have killed without pity.

¹²The high-walled fortress will be brought down, cast to the ground, into the dust.

²⁸So I will disgrace the princes of your sanctuary, and I will devote Jacob to destruction and Israel to reproach.”

⁹You will place them in a fiery furnace at the time of Your appearing. In His wrath the Lord will engulf them, and the fire will consume them.

¹¹Why do You withdraw Your strong right hand? Stretch it out to destroy them!

⁵Do not lift up your horn against heaven or speak with an outstretched neck.’”

²⁵So He poured out on them His furious anger and the fierceness of battle. It enveloped them in flames, but they did not understand; it consumed them, but they did not take it to heart.

¹⁰“All the horns of the wicked I will cut off, but the horns of the righteous will be exalted.”

⁴⁶How long, O Lord? Will You hide Yourself forever? Will Your wrath keep burning like fire?

²⁵The horn of Moab has been cut off, and his arm is broken,” declares the Lord.

²⁰Therefore this is what the Lord God says: Behold, My anger and My fury will be poured out on this place, on man and beast, on the trees of the field and the produce of the land, and it will burn and not be extinguished.

²⁵And you, son of man, know that on the day I take away their stronghold, their pride and joy—the desire of their eyes which uplifted their souls—and their sons and daughters as well,

²⁵So He poured out on them His furious anger and the fierceness of battle. It enveloped them in flames, but they did not understand; it consumed them, but they did not take it to heart.

⁵And I Myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand and a mighty arm, with anger, fury, and great wrath.

⁴For the arrows of the Almighty have pierced me; my spirit drinks in their poison; the terrors of God are arrayed against me.

¹²He bent His bow and set me as the target for His arrow.

¹³He pierced my kidneys with His arrows.

²Without pity the Lord has swallowed up all the dwellings of Jacob. In His wrath He has demolished the fortified cities of the Daughter of Judah. He brought to the ground and defiled her kingdom and its princes.

¹⁴All your lovers have forgotten you; they no longer seek you, for I have struck you as an enemy would, with the discipline of someone cruel, because of your great iniquity and your numerous sins.

⁹He burned down the house of the Lord, the royal palace, and all the houses of Jerusalem—every significant building.

¹³He burned down the house of the Lord, the royal palace, and all the houses of Jerusalem—every significant building.

⁴He has bent His bow like an enemy; His right hand is positioned. Like a foe He has killed all who were pleasing to the eye; He has poured out His wrath like fire on the tent of the Daughter of Zion.

¹Then the Lord said to me: “Even if Moses and Samuel should stand before Me, My heart would not go out to this people. Send them from My presence, and let them go!

¹⁸“I will gather those among you who grieve over the appointed feasts, so that you will no longer suffer reproach.

⁴The roads to Zion mourn, because no one comes to her appointed feasts. All her gates are deserted; her priests groan, her maidens grieve, and she herself is bitter with anguish.

¹⁶The presence of the Lord has scattered them; He regards them no more. The priests are shown no honor; the elders find no favor.

²⁰The Lord’s anointed, the breath of our life, was captured in their pits. We had said of him, “Under his shadow we will live among the nations.”

⁹“So I in turn have made you despised and humiliated before all the people, because you have not kept My ways, but have shown partiality in matters of the law.”

¹⁸He despised the oath by breaking the covenant. Seeing that he gave his hand in pledge yet did all these things, he will not escape!’

³Turn Your steps to the everlasting ruins, to everything in the sanctuary the enemy has destroyed.

⁴Your foes have roared within Your meeting place; they have unfurled their banners as signs,

⁵So I will send fire upon Judah to consume the citadels of Jerusalem.”

²¹Tell the house of Israel that this is what the Lord God says: ‘I am about to desecrate My sanctuary, the pride of your power, the desire of your eyes, and the delight of your soul. And the sons and daughters you left behind will fall by the sword.’

⁵⁹On hearing it, God was furious and rejected Israel completely.

⁶⁰He abandoned the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent He had pitched among men.

¹³He burned down the house of the Lord, the royal palace, and all the houses of Jerusalem—every significant building.

²⁰His beautiful ornaments they transformed into pride and used them to fashion their vile images and detestable idols. Therefore I will make these into something unclean for them.

²¹And I will hand these things over as plunder to foreigners and loot to the wicked of the earth, who will defile them.

¹³I will stretch out over Jerusalem the measuring line used against Samaria and the plumb line used against the house of Ahab, and I will wipe out Jerusalem as one wipes out a bowl—wiping it and turning it upside down.

²⁶And the gates of Zion will lament and mourn; destitute, she will sit on the ground.

²“Judah mourns and her gates languish. Her people wail for the land, and a cry goes up from Jerusalem.

¹¹The desert owl and screech owl will possess it, and the great owl and raven will dwell in it. The Lord will stretch out over Edom a measuring line of chaos and a plumb line of destruction.

¹⁰Go up through her vineyards and ravage them, but do not finish them off. Strip off her branches, for they do not belong to the Lord.

⁷This is what He showed me: Behold, the Lord was standing by a wall true to plumb, with a plumb line in His hand.

⁸“Amos, what do you see?” asked the Lord. “A plumb line,” I replied. “Behold,” said the Lord, “I am setting a plumb line among My people Israel; I will no longer spare them:

²⁶Disaster upon disaster will come, and rumor after rumor. Then they will seek a vision from a prophet, but instruction from the priests will perish, as will counsel from the elders.

⁴For the Israelites must live many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred pillar, and without ephod or idol.

⁹There are no signs for us to see. There is no longer any prophet. And none of us knows how long this will last.

³And they told me, “The remnant who survived the exile are there in the province, in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been burned with fire.”

⁶Therefore night will come over you without visions, and darkness without divination. The sun will set on these prophets, and the daylight will turn black over them.

⁷Then the seers will be ashamed and the diviners will be disgraced. They will all cover their mouths because there is no answer from God.”

³For many years Israel has been without the true God, without a priest to instruct them, and without the law.

²⁶And the gates of Zion will lament and mourn; destitute, she will sit on the ground.

¹²When they lifted up their eyes from afar, they could barely recognize Job. They began to weep aloud, and each man tore his robe and threw dust in the air over his head.

¹³Then they sat on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights, but no one spoke a word to him because they saw how intense his suffering was.

³In its streets they wear sackcloth; on the rooftops and in the public squares they all wail, falling down weeping.

¹⁸They will put on sackcloth, and terror will overwhelm them. Shame will cover all their faces, and all their heads will be shaved.

⁴The roads to Zion mourn, because no one comes to her appointed feasts. All her gates are deserted; her priests groan, her maidens grieve, and she herself is bitter with anguish.

³“In that day,” declares the Lord God, “the songs of the temple will turn to wailing. Many will be the corpses, strewn in silence everywhere!”

²⁰See, O Lord, how distressed I am! I am churning within; my heart is pounding within me, for I have been most rebellious. Outside, the sword bereaves; inside, there is death.

¹³His archers surround me. He pierces my kidneys without mercy and spills my gall on the ground.

¹⁶For these things I weep; my eyes flow with tears. For there is no one nearby to comfort me, no one to revive my soul. My children are destitute because the enemy has prevailed.

¹⁹My anguish, my anguish! I writhe in pain! Oh, the pain in my chest! My heart pounds within me; I cannot be silent. For I have heard the sound of the horn, the alarm of battle.

⁷My eyes fail from grief; they grow dim because of all my foes.

⁴⁸Streams of tears flow from my eyes over the destruction of the daughter of my people.

⁴⁹My eyes overflow unceasingly, without relief,

²⁴I will strengthen the arms of Babylon’s king and place My sword in his hand, but I will break the arms of Pharaoh, who will groan before him like a mortally wounded man.

¹²Therefore I will allot Him a portion with the great, and He will divide the spoils with the strong, because He has poured out His life unto death, and He was numbered with the transgressors. Yet He bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors.

¹²Is this nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look around and see! Is there any sorrow like mine, which was inflicted on me, which the Lord made me suffer on the day of His fierce anger?

¹²For this is what the Lord says: “Your injury is incurable; your wound is grievous.

¹³There is no one to plead your cause, no remedy for your sores, no recovery for you.

²⁰So David went to Baal-perazim, where he defeated the Philistines and said, “Like a bursting flood, the Lord has burst out against my enemies before me.” So he called that place Baal-perazim.

²²Is there no balm in Gilead? Is no physician there? Why then has the health of the daughter of my people not been restored?

¹⁷You are to speak this word to them: ‘My eyes overflow with tears; day and night they do not cease, for the virgin daughter of my people has been shattered by a crushing blow, a severely grievous wound.

²You have shaken the land and torn it open. Heal its fractures, for it is quaking.

³¹The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their own authority. My people love it so, but what will you do in the end?

¹“Cry aloud, do not hold back! Raise your voice like a ram’s horn. Declare to My people their transgression and to the house of Jacob their sins.

²⁸Her prophets whitewash these deeds by false visions and lying divinations, saying, ‘This is what the Lord God says,’ when the Lord has not spoken.

²⁵The conspiracy of the princes in her midst is like a roaring lion tearing its prey. They devour the people, seize the treasures and precious things, and multiply the widows within her.

⁵This is what the Lord says: “As for the prophets who lead My people astray, who proclaim peace while they chew with their teeth, but declare war against one who puts nothing in their mouths:

⁶Therefore night will come over you without visions, and darkness without divination. The sun will set on these prophets, and the daylight will turn black over them.

¹⁰Therefore I will give their wives to other men and their fields to new owners. For from the least of them to the greatest, all are greedy for gain; from prophet to priest, all practice deceit.

¹¹They dress the wound of the daughter of My people with very little care, saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace at all.

¹⁶They have made their land a desolation, a perpetual object of scorn; all who pass by will be appalled and shake their heads.

²Beautiful in loftiness, the joy of all the earth, like the peaks of Zaphon is Mount Zion, the city of the great King.

²From Zion, perfect in beauty, God shines forth.

⁸I will make this city a desolation and an object of scorn. All who pass by will be appalled and will scoff at all her wounds.

⁶For this is what the Lord God says: ‘Because you clapped your hands and stomped your feet and rejoiced over the land of Israel with a heart full of contempt,

³⁹And those who passed by heaped abuse on Him, shaking their heads

²¹They gape at me and say, “Aha, aha! Our eyes have seen!”

⁴⁶All our enemies open their mouths against us.

¹²The wicked scheme against the righteous and gnash their teeth at them,

⁹His anger has torn me and opposed me; He gnashes His teeth at me. My adversary pierces me with His eyes.

¹⁰They open their mouths against me and strike my cheeks with contempt; they join together against me.

²My enemies pursue me all day long, for many proudly assail me.

¹³They open their jaws against me like lions that roar and maul.

¹¹Therefore as surely as I live, declares the Lord God, because you have defiled My sanctuary with all your detestable idols and abominations, I Myself will withdraw My favor; I will not look upon you with pity, nor will I spare you.

⁴²You have exalted the right hand of his foes; You have made all his enemies rejoice.

¹How the Lord has covered the Daughter of Zion with the cloud of His anger! He has cast the glory of Israel from heaven to earth. He has abandoned His footstool in the day of His anger.

²Without pity the Lord has swallowed up all the dwellings of Jacob. In His wrath He has demolished the fortified cities of the Daughter of Judah. He brought to the ground and defiled her kingdom and its princes.

¹⁴If, however, you fail to obey Me and to carry out all these commandments,

¹⁵and if you reject My statutes, despise My ordinances, and neglect to carry out all My commandments, and so break My covenant,

¹⁵If, however, you do not obey the Lord your God by carefully following all His commandments and statutes I am giving you today, all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:

¹⁶You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country.

¹⁶And the Lord said to Moses, “You will soon rest with your fathers, and these people will rise up and prostitute themselves with the foreign gods of the land they are entering. They will forsake Me and break the covenant I have made with them.

¹⁷On that day My anger will burn against them, and I will abandon them and hide My face from them, so that they will be consumed, and many troubles and afflictions will befall them. On that day they will say, ‘Have not these disasters come upon us because our God is no longer with us?’

¹⁴⁵I call with all my heart; answer me, O Lord! I will obey Your statutes.

⁴⁸Streams of tears flow from my eyes over the destruction of the daughter of my people.

⁴⁹My eyes overflow unceasingly, without relief,

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

¹³⁶My eyes shed streams of tears because Your law is not obeyed.

¹⁶For these things I weep; my eyes flow with tears. For there is no one nearby to comfort me, no one to revive my soul. My children are destitute because the enemy has prevailed.

¹Oh, that my head were a spring of water, and my eyes a fountain of tears! I would weep day and night over the slain daughter of my people.

⁸Trust in Him at all times, O people; pour out your hearts before Him. God is our refuge. Selah

⁹My soul longs for You in the night; indeed, my spirit seeks You at dawn. For when Your judgments come upon the earth, the people of the world learn righteousness.

¹⁴⁷I rise before dawn and cry for help; in Your word I have put my hope.

¹⁴⁸My eyes anticipate the watches of night, that I may meditate on Your word.

²I pour out my complaint before Him; I reveal my trouble to Him.

³⁵Early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up and went out to a solitary place to pray.

¹⁵“No, my lord,” Hannah replied. “I am a woman troubled in spirit. I have not had any wine or strong drink, but I have poured out my soul before the Lord.

¹⁰The hands of compassionate women have cooked their own children, who became their food in the destruction of the daughter of my people.

⁹I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and daughters, and they will eat one another’s flesh in the siege and distress inflicted on them by their enemies who seek their lives.’

⁶⁴His priests fell by the sword, but their widows could not lament.

¹³But this was for the sins of her prophets and the guilt of her priests, who shed the blood of the righteous in her midst.

¹¹But Moses sought the favor of the Lord his God, saying, “O Lord, why does Your anger burn against Your people, whom You brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand?

²⁶And I prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord God, do not destroy Your people, Your inheritance, whom You redeemed through Your greatness and brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand.

⁶For I will no longer have compassion on the people of the land, declares the Lord, but behold, I will cause each man to fall into the hands of his neighbor and his king, who will devastate the land, and I will not deliver it from their hands.”

¹⁷So He brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans, who put their young men to the sword in the sanctuary, sparing neither young men nor young women, neither elderly nor infirm. God gave them all into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar,

⁴³You have covered Yourself in anger and pursued us; You have killed without pity.

¹⁴I will smash them against one another, fathers and sons alike, declares the Lord. I will allow no mercy or pity or compassion to keep Me from destroying them.’”

²¹Therefore, hand their children over to famine; pour out the power of the sword upon them. Let their wives become childless and widowed; let their husbands be slain by disease, their young men struck down by the sword in battle.

¹⁵The Lord has rejected all the mighty men in my midst; He has summoned an army against me to crush my young warriors. Like grapes in a winepress, the Lord has trampled the Virgin Daughter of Judah.

²⁵Do not go out to the fields; do not walk the road. For the enemy has a sword; terror is on every side.

¹³For I hear the slander of many; there is terror on every side. They conspire against me and plot to take my life.

³The next day, when Pashhur released Jeremiah from the stocks, Jeremiah said to him, “The Lord does not call you Pashhur, but Magor-missabib.

²“You must not marry or have sons or daughters in this place.”

³For this is what the Lord says concerning the sons and daughters born in this place, and the mothers who bore them, and the fathers who fathered them in this land:

¹⁷Terror and pit and snare await you, O dweller of the earth.

¹⁸Whoever flees the sound of panic will fall into the pit, and whoever climbs from the pit will be caught in the snare. For the windows of heaven are open, and the foundations of the earth are shaken.

¹⁸The fruit of your womb will be cursed, as well as the produce of your land, the calves of your herds, and the lambs of your flocks.