He has withdrawn His right handFrom the presence of the enemy.And He has burned in Jacob like a flaming fireConsuming all around.4He has bent His bow like an enemy;He has set His right hand like an adversaryAnd slain all that were delightfuland pleasing to the eye;In the tent of the Daughter of ZionHe has poured out His wrath like fire.5The Lord has become like an enemy;He has swallowed up Israel.He has swallowed up all its palaces;He has destroyed its strongholdsAnd multiplied in the Daughter of JudahMourning and lamentation (expressions of grief).6And He has violently broken down His temple like a [fragile] gardenhedge;He has destroyed His appointed meeting place.The LORD has caused the appointed feast and SabbathTo be forgotten in ZionAnd has despisedand rejected the king and the priestIn the indignation of His anger.7The Lord has rejected His altar;He has abandoned His sanctuary.He has given into the hand of the enemyThe walls of her palaces;They have made a noise in the house of the LORDAs on a day of an appointed feast.8The LORD determined to lay in ruinsThe [city] wall of the Daughter of Zion.He has stretched out a line,He has not stopped His hand from destroying.He has caused the rampart and the wall to lament (mourn in grief);They have languished together.9Her gates have sunk into the ground;He has destroyed and broken her bars.Her king and her princes are [exiled] among the nations;The law is no more.Also, her prophets no longer findVision from the LORD.10The elders of the Daughter of ZionSit on the ground keeping silent;They have thrown dust on their heads,They have covered themselves with sackcloth.The virgins of JerusalemHave bowed their heads to the ground.11My eyes fail because of tears [mourns Jeremiah],My spirit is deeply disturbed;My heart is poured out on the earth [in grief]Because of the destruction of the daughter of my people [Jerusalem],When little ones and infants faintIn the streets of the city.12They cry to their mothers,
“Where is grain and wine?”As they faint like a wounded manIn the streets of the city,As their life [slips away and] is poured outIn their mothers’ arms.13How shall I console you?To what shall I compare you,O Daughter of Jerusalem?With what shall I compare you, so that I may comfort you,O Virgin Daughter of Zion?For your ruin is as vast as the sea;Who can heal you?14Your prophets have seen (imagined) for youFalse and foolishvisions;And they have not exposed your wickednessTo restore you from captivity [by teaching you to repent],But they have seen (imagined)and declared to you false and misleading oracles.15All who pass along the wayClap their handsin derision at you;They scoff and shake their headsAt the Daughter of Jerusalem, saying,
“Is this the city that was called‘The perfection of beauty,The joy of all the earth’?”16All your enemiesHave opened their mouths wide against you;They [scornfully] hiss and gnashtheir teeth.They say, “We have swallowed her up!Certainly this is the day for which we waited;We have reached it, we have seen it!”17The LORD has done what He planned;He has accomplished His wordWhich He commanded[b]from days of old.He has demolished without sparing,And He has caused the enemy to rejoice over you;He has exalted the power of your enemies.18Their hearts cried out to the Lord.“O wall of the Daughter of Zion,Let your tears run down like a river day and night;Give yourself no relief,Let your eyes have no rest.19“Arise, cry aloud in the night,At the beginning of the night watches;Pour out your heart like waterBefore the presence of the Lord;Lift up your hands to HimFor the life of your little onesWho are faint from hungerAt the head of every street.”20See, O LORD, and look!With whom have You dealt this way?Should women eat their offspring,The little oneswho were born healthy and beautiful?Should priest and prophet be killedIn the sanctuary of the Lord?21The young and the oldLie on the ground in the streets;My virgins and my young men