How the Lord has covered the daughter of Zion With a cloud in His anger! He cast down from heaven to the earth The beauty of Israel, And did not remember His footstool In the day of His anger.

The Lord has swallowed up and has not 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; He has profaned the kingdom and its princes.

He has cut off in fierce anger Every horn of Israel; He has drawn back His right hand From before the enemy. He has blazed against Jacob like a flaming fire Devouring all around.

Standing like an enemy, He has bent His bow; With His right hand, like an adversary, He has slain all who were pleasing to His eye; On the tent of the daughter of Zion, He has poured out His fury like fire.

The Lord was like an enemy. He has swallowed up Israel, He has swallowed up all her palaces; He has destroyed her strongholds, And has increased mourning and lamentation In the daughter of Judah.

He has done violence to His tabernacle, As if it were 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 spurned the king and the priest.

The Lord has spurned His altar, He has abandoned His sanctuary; He has given up the walls of her palaces Into the hand of the enemy. They have made a noise in the house of the LORD As on the day of a set feast.

The LORD has purposed to destroy The wall of the daughter of Zion. He has stretched out a line; He has not withdrawn His hand from destroying; Therefore He has caused the rampart and wall to lament; They languished together.

Her gates have sunk into the ground; He has destroyed and broken her bars. Her king and her princes are among the nations; The Law is no more, And her prophets find no vision from the LORD.

The elders of the daughter of Zion Sit on the ground and keep silence; They throw dust on their heads And gird themselves with sackcloth. The virgins of Jerusalem Bow their heads to the ground.

My eyes fail with tears, My heart is troubled; My bile is poured on the ground Because of the destruction of the daughter of my people, Because the children and the infants Faint in the streets of the city.

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 motherś bosom.

How shall I console 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?

Your prophets have seen for you False and deceptive visions; They have not uncovered your iniquity, To bring back your captives, But have envisioned for you false prophecies and delusions.

All who pass by clap their hands at you; They hiss and shake their heads At the daughter of Jerusalem: «Is this the city that is called «The perfection of beauty, The joy of the whole earth́?»

All your enemies have opened their mouth against you; They hiss and gnash their teeth. They say, «We have swallowed her up! Surely this is the day we have waited for; We have found it, we have seen it!

The LORD has done what He purposed; 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 rejoice over you; He has exalted the horn of your adversaries.

Their heart cried out to the Lord, «O wall of the daughter of Zion, Let tears run down like a river day and night; Give yourself no relief; Give your eyes no rest.

«Arise, cry out in the night, At the beginning of the watches; Pour 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 at the head of every street.»

«See, O LORD, and consider! To whom have You done this? Should the women eat their offspring, The children they have cuddled? Should the priest and prophet be slain In the sanctuary of the Lord?

«Young and old lie On the ground in the streets; My virgins and my young men Have fallen by the sword; You have slain them in the day of Your anger, You have slaughtered and not pitied.

«You have invited as to a feast day The terrors that surround me. In the day of the LORD́s anger There was no refugee or survivor. Those whom I have borne and brought up My enemies have destroyed.»

How the gold has become dim! How changed the fine gold! The stones of the sanctuary are scattered At the head of every street.

The precious sons of Zion, Valuable as fine gold, How they are regarded as clay pots, The work of the hands of the potter!

Even the jackals present their breasts To nurse their young; But the daughter of my people is cruel, Like ostriches in the wilderness.

The tongue of the infant clings To the roof of its mouth for thirst; The young children ask for bread, But no one breaks it for them.

Those who ate delicacies Are desolate in the streets; Those who were brought up in scarlet Embrace ash heaps.

The punishment of the iniquity of the daughter of my people Is greater than the punishment of the sin of Sodom, Which was overthrown in a moment, With no hand to help her!

Her Nazirites were brighter than snow And whiter than milk; They were more ruddy in body than rubies, Like sapphire in their appearance.

Now their appearance is blacker than soot; They go unrecognized in the streets; Their skin clings to their bones, It has become as dry as wood.

Those slain by the sword are better off Than those who die of hunger; For these pine away, Stricken for lack of the fruits of the field.

The hands of the compassionate women Have cooked their own children; They became food for them In the destruction of the daughter of my people.

The LORD has fulfilled His fury, He has poured out His fierce anger. He kindled a fire in Zion, And it has devoured its foundations.

The kings of the earth, And all inhabitants of the world, Would not have believed That the adversary and the enemy Could enter the gates of Jerusalem--

Because of the sins of her prophets And the iniquities of her priests, Who shed in her midst The blood of the just.

They wandered blind in the streets; They have defiled themselves with blood, So that no one would touch their garments.

They cried out to them, «Go away, unclean! Go away, go away, Do not touch us!» When they fled and wandered, Those among the nations said, «They shall no longer dwell here.»

The face of the LORD scattered them; He no longer regards them. The people do not respect the priests Nor show favor to the elders.

Still our eyes failed us, Watching vainly for our help; In our watching we watched For a nation that could not save us.

They tracked our steps So that we could not walk in our streets. Our end was near; Our days were over, For our end had come.

Our pursuers were swifter Than the eagles of the heavens. They pursued us on the mountains And lay in wait for us in the wilderness.

The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the LORD, Was caught in their pits, Of whom we said, «Under his shadow We shall live among the nations.»

Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, You who dwell in the land of Uz! The cup shall also pass over to you And you shall become drunk and make yourself naked.

The punishment of your iniquity is accomplished, O daughter of Zion; He will no longer send you into captivity. He will punish your iniquity, O daughter of Edom; He will uncover your sins!