1 How the Lord in his anger has clouded over the daughter of Zion! He has thrown down from heaven to earth the beauty of Israel, and has not remembered his footstool on the day of his anger.
2 The Lord has swallowed without pity all the pastures of Jacob; in his fury he has thrown down the fortresses of the daughter of Judah; he has brought them to the ground; he has profaned the kingdom and its officials.
3 In burning anger he has hacked off every horn of Israel; he has drawn back his right hand in the face of the enemy; he has burned in Jacob like a flaming fire consuming all around.
4 He has bent his bow like an enemy, standing with his right hand like a foe; he has killed all that was delightful to the eye; in the tent of the daughter of Zion he has poured out his wrath like fire.
5 The Lord has become like an enemy; he has swallowed Israel; he has swallowed all its palaces, ruined its fortresses, and multiplied in the daughter of Judah moaning and lamentation.
6 He has stripped his booth like a garden; he has ruined his meeting place. The LORD has made festival and Sabbath forgotten in Zion, and in the fury of his anger he has spurned king and priest.
7 The Lord has cast off his altar, repudiated his sanctuary; he has handed over to the enemy the walls of her palaces; they have raised a shout in the house of the LORD as on a festival day.
8 The LORD planned to ruin the wall of the daughter of Zion; he stretched out a line; he did not turn his hand back from swallowing; he made rampart and wall mourn; together they waste away.
9 Her gates have sunk into the earth; he has ruined and shattered her bars. Her king and her officials are among the nations; there is no law; her prophets too find no vision from the LORD.
10 They sit on the ground, they are silent, the elders of the daughter of Zion; they have thrown dust on their heads; they have wrapped themselves in sackcloth; the young women of Jerusalem have bowed their heads to the ground.
11 My eyes are worn out with tears; my bowels are in turmoil; my liver is poured out on the ground over the shattering of the daughter of my people, as child and infant faint in the squares of the city.
12 They keep saying to their mothers, "Where are grain and wine?" as they faint like the wounded in the squares of the city, as their soul is poured out on their mothers' bosom.
13 What can I testify to you, what can I compare to you, daughter of Jerusalem? What can I liken to you to comfort you, virgin daughter of Zion? For your shattering is great as the sea; who can heal you?
14 Your prophets have seen for you emptiness and whitewash; they did not uncover your iniquity so as to restore your fortunes, but they saw for you oracles of emptiness and seduction.
15 All who pass along the way clap their hands at you; they hiss and wag their heads at the daughter of Jerusalem: "Is this the city that was called the perfection of beauty, the joy of all the earth?"
16 All your enemies open their mouths wide against you; they hiss and grind their teeth; they say, "We have swallowed her! Ah, this is the day we waited for; we have reached it, we have seen it!"
17 The LORD has done what he purposed; he has fulfilled his word, which he commanded from days of old; he has thrown down without pity; he has let the enemy rejoice over you; he has lifted high the horn of your foes.
18 Their heart cried out to the Lord: O wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears flow like a torrent by day and night! Give yourself no rest; do not let the daughter of your eye be still.
19 Get up, cry out in the night, at the start of the watches! Pour out your heart like water before the face of the Lord; lift up your palms to him for the soul of your little ones, who faint from hunger at the head of every street.
20 Look, O LORD, and see! To whom have you done this? Must women eat their fruit, the little ones they have nursed? Must priest and prophet be killed in the sanctuary of the Lord?
21 On the ground in the streets lie boy and old man; my young women and my young men have fallen by the sword; you have killed on the day of your anger; you have slaughtered without pity.
22 You have called, as on a festival day, my terrors from all around; and on the day of the anger of the LORD there was no one who escaped or survived; those I nursed and raised my enemy has finished off.