Lamentations 2

NEW JERUSALEM	CATHOLIC PUBLIC DOMAIN
1 In his anger, with what darkness has the Lord enveloped the daughter of Zion! He has flung the beautyof Israel from heaven to the ground, without regard for his footstool on the day of his anger.	1 ALEPH. O how the Lord has covered the daughter of Zion with gloom in his fury! O how he has thrown down from heaven to earth the famous one of Israel, and he has not remembered his footstool in the day of his fury.
2 The Lord pitilessly engulfed all the homes of Jacob; in his fury he tore down the fortresses of thedaughter of Judah; he threw to the ground, he desecrated the kingdom and its princes.	2 BETH. The Lord has cast down, and he has not been lenient, with all the beauties of Jacob. In his fury, he has destroyed the fortifications of the virgin of Judah, and he has thrown them down to the ground. He has polluted the kingdom and its leaders.
3 In his burning anger he broke al the might of Israel, withdrew his protecting right hand at the coming ofthe enemy, and blazed against Jacob like a fire that burns up everything near it.	3 GHIMEL. In the anger of his fury, he has broken the entire horn of Israel. He has drawn back his right hand before the face of the enemy. And he has kindled within Jacob a flaming fire, devouring all around.
4 Like an enemy he bent his bow, and his right hand held firm; like a foe he slaughtered all those whowere a delight to see; on the tent of the daughter of Zion he poured out his fury like fire.	4 DALETH. He has bent his bow like an enemy. He has fixed his right hand like an adversary. And he has cut down all that was beautiful to behold in the tabernacle of the daughter of Zion. He has poured out his indignation like fire.
5 The Lord behaved like an enemy; he engulfed Israel, he engulfed all its citadels, he destroyed itsfortresses and for the daughter of Judah multiplied weeping on wailing.	5 HE. The Lord has become like an enemy. He has thrown down Israel. He has thrown down all of his defenses. He has torn apart his fortifications. And he has filled the daughter of Judah with humbled men and humbled women.
6 He wrecked his domain like a garden, destroyed his assembly-points, Yahweh erased the memory offestivals and Sabbaths in Zion; in the heat of his anger he treated king and priest with contempt.	6 VAU. And he has torn apart her tent like a garden. He has demolished her tabernacle. In Zion, the Lord has delivered feast and Sabbath into oblivion, and king and priest into disgrace, and into the indignation of his fury.
7 The Lord has rejected his altar, he has come to loathe his sanctuary and has given her palace wallsinto the clutches of the enemy; from the uproar they made in Yahweh's temple it might have been a festival day!	7 ZAIN. The Lord has pushed away his own altar. He has cursed his own sanctuary. He has delivered the walls of its towers into the hand of the enemy. They have made a noise in the house of the Lord, as if on the day of a solemnity.
8 Yahweh has resolved to destroy the wal s of the daughter of Zion, stretching out the line, not stayinghis hand until he has engulfed everything, thus bringing mourning on wall and rampart; alike they crumbled.	8 HETH. The Lord has decided to tear down the wall of the daughter of Zion. He has stretched out his measuring line, and he has not turn away his hand from perdition. And the rampart has mourned, and with the wall it has been torn apart.
9 Her gates have sunk into the ground; he has broken and shattered their bars. Her king and her princesare among the gentiles, there is no instruction, furthermore her prophets cannot find any vision from Yahweh.	9 TETH. Her gates have been buried in the ground. He has ruined and crushed its bars. Her king and her princes are with the Gentiles. There is no law, and her prophets have found no vision from the Lord.
10 Mute, they sit on the ground, the elders of the daughter of Zion; they have put dust on their heads andwrapped themselves in sackcloth. The young girls of Jerusalem bow their heads to the ground.	10 JOD. The elders of the daughter of Zion have become idle; they sit on the ground. They have sprinkled their heads with ashes. They have been wrapped with haircloth. The virgins of Jerusalem have cast their heads down to the ground.
11 My eyes are worn out with weeping, my inmost being is in ferment, my heart plummets at thedestruction of my young people, as the children and babies grow faint in the streets of the city.	11 CAPH. My eyes have exhausted their tears. My internal organs have become disturbed. My liver has been poured out on the earth, over the grief of the daughter of my people, when the little ones and the infants passed away in the streets of the town.
12 They keep saying to their mothers, 'Where is some food?' as they faint like wounded men in thestreets of the city, as they breathe their last on their mothers' breasts.	12 LAMED. They said to their mothers, “Where is the wheat and the wine?” when they fell like the wounded in the streets of the city, when they breathed out their lives into the bosoms of their mothers.
13 To what can I compare or liken you, daughter of Jerusalem? Who can rescue and comfort you, youngdaughter of Zion? For huge as the sea is your ruin: who can heal you?	13 MEM. To what shall I compare you, or to what shall I liken you, O daughter of Jerusalem? To what shall I equate you, so as to console you, O virgin daughter of Zion? For your destruction is as great as the sea. Who will cure you?
14 The visions your prophets had for you were deceptive whitewash; they did not lay bare your guilt soas to change your fortunes: the visions they told you were deceptive.	14 NUN. Your prophets have seen false and foolish things for you. And they have not laid open your iniquity, so as to provoke you to repentance. Yet they have seen for you false revelations and banishments.
15 Al who pass your way clap their hands at the sight; they whistle and shake their heads over thedaughter of Jerusalem, 'Is this the city they cal Perfection of Beauty, the joy of the whole world?'	15 SAMECH. All those who passed by the way have clapped their hands over you. They have hissed and shook their heads over the daughter of Jerusalem, saying, “Is this the city of perfect dignity, the joy of all the earth?”
16 Your enemies open their mouths in chorus against you; they whistle and grind their teeth; they say,'We have swallowed her up. This is the day we were waiting for; at last we have seen it!'	16 PHE. All your enemies have opened their mouth over you. They have hissed and gnashed their teeth, and they said: “We will devour her. Yes, this is the day we waited for. We have found it, we have seen it.”
17 Yahweh has done what he planned, has carried out his threat, as he ordained long ago: he hasdestroyed without pity, increasing the might of your foes -- and letting your foes get the credit.	17 AIN. The Lord has done what he decided to do. He has fulfilled his word, which he instructed since the days of antiquity. He has destroyed, and he has not been lenient, and he has caused the enemy to rejoice over you, and he has exalted the horn of your adversaries.
18 Cry then to the Lord, rampart of the daughter of Zion; let your tears flow like a torrent, day and night;al ow yourself no respite, give your eyes no rest!	18 SADE. Their heart cried out to the Lord from the walls of the daughter of Zion. Let tears run down like a torrent throughout the day and the night. Do not give rest to yourself, and do not allow the pupil of your eye to cease.
19 Up, cry out in the night-time as each watch begins! Pour your heart out like water in Yahweh'spresence! Raise your hands to him for the lives of your children (who faint with hunger at the end of everystreet)!	19 COPH. Rise up. Give praise in the night, in the first of the watches. Pour out your heart like water before the sight of the Lord. Lift up your hands to him on behalf of the souls of your little ones, who have passed away from famine at the head of all the crossroads.
20 Look, Yahweh, and consider: whom have you ever treated like this? Should women eat their littleones, the children they have nursed? Should priest and prophet be slaughtered in the Lord's sanctuary?	20 RES. O Lord, see and consider those whom you have made into a such vintage. So then, shall women eat their own fruit, little ones measured by the palm of the hand? Shall priest and prophet be killed in the sanctuary of the Lord?
21 Children and old people are lying on the ground in the streets; my young men and young girls havefal en by the sword; you have kil ed them, on the day of your anger, you have slaughtered them pitilessly.	21 SIN. The boy and the old man lie down on the ground outside. My virgins and my youths have fallen by the sword. You have slain them in the day of your fury. You have struck down, and you have not shown pity.
22 As though to a festival you cal ed together terrors from al sides, so that, on the day of Yahweh'sanger, none escaped and none survived. Those whom I had nursed and reared, my enemy has annihilated themal .	22 THAU. You have called, as if to a day of solemnity, those who would terrify me all around. And there was no one, in the day of the fury of the Lord, who escaped or was left behind. Those whom I educated and nourished, my enemy has consumed.