THE
LAMENTATIONS
OF
JEREMIAH

Lamentations 2 ©

A sad complaint because of the desolation of the city of Jerusalem and of the people of the Jews, v. 1, etc. Whom he again puts in mind of the causes of these judgments, 14. Their enemies’ derision at their misery, 15. An exhortation to true sorrow and repentance for their sins, 18. With fervent prayer, 19. Whereof he gives them a pattern, 20.

1

HOW1 hath the Lord 2covered 3the daughter of Zion with a cloud 4in his anger, and cast down 5from heaven unto the earth 6the beauty of Israel, and remembered not 7his footstool 8in the day of his anger!

2

The Lord hath 9swallowed up 10all the habitations of Jacob, and hath not pitied: he 11hath thrown down 12in his wrath the strong holds 13of the daughter of Judah; he hath brought them down to the ground: 14he hath polluted the kingdom and the princes thereof.

3

He hath cut off 15in his fierce anger 16all the horn of Israel: 17he hath drawn back his right hand from 18before the enemy, and he burned 19against Jacob like a flaming fire, which devoureth round about.

4

He hath 20bent his bow 21like an enemy: he 22stood with his right hand as an adversary, and slew 23all that were pleasant to the eye 24in the tabernacle of the daughter of Zion: he 25poured out his fury like fire.

5

26The Lord was as an enemy: he hath 27swallowed up Israel, he hath 28swallowed up all 29her palaces: he hath destroyed 30his strong holds, and hath increased in the daughter of Judah 31mourning and lamentation.

6

And he hath 32violently taken away his 33tabernacle, as if it were of a garden: he hath destroyed 34his places of the assembly: the LORD hath caused 35the solemn feasts and sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion, and hath despised in the indignation of his anger 36the king and the priest.

7

The Lord hath cast off his altar, he hath 37abhorred 38his sanctuary, he hath 39given up into the hand of the enemy the walls 40of her palaces; 41they have 42made a noise in the house of the LORD, as in the day of a solemn feast.

8

The LORD 43hath purposed to destroy 44the wall of the daughter of Zion: he hath stretched out 45a line, he hath 46not withdrawn his hand 47from destroying: therefore he made 48the ramparta and the wall 49to lament; they 50languished together.

9

Her gates are sunk 51into the ground; he hath destroyed and broken 52her bars: 53her king and her princes are among the Gentiles: 54the law is no more; her prophets also 55find no vision from the LORD.

10

56The elders of the daughter of Zion sit upon the ground, and 57keep silence: 58they have cast up dust upon their heads; they have girded themselves with 59sackcloth: 60the virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground.

11

61Mine eyes do fail with tears, my bowels are 62troubled, 63my liver is poured upon the earth, for 64the destruction of the daughter of my people; because the children and the sucklings 65swoon in the streets of the city.

12

66They say to their mothers, Where is 67corn and 68wine? when they swooned as the wounded in the streets of the city, 69when their soul was poured out into their mothers' bosom.

13

70What thing shall I take to witness for thee? what thing shall I liken 71to thee, 72O daughter of Jerusalem? what shall I equal to thee, that I may comfort thee, O virgin daughter of Zion? for 73thy breach is great like the sea: 74who can heal thee?

14

Thy 75prophets have 76seen 77vain and 78foolish things for thee: and 79they have not discovered thine iniquity, 80to turn away thy captivity; but 81have seen for thee false 82burdens and 83causes of banishment.

15

84All that pass by 85clap their hands at thee; 86they hiss and wag their head at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying, Is this the city 87that men call The perfection of beauty, The 88joy of the whole earth?

16

All thine enemies have 89opened their mouth against thee: they hiss and 90gnash the teeth: they say, 91We have swallowed her up: certainly 92this is the day that we looked for; we have found, 93we have seen it.

17

94The LORD hath done that which he had devised; he hath 95fulfilled his word that he had 96commanded 97in the days of old: he hath thrown down, and hath not pitied: and 98he hath caused thine enemy to rejoice over thee, 99he hath set up the horn of thine adversaries.

18

Their heart cried 100unto the Lord, 101O wallb of the daughter of Zion, 102let tears run down like a river day and night: give thyself no rest; let not 103the applec of thine eye 104cease.

19

105Arise, 106cry out in the night: 107in the beginning of the watches 108pour out 109thine heart like water before the face of the Lord: lift up thy 110hands toward him 111for the life of thy young children, 112that faint for hunger 113in the top of every street.

20

¶Behold, O LORD, and consider 114to whom thou hast done this. Shalld the women eat 115their fruit, and children 116of a span long? shall the priest and the prophet be slain 117in the sanctuary of the Lord?

21

The young and the old lie on the ground in the streets: 118my virgins and my young men 119are fallen by the sword; 120thou hast slain them in the day of thine anger; thou hast killed, and not pitied.

22

Thou hast called as 121in a solemn day 122my terrors round about, so that in the day of the LORD's anger none escaped nor remained: those that I have swaddled and brought up hath mine enemy consumed.