Lamentations 2:1-22
א [ʼAʹleph]
2 O how Jehovah* in his anger beclouds the daughter of Zion!+He has thrown down from heaven to earth+ the beauty of Israel.+And he has not remembered his footstool+ in the day of his anger.
ב [Behth]
2 Jehovah* has swallowed up, he has shown no compassion upon any abiding places+ of Jacob.In his fury he has torn down the fortified places+ of the daughter of Judah.He has brought into contact with the earth,+ he has profaned the kingdom+ and her princes.+
ג [Giʹmel]
3 In the heat of anger he has cut down every horn of Israel.+He has turned his right hand back from before the enemy;+And in Jacob he keeps burning like a flaming fire that has devoured all around.+
ד [Daʹleth]
4 He has trodden his bow like an enemy.+ His right hand+ has taken its positionLike an adversary,+ and he kept killing all those desirable to the eyes.+Into the tent+ of the daughter of Zion he has poured out his rage, just like fire.+
ה [Heʼ]
5 Jehovah* has become like an enemy.+ He has swallowed down Israel.+He has swallowed down all her dwelling towers;+ he has brought his fortified places to ruin.+And in the daughter of Judah he makes mourning and lamentation abound.+
ו [Waw]
6 And he treats his booth+ violently like that in a garden.+ He has brought his festival to ruin.Jehovah has caused to be forgotten in Zion festival+ and sabbath,And in his angry denunciation he shows no respect for king and priest.+
ז [Zaʹyin]
7 Jehovah* has cast off his altar.+ He has spurned his sanctuary.+Into the hand of the enemy he has surrendered the walls of her dwelling towers.+In the house of Jehovah they have let out [their] own voice, as in the day of a festival.+
ח [Chehth]
8 Jehovah has thought of bringing the wall+ of the daughter of Zion to ruin.He has stretched out the measuring line.+ He has not turned back his hand from swallowing up.+And he causes rampart and wall to go mourning.+ Together they have faded away.
ט [Tehth]
9 Her gates+ have sunk down into the very earth. He has destroyed and broken her bars in pieces.Her king and her princes are among the nations.+ There is no law.+Her own prophets also have found no vision from Jehovah.+
י [Yohdh]
10 The older men of the daughter of Zion sit down on the earth, [where] they keep silence.+They have brought up dust upon their head.+ They have girded on sackcloth.+The virgins of Jerusalem have brought their head down to the very earth.+
כ [Kaph]
11 My eyes have come to their end in sheer tears.+ My intestines are in a ferment.+My liver has been poured out to the very earth,+ on account of the crash of the daughter of my people,+Because of the fainting away of child and suckling in the public squares of the town.+
ל [Laʹmedh]
12 To their mothers they kept saying: “Where are grain and wine?”+Because of their fainting away like someone slain in the public squares of the city,Because of their soul being poured out into the bosom of their mothers.
מ [Mem]
13 Of what shall I use you as a witness? What shall I liken to you, O daughter of Jerusalem?+What shall I make equal to you, that I may comfort you, O virgin daughter of Zion?+For your breakdown+ is just as great as the sea. Who can bring healing to you?+
נ [Nun]
14 Your own prophets have visioned for you worthless and unsatisfying things,+And they have not uncovered your error in order to turn back your captivity,+But they kept visioning for you worthless and misleading pronouncements.+
ס [Saʹmekh]
15 At you all those passing along on the road have clapped their hands.+They have whistled+ and kept wagging their head+ at the daughter of Jerusalem, [saying:]“Is this the city of which they used to say, ‘It is the perfection of prettiness, an exultation for all the earth’?”+
פ [Peʼ]*
16 At you all your enemies have opened their mouth.+They have whistled and kept grinding the teeth.+ They have said: “We will swallow [her]* down.+This indeed is the day that we have hoped for.+ We have found! We have seen!”+
ע [ʽAʹyin]*
17 Jehovah has done what he had in mind.+ He has accomplished his saying,+What he had commanded from the days of long ago.+ He has torn down and shown no compassion.+And over you he causes the enemy to rejoice.+ He has made the horn of your adversaries high.+
צ [Tsa·dhehʹ]
18 Their heart has cried out to Jehovah,*+ O wall of the daughter of Zion.+Cause tears to descend just like a torrent day and night.+Give no numbness to yourself. May the pupil* of your eye not keep quiet.
ק [Qohph]
19 Rise up! Whine during the night at the start of the morning watches.+Pour out your heart+ before the face+ of Jehovah* just like water.Raise to him your palms+ on account of the soul of your children,Who are fainting away because of famine at the head of all the streets.+
ר [Rehsh]
20 See, O Jehovah, and do look+ to the one to whom you have dealt severely in this manner.Should the women keep eating their own fruitage, the children born fully formed,+Or in the sanctuary of Jehovah* should priest and prophet be killed?+
ש [Shin]
21 Boy and old man+ have lain down on the earth of the streets.+My virgins and my young men themselves have fallen by the sword.+You have killed in the day of your anger.+ You have slaughtered;+ you have had no compassion.+
ת [Taw]
22 As in the day of a festival+ you proceeded to call out my places of alien residence all around.And in the day of the wrath of Jehovah there proved to be no escapee or survivor;+Those whom I brought forth fully formed and reared, my enemy himself exterminated them.+
Footnotes
^ One of 134 scribal changes from YHWH to ʼAdho·naiʹ. See App 1B.
^ See vs 1 ftn.
^ See vs 1 ftn.
^ See vs 1 ftn.
^ This section beginning with the Heb. letter Peʼ precedes the one beginning with ʽAʹyin. In the Heb. alphabet Peʼ follows ʽAʹyin.
^ “Her,” LXXSy.
^ In the Heb. alphabet the letter ʽAʹyin follows the letter Saʹmekh.
^ See vs 1 ftn.
^ Lit., “daughter.”
^ See vs 1 ftn.
^ See vs 1 ftn.
