¶ How¹ hath the Lord covered² the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger, and cast³ down from heaven unto the earth the beauty⁴ of Israel, and remembered not his footstool⁵ in the day of his anger!

The Lord hath swallowed⁶ up all the habitations of Jacob, and hath not pitied: he hath thrown⁷ down in his wrath the strong holds of the daughter of Judah; he hath brought them down to⁸ the ground: he hath polluted⁹ the kingdom and the princes thereof.

He hath cut off in his fierce anger all the horn¹⁰ of Israel: he hath¹¹ drawn back his right hand from before the enemy, and he burned¹² against Jacob like a flaming fire, which devoureth round about.

He hath bent¹³ his bow like an enemy: he stood with his right hand as an adversary, and slew all that were pleasant to the eye¹⁴ in the tabernacle of the daughter of Zion: he poured¹⁵ out his fury like fire.

The Lord was¹⁶ as an enemy: he hath swallowed up Israel¹⁷, he hath swallowed up all her palaces: he hath destroyed his strong holds, and hath increased in the daughter of Judah mourning¹⁸ and lamentation.

And he hath violently¹⁹ taken away his tabernacle²⁰, as if it were of a garden: he hath destroyed his places of the assembly: the LORD hath caused²¹ the solemn feasts and sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion, and hath despised in the indignation of his anger the king²² and the priest.

The Lord hath cast off²³ his altar, he hath abhorred his sanctuary, he hath given up²⁴ into the hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces; they have²⁵ made a noise in the house of the LORD, as in the day of a solemn feast.

The LORD hath purposed²⁶ to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion: he hath stretched²⁷ out a line, he hath not²⁸ withdrawn his hand from destroying²⁹: therefore he made³⁰ the rampart and the wall to lament; they languished together.

Her gates³¹ are sunk into the ground; he hath destroyed and broken her bars: her king³² and her princes are among the Gentiles: the law³³ is no more; her prophets³⁴ also find no vision from the LORD.

¶ The elders³⁵ of the daughter of Zion sit³⁶ upon the ground, and keep³⁸ silence: they have cast up³⁹ dust upon their heads; they have girded⁴⁰ themselves with sackcloth: the virgins⁴¹ of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground.

Mine eyes⁴² do fail with tears, my bowels⁴³ are troubled, my liver⁴⁴ is poured upon the earth, for⁴⁵ the destruction of the daughter of my people; because⁴⁶ the children and the sucklings swoon⁴⁷ in the streets of the city.

They say to their mothers, Where is corn and wine? when they swooned as the⁴⁸ wounded in the streets of the city, when their soul⁴⁹ was poured out into their mothers' bosom.

What thing shall I take⁵⁰ to witness for⁵¹ thee? what thing shall I liken to thee, O daughter of Jerusalem? what shall I equal to thee, that I may comfort thee, O virgin daughter of Zion? for thy breach is great like the sea: who can⁵² heal thee?

Thy prophets⁵³ have seen vain and foolish things for thee: and they have⁵⁴ not discovered thine iniquity, to turn away thy captivity; but have seen for thee false⁵⁵ burdens and causes of banishment.

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

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

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

Their heart cried unto the Lord, O wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears run down like a river day and night: give thyself no rest; let not the apple of thine eye cease.

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

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

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

Thou hast called as in a solemn day my 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.