איכה ב

א Alas!
The Sovereign out of wrath
Has shamed Fair Zion,
Has cast down from heaven to earth
The majesty of Israel.
God’s Footstool was not remembered
On this day of wrath.

ב The Sovereign has laid waste without pity
All the habitations of Jacob—
Has razed in anger
Fair Judah’s strongholds,
Bringing low in dishonor
The kingdom and its leaders.

ג In blazing anger [God] has cut down
All the might of Israel—
Withdrawing vital support
In the presence of the foe,
And ravaging Jacob like flaming fire,
Consuming on all sides.

ד [God] bent the bow like an enemy,
Poised the right hand like a foe,
And slew all who delighted the eye.
God’s wrath was poured out like fire
In the Tent of Fair Zion.

ה The Sovereign has acted like a foe—
Laying waste Israel,
Laying waste all her citadels,
Destroying her strongholds,
Increasing within Fair Judah
Mourning and moaning.

ו God’s Booth has been stripped like a garden,
And the Tabernacle, destroyed;
GOD has ended in Zion
Festival and sabbath;
And in raging anger has spurned
King and priest.

ז The Sovereign has rejected the altar,
Disdained the Sanctuary,
Handing over to the foe
The walls of its citadels;
They raised a shout in the House of GOD
As on a festival day.

ח GOD resolved to destroy
The wall of Fair Zion—
Measuring it with a line, refraining not
From bringing destruction.
Wall and rampart have been made to mourn,
Together they languish.

ט Her gates have sunk into the ground,
Her bars have been smashed to bits;
Her king and her leaders are in exile,
Instruction, here priestly instruction; cf. Jer. 18.18; Hag. 2.11; Mal. 2.6. is no more;
Her prophets, too, receive
No vision from GOD.

י Silent sit on the ground
The elders of Fair Zion;
They have strewn dust on their heads
And girded themselves with sackcloth;
The maidens of Jerusalem have bowed
Their heads to the ground.

כ My eyes are spent with tears,
My heart is in tumult,
My being melts away
Over the ruin of my poor people,
As babes and sucklings languish
In the squares of the city.

ל They keep asking their mothers,
“Where is bread and wine?”
As they languish like battle-wounded
In the squares of the town,
As their life runs out
In their mothers’ bosoms.

מ What can I take as witness or liken
To you, O Fair Jerusalem?
What can I match with you to console you,
O Fair Maiden Zion?
For your ruin is vast as the sea:
Who can heal you?

נ Your seers prophesied to you
Delusion and folly.
They did not expose your iniquity
So as to restore your fortunes,
But prophesied to you oracles
Of delusion and deception.

ס All who pass your way
Clap their hands at you;
They hiss and wag their head
At Fair Jerusalem:
“Is this the city that was called
Perfect in Beauty,
Joy of All the Earth?”

פ All your enemies
Jeer at you;
They hiss and gnash their teeth,
And cry: “We’ve ruined her!
Ah, this is the day we hoped for;
We have lived to see it!”

ע GOD has done what was purposed,
Carrying out the decree
That had been ordained long ago,
And tearing down without pity.
[God] has let the foe rejoice over you,
Has exalted the might of your enemies.

צ Their heart cried out to the Sovereign.
O wall of Fair Zion,
Shed tears like a torrent
Day and night!
Give yourself no respite,
Your eyes no rest.

ק Arise, cry out in the night
At the beginning of the watches,
Pour out your heart like water
In the presence of the Sovereign!
Lift up your hands to [God]
For the life of your infants,
Who faint for hunger
At every street corner.

ר “See, O ETERNAL One, and behold,
To whom You have done this!
Alas, women eat their own fruit,
Their newborn babes!
Alas, priest and prophet are slain
In the Sanctuary of the Sovereign!

ש Prostrate in the streets lie
Both young and old.
My maidens and youths
Are fallen by the sword;
You slew them on Your day of wrath,
You slaughtered without pity.

ת You summoned, as on a festival,
My neighbors from round about.
On the day of GOD’s wrath,
None survived or escaped;
Those whom I bore and reared
My foe has consumed.”