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¹ How the Lord in his anger
    has set the daughter of Zion ^(a)under a cloud!
^(b)He has cast down from heaven to earth
    the splendor of Israel;
he has not remembered ^(c)his footstool
    in the day of his anger.

² The Lord ^(d)has swallowed up ^(e)without mercy
    all the habitations of Jacob;
in his wrath ^(f)he has broken down
    the strongholds of the daughter of Judah;
he has brought ^(g)down to the ground ^(h)in dishonor
    the kingdom ⁽ⁱ⁾and its rulers.

³ He has cut down in ^(j)fierce anger
    all ^(k)the might of Israel;
^(l)he has withdrawn from them his right hand
    in the face of the enemy;
^(m)he has burned like a flaming fire in Jacob,
    consuming all around.

^4 (n)He has bent his bow like an enemy,
    with his right hand set ^(o)like a foe;
and he has killed all who were delightful in our eyes
    in the tent of the daughter of Zion;
he has poured out his fury like fire.

^5 (p)The Lord has become like an enemy;
    ^(q)he has swallowed up Israel;
^(r)he has swallowed up all its palaces;
    he has laid in ruins its strongholds,
and he has multiplied in the daughter of Judah
    ^(s)mourning and lamentation.

⁶ He has laid waste his booth like a garden,
    laid in ruins ^(t)his meeting place;
^(u)the Lord has made Zion forget
    festival and ^(v)Sabbath,
and in his fierce indignation has spurned king and priest.

^7 (w)The Lord has scorned his altar,
    ^(x)disowned his sanctuary;
^(y)he has delivered into the hand of the enemy
    the walls of her palaces;
^(z)they raised a clamor in the house of the Lord
    as on the day of festival.

^8 (aa)The Lord determined to lay in ruins
    ^(ab)the wall of the daughter of Zion;
^(ac)he stretched out the measuring line;
    he did not restrain his hand from destroying;
^(ad)he caused rampart and wall to lament;
    ^(ae)they languished together.

⁹ Her gates have sunk into the ground;
    ^(af)he has ruined ^(ag)and broken her bars;
^(ah)her king and princes are among the nations;
    the law is no more,
and ^(ai)her prophets find
    no vision from the Lord.

¹⁰ The elders of the daughter of Zion
    ^(aj)sit on the ground ^(ak)in silence;
^(al)they have thrown dust on their heads
    and ^(am)put on sackcloth;
the young women of Jerusalem
    have bowed their heads to the ground.

^11 (an)My eyes are spent with weeping;
    ^(ao)my stomach churns;
^(ap)my bile is poured out to the ground
    ^(aq)because of the destruction of the daughter of my people,
^(ar)because infants and babies ^(as)faint
    in the streets of the city.

¹² They cry to their mothers,
    ^(at)"Where is bread and wine?"
^(au)as they faint like a wounded man
    in the streets of the city,
as their life is poured out
    on their mothers' bosom.

¹³ What can I say for you, ^(av)to what compare you,
    O daughter of Jerusalem?
^(aw)What can I liken to you, that I may comfort you,
    O virgin daughter of Zion?
^(ax)For your ruin is vast as the sea;
    who can heal you?

^14 (ay)Your prophets have seen for you
    false and deceptive visions;
^(az)they have not exposed your iniquity
    to ^(ba)restore your fortunes,
^(bb)but have seen for you ^(bc)oracles
    that are false and misleading.

¹⁵ All who pass along the way
    clap their hands at you;
^(bd)they hiss and wag their heads
    at the daughter of Jerusalem:
"Is this the city that was called
    ^(be)the perfection of beauty,
    ^(bf)the joy of all the earth?"

^16 (bg)All your enemies
    rail against you;
they hiss, they gnash their teeth,
    they cry: "We ^(bh)have swallowed her!
Ah, this is the day we longed for;
    now we have it; ^(bi)we see it!"

¹⁷ The Lord has done what he purposed;
    he has carried out ^(bj)his word,
which he commanded ^(bk)long ago;
    ^(bl)he has thrown down ^(bm)without pity;
^(bn)he has made the enemy rejoice over you
    and exalted the ^(bo)might of your foes.

¹⁸ Their heart cried to the Lord.
    O ^(bp)wall of the daughter of Zion,
^(bq)let tears stream down like a torrent
    ^(br)day and night!
^(bs)Give yourself no rest,
    ^(bt)your eyes no respite!

¹⁹ "Arise, ^(bu)cry out in the night,
    at the beginning of the night watches!
^(bv)Pour out your heart like water
    before the presence of the Lord!
^(bw)Lift your hands to him
    for the lives of your children,
^(bx)who faint for hunger
    at the head of every street."

²⁰ Look, O Lord, and see!
    ^(by)With whom have you dealt thus?
^(bz)Should women eat the fruit of their womb,
    the children of ^(ca)their tender care?
Should ^(cb)priest and prophet be killed
    in the sanctuary of the Lord?

²¹ In the dust of the streets
    ^(cc)lie the young and the old;
^(cd)my young women and my young men
    have fallen by the sword;
^(ce)you have killed them in the day of your anger,
    slaughtering ^(cf)without pity.

²² You summoned as if to ^(cg)a festival day
    ^(ch)my terrors on every side,
^(ci)and on the day of the anger of the Lord
    no one escaped or survived;
^(cj)those whom I held and raised
    my enemy destroyed.