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God's Anger over Israel

¹ How the Lord has ^(F1)(C1)covered the daughter of Zion
With a cloud in His anger!
He has ^(C2)hurled
The ^(C3)glory of Israel from heaven to earth,
And has not remembered His ^(C4)footstool
In the day of His anger.

² The Lord has ^(F1)(C1)destroyed; He has not spared
All the settlements of Jacob.
In His wrath He has ^(C2)overthrown
The strongholds of the daughter of Judah,
He has ^(C3)hurled them down to the ground;
He has ^(C4)profaned the kingdom and its leaders.

³ In fierce anger He has cut off
^(F1)All the ^(C1)strength of Israel;
He has ^(C2)pulled back His right hand
From the enemy.
And He has ^(C3)burned in Jacob like a flaming fire
Consuming on all sides.

⁴ He has bent His ^(C1)bow like an enemy;
His right hand is positioned like an adversary,
And He has killed everything that was ^(C2)pleasant to the eye.
In the tent of the daughter of Zion
He has ^(C3)poured out His wrath like fire.

⁵ The Lord has become like an ^(C1)enemy.
He has ^(C2)engulfed Israel;
He has engulfed all its ^(C3)palaces,
He has destroyed its strongholds
And ^(C4)caused great mourning and grieving in the daughter of Judah.

⁶ And He has treated His ^(F1)tabernacle violently, like a despised garden;
He has ^(C1)destroyed His appointed ^(F2)meeting place.
The LORD has ^(C2)caused
The appointed feast and Sabbath in Zion to be forgotten,
And He has ^(C3)despised king and priest
In the indignation of His anger.

⁷ The Lord has ^(C1)rejected His altar,
He has ^(F1)repudiated His sanctuary;
He ^(C2)has handed over
The walls of her palaces to the enemy.
They have made a ^(C3)noise in the house of the LORD
As on the day of an appointed feast.

⁸ The LORD determined to destroy
The wall of the daughter of Zion.
He has ^(C1)stretched out a line,
He has not restrained His hand from ^(F1)destroying,
And He has ^(C2)caused rampart and wall to mourn;
They have languished together.

⁹ Her ^(C1)gates have sunk into the ground,
He has destroyed and broken her bars.
Her king and her leaders are among the nations;
The ^(C2)Law is gone.
Her prophets, too, find
^(C3)No vision from the LORD.

¹⁰ The elders of the daughter of Zion
^(C1)Sit on the ground and ^(F1)(C2)are silent.
They have thrown ^(C3)dust on their heads;
They have put on ^(C4)sackcloth.
The ^(C5)virgins of Jerusalem
Have bowed their heads to the ground.

¹¹ My ^(C1)eyes fail because of tears,
My ^(F1)(C2)spirit is greatly troubled;
My ^(F2)(C3)heart is poured out on the earth
^(C4)Because of the ^(F3)destruction of the daughter of my people,
When ^(C5)little ones and infants languish
In the streets of the city.

¹² They say to their mothers,
"^(C1)Where is grain and wine?"
As they faint like a wounded person
In the streets of the city,
As their ^(C2)lives are poured out
^(F1)In their mothers' arms.

¹³ How shall I admonish you?
What ^(C1)shall I compare to you,
Daughter of Jerusalem?
What shall I liken to you as I comfort you,
^(C2)Virgin daughter of Zion?
For your collapse is as vast as the sea;
Who can ^(C3)heal you?

¹⁴ Your ^(C1)prophets have seen for you
Worthless and deceptive visions;
And they have not ^(C2)exposed your wrongdoing
So as to restore you from captivity,
But they have ^(C3)seen for you worthless and misleading pronouncements.

¹⁵ All who pass along the way
^(C1)Clap their hands in ridicule at you;
They ^(C2)(F1)hiss and shake their heads
At the daughter of Jerusalem:
"Is this the city of which they said,
'^(C3)Perfect in beauty,
^(C4)A joy to all the earth'?"

¹⁶ All ^(C1)your enemies
Have opened their mouths wide against you;
They ^(F1)hiss and ^(C2)gnash their teeth.
They say, "We have ^(C3)engulfed her!
This certainly is the ^(C4)day which we awaited;
We have reached it, we have seen it!"

¹⁷ The LORD has ^(C1)done what He determined;
He has accomplished His word
Which He commanded from days of old.
He has torn down ^(C2)without sparing,
And He has helped the enemy to ^(C3)rejoice over you;
He has ^(C4)exalted the ^(F1)might of your adversaries.

¹⁸ Their ^(C1)heart cried out to the Lord:
"You ^(C2)wall of the daughter of Zion,
Let your ^(C3)tears stream down like a river day and night;
Give yourself no relief,
Let ^(F1)your eyes have no rest.

¹⁹ "Arise, whimper in the ^(C1)night
At the beginning of the night watches;
^(C2)Pour out your heart like water
Before the presence of the Lord;
Raise your hands to Him
For the ^(C3)life of your little ones
Who ^(C4)languish because of hunger
At the head of every street.

²⁰ "See, LORD, and look!
With ^(C1)whom have You dealt this way?
Should women really ^(C2)eat their ^(F1)children,
The little ones who were ^(F2)born healthy?
Should ^(C3)priest and prophet really be killed
In the sanctuary of the Lord?

²¹ "On the ground in the streets
Lie ^(C1)young and old;
My ^(C2)virgins and my young men
Have fallen by the sword.
You have put them to death on the day of Your anger,
You have slaughtered, ^(C3)without sparing.

²² "You called as on the day of an appointed feast
My ^(C1)terrors on every side;
And there was ^(C2)no one who survived or escaped
On the day of the LORD'S anger.
As for those ^(C3)whom I brought forth healthy and whom I raised,
My enemy annihilated them."