1 How the Lord has covered the daughter of Zion With a acloud in His anger! bHe cast down from heaven to the earth cThe beauty of Israel, And did not remember dHis footstool In the day of His anger.
2 The Lord has swallowed up and has anot pitied All the dwelling places of Jacob. He has thrown down in His wrath The strongholds of the daughter of Judah; He has brought them down to the ground; bHe has profaned the kingdom and its princes.
3 He has cut off in fierce anger Every1 horn of Israel; aHe has drawn back His right hand From before the enemy. bHe has blazed against Jacob like a flaming fire Devouring all around.
4aStanding like an enemy, He has bent His bow; With His right hand, like an adversary, He has slain ball whowere pleasing to His eye; On the tent of the daughter of Zion, He has poured out His fury like fire.
5aThe Lord was like an enemy. He has swallowed up Israel, He has swallowed up all her palaces; bHe has destroyed her strongholds, And has increased mourning and lamentation In the daughter of Judah.
6 He has done violence ato His tabernacle, bAsifitwere a garden; He has destroyed His place of assembly; The Lord has caused The appointed feasts and Sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion. In His burning indignation He has cspurned the king and the priest.
7 The Lord has spurned His altar, He has1aabandoned His sanctuary; He has given up the walls of her palaces Into the hand of the enemy. bThey have made a noise in the house of the Lord As on the day of a set feast.
8 The Lord has1 purposed to destroy The awall of the daughter of Zion. bHe has stretched out a line; He has not withdrawn His hand from destroying; Therefore He has caused the rampart and wall to lament; They languished together.
9 Her gates have sunk into the ground; He has destroyed and abroken her bars. bHer king and her princes are among the1 nations; cThe Law is no more, And her dprophets find no vision from the Lord.
10 The elders of the daughter of Zion aSit on the ground and keep silence; They bthrow dust on their heads And cgird themselves with sackcloth. The virgins of Jerusalem Bow their heads to the ground.
11aMy1 eyes fail with tears, My1 heart is troubled; bMy bile is poured on the ground Because of the destruction of the daughter of my people, Because cthe children and the infants Faint in the streets of the city.
12 They say to their mothers, “Where is grain and wine?” As they swoon like the wounded In the streets of the city, As their life is poured out In their mothers’ bosom.
13 How shall I aconsole you? To what shall I liken you, O daughter of Jerusalem? What shall I compare with you, that I may comfort you, O virgin daughter of Zion? For your ruin is spread wide as the sea; Who can heal you?
14 Your aprophets have seen for you False and deceptive visions; They have not buncovered your iniquity, To bring back your captives, But have envisioned for you false cprophecies and delusions.
15 All who1 pass by aclap their hands at you; They hiss band shake their heads At the daughter of Jerusalem: “Is this the city that is called c‘The perfection of beauty, The joy of the whole earth’?”
16aAll your enemies have opened their mouth against you; They hiss and gnash their teeth. They say, b“We have swallowed her up! Surely this is the cday we have waited for; We have found it,dwe have seen it!”
17 The Lord has done what He apurposed; He has fulfilled His word Which He commanded in days of old. He has thrown down and has not pitied, And He has caused an enemy to brejoice over you; He has exalted the1 horn of your adversaries.
18 Their heart cried out to the Lord, “O wall of the daughter of Zion, aLet tears run down like a river day and night; Give1 yourself no relief; Give your eyes no rest.
19 “Arise, acry out in the night, At the beginning of the watches; bPour out your heart like water before the face of the Lord. Lift your hands toward Him For the life of your young children, Who faint from hunger cat the head of every street.”
20 “See, O Lord, and consider! To whom have You done this? aShould the women eat their offspring, The children1 they have cuddled? Should the priest and prophet be slain In the sanctuary of the Lord?
21 “Younga and old lie On the ground in the streets; My virgins and my young men Have fallen by the bsword; You have slain them in the day of Your anger, You have slaughtered and not pitied.
22 “You have invited as to a feast day aThe terrors that surround me. In the day of the Lord’s anger There was no refugee or survivor. bThose whom I have borne and brought up My enemies have cdestroyed.”
Verses 1-9 A sad representation is here made of the state of God's church, of Jacob and Israel; but the notice seems mostly to refer to the hand of the Lord in their calamities. Yet God is not an enemy to his people, when he is angry with them and corrects them. And gates and bars stand in no stead when God withdraws his protection. It is just with God to cast down those by judgments, who debase themselves by sin; and to deprive those of the benefit and comfort of sabbaths and ordinances, who have not duly valued nor observed them. What should they do with Bibles, who make no improvement of them? Those who misuse God's prophets, justly lose them. It becomes necessary, though painful, to turn the thoughts of the afflicted to the hand of God lifted up against them, and to their sins as the source of their miseries.
Verses 10-22 Causes for lamentation are described. Multitudes perished by famine. Even little children were slain by their mother's hands, and eaten, according to the threatening, deuteronomy 28:53 . Multitudes fell by the sword. Their false prophets deceived them. And their neighbours laughed at them. It is a great sin to jest at others' miseries, and adds much affliction to the afflicted. Their enemies triumphed over them. The enemies of the church are apt to take its shocks for its ruins; but they will find themselves deceived. Calls to lamentation are given; and comforts for the cure of these lamentations are sought. Prayer is a salve for every sore, even the sorest; a remedy for every malady, even the most grievous. Our business in prayer is to refer our case to the Lord, and leave it with him. His will be done. Let us fear God, and walk humbly before him, and take heed lest we fall.
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