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1Look how the Lord in his anger
has brought Jerusalem to shame.
He has thrown down the greatness of Israel
from the sky to the earth.
He did not remember the Temple, his footstool,
on the day of his anger.
2The Lord swallowed up without mercy
all the houses of the people of Jacob.
In his anger he pulled down
the strong places of Judah.
He threw her kingdom and its rulers
down to the ground in dishonor.
3In his anger the Lord has removed
all the strength of Israel.
He took away his power from Israel
when the enemy came.
He burned against the people of Jacob like a flaming fire
that burns up everything around it.
4Like an enemy, the Lord prepared to shoot his bow.
He took hold of his sword.
Like an enemy, he killed
all the good-looking people.
He poured out his anger like fire
on the tents of Jerusalem.
5The Lord has become like an enemy.
He has swallowed up Israel.
He has swallowed up all her palaces.
He has destroyed all her strong places.
He has caused more moaning and groaning
for Judah.
6He has destroyed his Temple as if it were a garden tent.
He has destroyed the place where he met with his people.
The Lord has made Jerusalem forget
the set feasts and Sabbath days.
He has rejected the king and the priest
in his great anger.
7The Lord has rejected his altar
and abandoned his Temple.
He has given to the enemy
the walls of Jerusalem’s palaces.
The enemy shouted in the Lord’s Temple
as if it were a feast day.
8The Lord planned to destroy
the wall around Jerusalem.
He marked the wall off with a measuring line.
He did not stop himself from destroying it.
He made the walls and defenses sad.
Together they have fallen.
9Jerusalem’s gates have fallen to the ground.
He destroyed and smashed the bars of the gates.
Her king and her princes are sent away among the nations.
The teaching of the Lord has stopped.
The prophets have not had
any visions from the Lord.
10The elders of Jerusalem
sit on the ground and are silent.
They pour dust on their heads
and put on rough cloth to show how sad they are.
The young women of Jerusalem
bow their heads to the ground in sorrow.
11My eyes are weak from crying.
I am troubled.
I feel as if I have been poured out on the ground
because my people have been destroyed.
Children and babies are fainting
in the streets of the city.
12They say to their mothers,
“Where is some bread and wine?”
They faint like wounded soldiers
in the streets of the city.
They die in their mothers’ arms.
13What can I say about you, Jerusalem?
What can I compare you to?
What can I say you are like?
How can I comfort you, Jerusalem?
Your ruin is as big as the sea.
No one can heal you.
14Your prophets saw visions about you.
But they were false and worth nothing.
They did not expose your sins.
They did not keep you from being captured.
The messages they preached to you were false.
They fooled you.
15All who pass by on the road
clap their hands at you.
They make fun and shake their heads
at Jerusalem.
They ask, “Is this the city that people called
the most beautiful city,
the happiest city on earth?”
16All your enemies open their mouths
to say things against you.
They make fun and grind their teeth in anger.
They say, “We have swallowed her up.
This is the day we were waiting for.
We have finally seen it happen.”
17The Lord has done what he planned.
He has carried out the order
that he commanded long ago.
He has destroyed without mercy.
He has made your enemies happy because of what happened to you.
He has strengthened your enemies.
18The people
cry out to the Lord.
Wall of Jerusalem,
let your tears flow
like a river day and night.
Do not stop.
Do not let your eyes rest.
19Get up, cry out in the night.
Cry all through the night.
Pour out your heart like water
in prayer to the Lord.
Lift up your hands in prayer to him.
Pray for the life of your children.
They are fainting with hunger
on every street corner.
20Jerusalem says: “Look, Lord, and see.
You have never done this to anyone else.
Women eat their own babies,
the children they have cared for.
Priests and prophets
are killed in the Temple of the Lord.
21“Young men and old men
lie on the ground in the streets of the city.
My young women and young men
have been killed by the sword.
You, Lord, killed them on the day of your anger.
You killed them without mercy.
22“You invited terrors to come against me on every side.
It was as if you were inviting them to a feast.
No one escaped or remained alive
on the day of the Lord’s anger.
My enemy has killed
those whom I gave birth to and brought up.”