Dual PanelZion's hope of relief after punishment
1WHAT darkness the Lord in his anger has brought on the daughter of Zion! He hurled down from heaven to earth the honour of Israel, with scant regard for Zion his footstool on the day of his anger.
2The Lord overwhelmed without pity all the dwellings of Jacob. In his wrath he overthrew the strongholds of the daughter of Judah; he brought to the ground in dishonour the kingdom and its rulers.
3In his fierce anger he hacked off the horn of Israel's pride; he withdrew his protecting hand at the approach of the enemy; he blazed in Jacob like flaming fire that rages far and wide.
4In enmity he bent his bow; like an adversary he took his stand, and with his strong arm he slew all those who had been his delight. He poured out his fury like fire on the tent of the daughter of Zion.
5The Lord played an enemy's part and overwhelmed Israel, overthrowing all their mansions and laying their strongholds in ruins. To the daughter of Judah he brought unending sorrow.
6He stripped his tabernacle as if it were a garden, and made the place of assembly a ruin. In Zion the LORD blotted out all memory of festal assembly and of sabbath; king and priest alike he spurned in the heat of his anger.
7The Lord rejected his own altar and abandoned his sanctuary. The walls of Zion's mansions he delivered into the power of the enemy; in the LORD's house they raised shouts as on a festal day.
8The LORD was resolved to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion; he took its measure with his line and did not scruple to demolish it. He made rampart and wall lament, and both together lay dejected.
9He has shattered the bars of her gates, and the gates themselves have sunk into the ground. Her king and rulers are exiled among the Gentiles; there is no direction from priests, and her prophets have received no vision from the LORD.
10The elders of Zion sit on the ground in silence; they have cast dust on their heads and put on sackcloth. The maidens of Jerusalem bow their heads to the ground.
11My eyes are blinded with tears, my bowels writhe in anguish. My bile is spilt on the earth because of my people's wound, as children and infants lie fainting in the streets of the city.
12They cry to their mothers, “Where is there bread and wine?” -- as they faint like wounded things in the streets of the city, gasping out their lives in their mothers' bosoms.
13How can I cheer you? Whose plight is like yours, daughter of Jerusalem? To what can I compare you for your comfort, virgin daughter of Zion? For your wound gapes as wide as the ocean -- who can heal you?
14The visions that your prophets saw for you were a false and painted sham. They did not bring home to you your guilt so as to reverse your fortunes. The visions they saw for you were delusions, false and fraudulent.
15All those who pass by snap their fingers at you; they hiss and wag their heads at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying, “Is this the city once called perfect in beauty, the joy of the whole earth?”
16All your enemies jeer at you with open mouths; they hiss and grind their teeth, saying, “Here we are, this is the day we have waited for; we have lived to see it.”
17The LORD has done what he planned to do, he has fulfilled his threat, all that he decreed from days of old. He has demolished without pity and let the enemy rejoice over you, filling your adversaries with pride.
18Cry to the Lord from the heart at the wall of the daughter of Zion; let your tears run down like a torrent day and night. Give yourself not a moment's rest, let your tears never cease.
19Arise, cry aloud in the night; at the beginning of every watch pour out your heart like water before the presence of the Lord. Lift up your hands to him for the lives of your children, who are fainting with hunger at every street corner.
20“LORD, look and see: who is it you have thus tormented? Must women eat the fruit of their wombs, the children they have held in their arms? Should priest and prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord?
21“There in the streets both young and old lie prostrate on the ground. My maidens and my young men have fallen by the sword; you have slain them on the day of your anger, slaughtered them without pity.
22“You summoned my enemies from every side, like men assembled for a festival; on the day of the LORD's anger no one escaped, not one survived. All whom I have held in my arms and reared my enemies have destroyed.”