The Lamentations of Jeremiah 2

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¹ How hath the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger and cast down from heaven unto the earth the beauty of Israel and remembered not his footstool in the day of his anger ⚑

² The Lord hath swallowed up all the habitations of Jacob and hath not pitied he hath thrown down in his wrath the strong holds of the daughter of Judah he hath brought them down to the ground he hath polluted the kingdom and the princes thereof ⚑

³ He hath cut off in his fierce anger all the horn of Israel he hath drawn back his right hand from before the enemy and he burned against Jacob like a flaming fire which devoureth round about ⚑

⁴ He hath bent his bow like an enemy he stood with his right hand as an adversary and slew all that were pleasant to the eye in the tabernacle of the daughter of Zion he poured out his fury like fire ⚑

⁵ The Lord was as an enemy he hath swallowed up Israel he hath swallowed up all her palaces he hath destroyed his strong holds and hath increased in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation ⚑

⁶ And he hath violently taken away his tabernacle as if it were of a garden he hath destroyed his places of the assembly the LORD hath caused the solemn feasts and sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion and hath despised in the indignation of his anger the king and the priest ⚑

⁷ The Lord hath cast off his altar he hath abhorred his sanctuary he hath given up into the hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces they have made a noise in the house of the LORD as in the day of a solemn feast ⚑

⁸ The LORD hath purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion he hath stretched out a line he hath not withdrawn his hand from destroying therefore he made the rampart and the wall to lament they languished together ⚑

⁹ Her gates are sunk into the ground he hath destroyed and broken her bars her king and her princes are among the Gentiles the law is no more her prophets also find no vision from the LORD ⚑

¹⁰ The elders of the daughter of Zion sit upon the ground and keep silence they have cast up dust upon their heads they have girded themselves with sackcloth the virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground ⚑

¹¹ Mine eyes do fail with tears my bowels are troubled my liver is poured upon the earth for the destruction of the daughter of my people because the children and the sucklings swoon in the streets of the city ⚑

¹² They say to their mothers Where is corn and wine when they swooned as the wounded in the streets of the city when their soul was poured out into their thers’ bosom ⚑

¹³ What thing shall I take to witness for thee what thing shall I liken to thee O daughter of Jerusalem what shall I equal to thee that I may comfort thee O virgin daughter of Zion for thy breach is great like the sea who can heal thee ⚑

¹⁴ Thy prophets have seen vain and foolish things for thee and they have not discovered thine iniquity to turn away thy captivity but have seen for thee false burdens and causes of banishment ⚑

¹⁵ All that pass by clap their hands at thee they hiss and wag their head at the daughter of Jerusalem saying Is this the city that men call The perfection of beauty The joy of the whole earth ⚑

¹⁶ All thine enemies have opened their mouth against thee they hiss and gnash the teeth they say We have swallowed her up certainly this is the day that we looked for we have found we have seen it ⚑

¹⁷ The LORD hath done that which he had devised he hath fulfilled his word that he had commanded in the days of old he hath thrown down and hath not pitied and he hath caused thine enemy to rejoice over thee he hath set up the horn of thine adversaries ⚑

¹⁸ Their heart cried unto the Lord O wall of the daughter of Zion let tears run down like a river day and night give thyself no rest let not the apple of thine eye cease ⚑

¹⁹ Arise cry out in the night in the beginning of the watches pour out thine heart like water before the face of the Lord lift up thy hands toward him for the life of thy young children that faint for hunger in the top of every street ⚑

²⁰ Behold O LORD and consider to whom thou hast done this Shall the women eat their fruit and children of a span long shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord ⚑

²¹ The young and the old lie on the ground in the streets my virgins and my young men are fallen by the sword thou hast slain them in the day of thine anger thou hast killed and not pitied ⚑

²² Thou hast called as in a solemn day my terrors round about so that in the day of the LORD’s anger none escaped nor remained those that I have swaddled and brought up hath mine enemy consumed ⚑

King James Version (1769) with Apocrypha · Crosswire Bible Society / eBible.org (standard text of 1769) · Public Domain

Cross-references: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge · public domain