Lam 2
1
Aleph. How hath the Lord covered with obscurity the daughter of Sion in his wrath!
how hath he cast down from heaven to the earth the glorious one of Israel, and hath
not remembered his footstool in the day of his anger!
2
Beth. The Lord hath cast down headlong, and hath not spared, all that was beautiful
in Jacob: he hath destroyed in his wrath the strong holds of the virgin of Juda, and
brought them down to the ground: he hath made the kingdom unclean, and the princes
thereof.
3
Ghimel. He hath broken in his fierce anger all the horn of Israel: he hath drawn back
his right hand from before the enemy: and he hath kindled in Jacob as it were a flaming
fire devouring round about.
4
Daleth. He hath bent his bow as an enemy, he hath fixed his right hand as an adversary:
and he hath killed all that was fair to behold in the tabernacle of the daughter of
Sion, he hath poured out his indignation like fire.
5
He. The Lord is become as an enemy: he hath cast down Israel headlong, he hath overthrown
all the walls thereof: he hath destroyed his strong holds, and hath multiplied in
the daughter of Juda the afflicted, both men and women.
6
Vau. And he hath destroyed his tent as a garden, he hath thrown down his tabernacle:
the Lord hath caused feasts and sabbaths to be forgotten in Sion: and hath delivered
up king and priest to reproach, and to the indignation of his wrath.
7
Zain. The Lord hath cast off his altar, he hath cursed his sanctuary: he hath delivered
the walls of the towers thereof into the hand of the enemy: they have made a noise
in the house of the Lord, as in the day of a solemn feast.
8
Heth. The Lord hath purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Sion: he hath
stretched out his line, and hath not withdrawn his hand from destroying: and the bulwark
hath mourned, and the wall hath been destroyed together.
9
Teth. 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, and her prophets
have found no vision from the Lord.
10
Jod. The ancients of the daughter of Sion sit upon the ground, they have held their
peace: they have sprinkled their heads with dust, they are girded with haircloth,
the virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground.
11
Caph. My eyes have failed with weeping, my bowels are troubled: my liver is poured
out upon the earth, for the destruction of the daughter of my people, when the children,
and the sucklings, fainted away in the streets of the city.
12
Lamed. They said to their mothers: Where is corn and wine? when they fainted away
as the wounded in the streets of the city: when they breathed out their souls in the
bosoms of their mothers.
13
Mem. To what shall I compare thee? or to what shall I liken thee, O daughter of Jerusalem?
to what shall I equal thee, that I may comfort thee, O virgin daughter of Sion? for
great as the sea is thy destruction: who shall heal thee?
14
Nun. Thy prophets have seen false and foolish things for thee: and they have not laid
open thy iniquity, to excite thee to penance: but they have seen for thee false revelations
and banishments.
15
Samech. All they that passed by the way have clapped their hands at thee: they have
hissed, and wagged their heads at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying: Is this the city
of perfect beauty, the joy of all the earth?
16
Phe. All thy enemies have opened their mouth against thee: they have hissed, and gnashed
with the teeth, and have said: We will swallow her up: lo, this is the day which we
looked for: we have found it, we have seen it.
17
Ain. The Lord hath done that which he purposed, he hath fulfilled his word, which
he commanded in the days of old: he hath destroyed, and hath not spared, and he hath
caused the enemy to rejoice over thee, and hath set up the horn of thy adversaries.
18
Sade. Their heart cried to the Lord upon the walls of the daughter of Sion: Let tears
run down like a torrent day and night: give thyself no rest, and let not the apple
of thy eye cease.
19
Coph. Arise, give praise in the night, in the beginning of the watches: pour out thy
heart like water before the face of the Lord: lift up thy hands to him for the life
of thy little children, that have fainted for hunger at the top of all the streets.
20
Res. Behold, O Lord, and consider whom thou hast thus dealt with: shall women then
eat their own fruit, their children of a span long? shall the priest and the prophet
be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord ?
21
Sin. The child and the old man lie without on the ground: my virgins and my young
men are fallen by the sword: thou hast slain them in the day of thy wrath: thou hast
killed, and shewn them no pity.
22
Thau. Thou hast called as to a festival, those that should terrify me round about,
and there was none in the day of the wrath of the Lord that escaped and was left:
those that I brought up, and nourished, my enemy hath consumed them.