1 ARST The Lord was extremely angry with us; it was as though he covered Jerusalem with a dark cloud. Previously it was a beautiful city, but he has caused it to become a ruin. At the time he punished Israel, he even abandoned his temple in Jerusalem. BSB BSB: How the Lord has covered the Daughter of Zion with the cloud of His anger! He has cast the glory of Israel from heaven to earth. He has abandoned His footstool in the day of His anger.
2 ARST The Lord destroyed the homes of the people of Judah; he did not act mercifully. Because he was very angry, he broke down the fortresses of Judah. He has made our kingdom to be completely helpless, and he has caused our rulers to lose all honor. BSB BSB: Without pity the Lord has swallowed up all the dwellings of Jacob. In His wrath He has demolished the fortified cities of the Daughter of Judah. He brought to the ground and defiled her kingdom and its princes.
3 ARST Because he was extremely angry, he has caused Israel to not be powerful anymore. He has refused to assist us when our enemies attacked us. He has destroyed Israel like a raging fire destroys everything. BSB BSB: In fierce anger He has cut off every horn of Israel and withdrawn His right hand at the approach of the enemy. He has burned in Jacob like a flaming fire that consumes everything around it.
4 ARST He has gotten ready to kill us, his people, as though we were his enemies. He prepared to kill the people whom we love the most, members of our own families. He is extremely angry with us people of Jerusalem; his anger is like a fire. BSB BSB: He has bent His bow like an enemy; His right hand is positioned. Like a foe He has killed all who were pleasing to the eye; He has poured out His wrath like fire on the tent of the Daughter of Zion.
5 ARST The Lord has become like an enemy to us Israelites; he has destroyed us; he has destroyed our palaces and made our fortresses into ruins. He has gotten rid of many people in Jerusalem, and caused us to mourn and weep for those who were killed. BSB BSB: The Lord is like an enemy; He has swallowed up Israel. He has swallowed up all her palaces and destroyed her strongholds. He has multiplied mourning and lamentation for the Daughter of Judah.
6 ARST He has caused our enemies to smash his temple as easily as if it had been a hut in a garden. He has caused us, his people, to forget all our sacred festivals and Sabbath days. He has hated our kings and priests because he was extremely angry with them. BSB BSB: He has laid waste His tabernacle like a garden booth; He has destroyed His place of meeting. The LORD has made Zion forget her appointed feasts and Sabbaths. In His fierce anger He has despised both king and priest.
7 ARST Yahweh has rejected the very altar on which we had sacrificed animals to him; he has abandoned his temple. He has allowed our enemies to tear down the walls of our temple and our palaces. They shout victoriously in the temple of Yahweh, like we previously shouted during our sacred festivals. BSB BSB: The Lord has rejected His altar; He has abandoned His sanctuary; He has delivered the walls of her palaces into the hand of the enemy. They have raised a shout in the house of the LORD as on the day of an appointed feast.
8 ARST Yahweh was determined that our enemies would tear down our city wall. It was as though he had first measured the walls and then completely destroyed them. It was as though he caused the towers and walls to lament because they were now ruins. BSB BSB: The LORD determined to destroy the wall of the Daughter of Zion. He stretched out a measuring line and did not withdraw His hand from destroying. He made the ramparts and walls lament; together they waste away.
9 ARST The city gates have collapsed; the enemy has destroyed the bars that fastened the gates shut. The king and his officials have been forced to go to other countries, where no one teaches the laws that God gave to Moses. The prophets do not receive any visions because Yahweh does not give them any. BSB BSB: Her gates have sunk into the ground; He has destroyed and shattered their bars. Her king and her princes are exiled among the nations, the law is no more, and even her prophets find no vision from the LORD.
10 ARST The old men of Jerusalem sit on the ground, and they say nothing. They are so sad that they wear rough sackcloth and throw dust on their heads. The young girls of Jerusalem bow down sorrowfully, their faces touch the ground. BSB BSB: The elders of the Daughter of Zion sit on the ground in silence. They have thrown dust on their heads and put on sackcloth. The young women of Jerusalem have bowed their heads to the ground.
11 ARST My eyes are very tired because of my tears; I am very grieved within my inner being. Because very many of my people have died, in my inner being I grieve and am exhausted. Even children and babies are fainting and dying in the streets because they have no food. BSB BSB: My eyes fail from weeping; I am churning within. My heart is poured out in grief over the destruction of the daughter of my people, because children and infants faint in the streets of the city.
12 ARST They cry out to their mothers,“We need something to eat and drink!” They collapse like wounded men in the streets of the city. They slowly die in the arms of their mothers. BSB BSB: They cry out to their mothers: “Where is the grain and wine?” as they faint like the wounded in the streets of the city, as their lives fade away in the arms of their mothers.
13 ARST You people of Jerusalem, I cannot say anything to help you. No people have suffered like you are suffering; I do not know what I can do to comfort you. You have fallen just as far as if you had sunk in the ocean; there is no one who can bring your city back to what it was. BSB BSB: What can I say for you? To what can I compare you, O Daughter of Jerusalem? To what can I liken you, that I may console you, O Virgin Daughter of Zion? For your wound is as deep as the sea. Who can ever heal you?
14 ARST The prophets among you claimed that they had seen visions from Yahweh, but what they said was false and worthless. They did not work to save you from your enemies; they did not tell you that you had sinned. Instead, they announced to you things that they said Yahweh had told them; they tempted you to believe them, and you did. BSB BSB: The visions of your prophets were empty and deceptive; they did not expose your guilt to ward off your captivity. The burdens they envisioned for you were empty and misleading.
15 ARST All those who pass by you make fun of you by clapping their hands; they shake their heads and hiss at you; They say,“Is this the great city of Jerusalem? Is it the city that people said was the most beautiful city in the world, the city that caused all the people on the earth to rejoice?” BSB BSB: All who pass by clap their hands at you in scorn. They hiss and shake their heads at the Daughter of Jerusalem: “Is this the city that was called the perfection of beauty, the joy of all the earth?”
16 ARST Now all our enemies laugh at you; they hate you so much that they hiss at you and grind their teeth at you. They say,“We have destroyed Israel! This is what we longed for, and now it has happened!” BSB BSB: All your enemies open their mouths against you. They hiss and gnash their teeth, saying, “We have swallowed her up. This is the day for which we have waited. We have lived to see it!”
17 ARST Yahweh has done what he planned; long ago he threatened to destroy you, and now he has done it. He has destroyed your city without acting mercifully toward you; he has enabled your enemies to be happy about defeating you; he has enabled your enemies to continually become stronger. BSB BSB: The LORD has done what He planned; He has accomplished His decree, which He ordained in days of old; He has overthrown you without pity. He has let the enemy gloat over you and exalted the horn of your foes.
18 ARST I wish the city walls could speak like the people who cry out to Yahweh! I would tell the walls,“Cry out for help to Yahweh! Let your tears flow day and night! Let them flow like rivers. Do not stop grieving; do not stop crying.” BSB BSB: The hearts of the people cry out to the Lord. O wall of the Daughter of Zion, let your tears run down like a river day and night. Give yourself no relief, and your eyes no rest.
19 ARST Get up during every night and cry out; tell Yahweh what you feel in your inner beings. Raise your arms to plead to him to act mercifully to prevent our children from dying; they are fainting on the street corners because they have no food to eat. BSB BSB: Arise, cry out in the night from the first watch of the night. Pour out your heart like water in the presence of the Lord. Lift up your hands to Him for the lives of your children who are fainting from hunger on the corner of every street.
21 ARST The corpses of people of all ages lie in the streets; there are even corpses of young men and young women whom our enemies have killed with their swords. Because you were very angry, you caused them to be killed; you have slaughtered them without pitying them at all. BSB BSB: Both young and old lie together in the dust of the streets. My young men and maidens have fallen by the sword. You have slain them in the day of Your anger; You have slaughtered them without compassion.
22 ARST You summoned my enemies to attack from every direction, as though you were calling them to come to a feast. At that time you showed that you were very angry, and no one escaped. Our enemies murdered our little children, the ones whom we took care of and reared up. BSB BSB: You summoned my terrors on every side, as for the day of an appointed feast. In the day of the LORD’s anger no one escaped or survived; my enemy has destroyed those I nurtured and reared.
Select verses for actions: Enter goes to them and Escape comes back.