God’s Anger over Jerusalem 1 UST The Lord was very angry with the people of Jerusalem, so he brought darkness and judgment on them. Jerusalem used to be a beautiful and glorious city, but he humiliated it and brought it down to nothing. When the day came for him to punish Israel, he did not even spare his own temple. BETH 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 UST The Lord completely destroyed all the homes of Jacob’ s descendants and was not merciful to them. Because he was furious, he tore the fortresses of the people of Judah down to the ground. He disgraced their kingdom and its rulers. GIMEL 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 UST Because he was extremely angry, he took away all of Israel’ s power. He refused to protect his people when their enemies attacked them. He destroyed everything among Jacob’ s descendants like a raging fire that burns up everything around it. DALETH BSB BSB: In fierce anger He has cut off every horn of Israel and withdrawn His right hand at the approach of the enemy.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 UST He got ready to shoot his bow at us, his own people, as though we were his enemies. He used his power to kill everyone we loved most among the people of Jerusalem. He was extremely angry with us; his anger burned like a fire. HE 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 UST The Lord started treating us like an enemy; he destroyed Israel. He destroyed all of Jerusalem’ s palaces and turned its fortresses into ruins. He caused the people of Judah to grieve and weep even more. WAW 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 UST He wrecked his own temple as easily as someone tears down a garden hut; he destroyed the place where people gathered to worship him. Yahweh caused the people of Zion to stop celebrating their sacred festivals and Sabbath days. Because he was so furiously angry, he rejected both the king and the priest. ZAYIN 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 UST The Lord turned away from his own altar; he abandoned his own holy place. He let the enemies have power over the walls of Jerusalem’s palaces. Those enemies shouted triumphantly inside Yahweh’s temple, as if they were celebrating one of the sacred festivals. HETH 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 UST Yahweh planned to destroy the wall of Jerusalem. He carefully measured it out for destruction and then he did not stop himself from devouring it. He made the outer wall and the inner wall fall into ruin; together they crumbled. TETH 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 UST Jerusalem’ s gates have sunk into the ground; Yahweh smashed the bars that held them shut. The enemy has taken the king and the officials away to foreign nations; no one teaches them God’ s instruction anymore. The prophets also no longer receive any messages from Yahweh. YODH 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 UST The old men of Jerusalem sit on the ground and say nothing. They have thrown dust on their heads and put on rough sackcloth{ to show how deeply they grieve}. The young women of Jerusalem bow their faces all the way down to the ground. KAPH 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 UST I have cried until my eyes can produce no more tears; my stomach is churning with anguish. I feel as if my insides are spilling out on the ground, because so many of my people have died. Even children and babies are fainting in the city streets because they have nothing to eat. LAMEDH 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 UST The children cry out to their mothers,“We need food and drink!” They collapse in the city streets like fatally wounded soldiers, and they die slowly in the arms of their mothers. MEM 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 UST People of Jerusalem, there is nothing I can say to help you. Nothing that has ever happened to anyone else compares to what has happened to you people who live on mount Zion; I do not know how to comfort you. The disaster that struck you is as vast as the sea; no one can restore you. NUN 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 UST The prophets among you claimed to hear messages from Yahweh, but what they said was false and worthless. They did not rebuke you when you sinned so that you could have changed your ways and avoided disaster. Instead, the messages they told you were lies that caused you to do wrong things. SAMEKH 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 UST Everyone who passes by on the road claps their hands to mock you. They hiss with contempt and shake their heads at Jerusalem:“Can this really be the city that people used to say was the perfectly beautiful city, the city that made all the earth rejoice?” AYIN 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 UST All your enemies open their mouths wide against you to mock you. They hiss with contempt and grind their teeth with hatred; they say,“We have devoured her! This is the very day we waited for; we have lived to see it!” PE 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 UST Yahweh has done what he planned to do; he has carried out the threat that he announced long ago. He has torn the city down and shown no mercy; he has let your enemies celebrate over you, and he has made those who attack you more powerful than ever. TSADHE 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 UST The people of Jerusalem cried out to the Lord from deep within themselves. People of Jerusalem, let your tears flow like a river all day and all night! Do not stop weeping; do not let your eyes rest from crying. QOPH 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 UST Get up and cry out during the night, right when the night watches begin! Tell the Lord everything that is in your heart, holding nothing back, like water pouring out. Raise your hands and pray to him for your children to survive, because they are fainting from hunger on every street corner. RESH 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 UST People of every age lie dead on the ground in the streets. The enemy has killed all our youth. On the day you were angry, you{ let the enemy} kill them; you let them slaughter them mercilessly. TAW 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 UST You called enemies to attack me from every direction, as if you were summoning guests to come to a feast. On the day Yahweh was angry, no one escaped and no one survived. The children I carried and raised, my enemy has destroyed them all. 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.