1How the LORD has covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in His anger! He has hurled the splendor of Israel down from heaven to the earth, and has not remembered His footstool in the day of His anger!
2The LORD has destroyed all the homes in Israel, and has not pitied; in His wrath He has thrown down the strongholds of the daughter of Judah; He has brought the kingdom and its princes down to the ground.
3In His fierce anger, He has cut off all the horn (strength) of Israel; He has withdrawn His right hand from before the enemy, and He devoured Jacob like a flaming fire, that burns everything about it.
4He has strung and bent His bow like an enemy; He stood with His right hand as an adversary, and destroyed all that was pleasant to the eye in the tabernacle (perhaps the city of Jerusalem, or perhaps the temple) of the daughter of Zion; He poured out His fury like fire.
5The LORD was like an enemy; He has swallowed up Israel, He has swallowed up all her palaces; He has destroyed her strongholds, and has multiplied the mourning and lamentation in the daughter of Judah.
6And He has violently taken away His Own tabernacle, (like a temporary shed in a garden, when not currently needed); He has destroyed His places of solemn assemblies; the LORD has caused the solemn feasts and sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion, and has despised, in the indignation of His anger, both the king and the priest.
7The LORD has cast off His altar, He has abhorred His sanctuary, He has given the walls of her palaces over to the enemy; they (the pagans) have made a noise in the house of the LORD, as in the day of a solemn feast. Verses 6 and 7 are worthy of comment. They are illustrative of God’s disappointment in His people, as time and again they fail to acknowledge, appreciate, and respond to His loving watch-care and blessings. Verse 6 speaks of the LORD, Himself, destroying, or negating things that He has established, sanctioned, and blessed. These include: His Temple and other places of solemn assemblies; the observance of solemn feasts and sabbaths; as well as expressing disdain and anger toward the kings and priests who were intended to rule and guide His people. Verse 7 speaks of the LORD rejecting His altar, where the people’s sacrifices had degraded to meaningless ritual, causing Him to abhor His sanctuary, and to turn the city’s walls, symbolic of His protection of the city that He had chosen to have His Name there over to the enemy (But I have chosen Jerusalem, that My name might be there - II Chronicles 6:6).
8The LORD has determined to destroy the wall around the daughter of Zion (beautiful Jerusalem); He has stretched out a (measuring) line, He has not restrained His hand from destroying; He caused the ramparts and walls to mourn; they lament together.
9Her gates are sunk into the ground; He has smashed its bars; her king and her princes are exiled among the nations; there is no longer law; her prophets no longer receive visions from the LORD.
10The elders of the daughter of Zion (Jerusalem) sit upon the ground in silence; they have thrown dust upon their heads; they have put on sackcloth; the young women of Jerusalem hang their heads to the ground.
11My eyes are blurred with tears, my heart is pained, my spirit is poured upon the ground, because of the destruction of my people, because the children and the infants faint in the streets of the city.
12They say to their mothers, “Where is bread and water?” as they faint like the wounded in the streets of the city, as their lives ebb away in their mothers' bosom.
13What things shall I (Jeremiah) say for you? What shall I liken you to, O daughter of Jerusalem? What shall I compare you to, that I may comfort you, O virgin daughter of Zion? For your wound is as great as the sea; who can heal you?
14Your prophets have seen vain and deceptive visions; they have not disclosed your iniquity, to avoid and save you from captivity, but have reported false visions that caused your banishment.
15All that pass by sneer 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?’”’
16All your enemies have jeered and mocked you. They hiss and gnash the teeth; saying, “We have devoured her; this is the day that we looked for; we have finally lived to see it.”
17The LORD has done what He had intended; He has fulfilled His word that He had decreed in the days of old. He has overthrown without pity; and He has caused her enemy to rejoice over her; He has exalted the power of her adversaries.
18The heart of the people cried unto the LORD, O wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears run down like a river day and night; give yourself no rest.
19Arise, cry out in the night; in the beginning of the night watches, pour out your heart like water before the LORD; raise your hands toward Him for the life of your young children, who faint from hunger at every street corner.
20Look, O LORD, and consider to whom You have done all this. Shall the women eat their own children that they have nourished? Should the priest and the prophet be killed in the sanctuary of the LORD?
21The young and old alike lie on the ground in the streets; my young women and men have fallen by the sword; You have slain them in the day of Your anger; You have killed them without pity.
22 As You might have called us to a feast day, You have summoned all my terrors all around me, so that in the day of the LORD's anger, no one escaped or survived; those that I have cared for and brought up, my enemy has destroyed. Easy Reader Bible: Purple Letter Edition © 2023 by Jim Musser. Used by Permission. All rights Reserved. Bible Hub |
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