Lamentations 2

The poet describes the LORD acting as an enemy against His own people — swallowing up the dwellings of Jacob, destroying the temple, and making Zion forget her festivals. Her prophets gave false visions and did not expose her iniquity. Children faint in the streets, women eat their own offspring, and the poet cries out for Zion to pour out her heart like water before the Lord.

v	King James Version	Modern English
1	How hath the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger, and cast down from heaven unto earth the beauty of Israel, and remembered not his footstool in the day of his anger!	How the Lord has covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud of His anger! He has thrown down from heaven to earth the splendor of Israel. He did not remember 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.	The Lord has swallowed up without pity all the dwellings of Jacob. In his wrath he has torn down the strongholds of the daughter of Judah. He has brought them down to the ground. He has dishonored the kingdom and its princes.
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.	In His fierce anger He has cut off every defender of Israel. He has pulled back His right hand from before the enemy. He has burned against Jacob like a blazing fire that consumes everything around it.
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.	He has bent his bow like an enemy. He has taken His stand like a foe with His right hand raised. He has killed all who were precious in the tabernacle of the daughter of Zion. He poured out His wrath 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.	The Lord has become like an enemy. He has swallowed up Israel. He has swallowed up all her palaces and destroyed her strongholds. He has multiplied 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.	He has torn down His tabernacle as easily as a garden shed. He has destroyed His appointed place. The LORD has made Zion forget her festivals and her Sabbaths. In His fierce anger He has rejected king and priest alike.
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.	The Lord has abandoned His altar and rejected His sanctuary. He has handed over the walls of her palaces to the enemy. They shout in the house of the LORD as on a day of appointed festival.
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.	The LORD purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion. He stretched out the measuring line. He did not hold back His hand from destroying. He made the rampart and the wall lament. They sank into ruin 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.	Her gates have sunk into the ground. He has destroyed and broken their bars. Her king and princes are among the nations. The law is no more. Her prophets receive 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.	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	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.	My eyes are worn out from weeping. My stomach churns. My heart is poured out on the ground because of the destruction of the daughter of my people, as children and infants faint 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 mothers' bosom.	They cry to their mothers, "Where is food and drink?" as they faint like wounded men in the streets of the city, as their lives pour out on their mothers' laps.
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?	"What can I say to You? What can I compare to You, O daughter of Jerusalem? What can I equal you to, that I might comfort you, O virgin daughter of Zion? Your wound is as deep as the sea. Who can heal You?"
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.	Your prophets have seen false and worthless visions for You. They did not expose Your iniquity to turn away Your captivity. The visions they proclaimed were lies and delusions.
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?	All who pass by clap their hands at You. They hiss and shake their heads at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying, "Is this the city they called 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.	All Your enemies open their mouths against You. They hiss and grind their teeth and say, "We have swallowed her up. This is the day we were waiting for. We have found it. 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.	The LORD has done what He planned. He has carried out His word that He commanded long ago. He has torn down without pity. He has let Your enemy gloat over You and has given power to Your foes.
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.	Their heart cried out to the Lord. O wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears flow like a river day and night. Give Yourself no relief. Let Your eyes have no rest.
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.	Rise, cry out in the night. At the beginning of every watch, pour out Your heart like water before the face of the Lord. Lift Your hands to Him for the lives of Your children, who faint from hunger on every street corner.
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?	"Look, O LORD, and see who You have dealt with this way. Should women eat their own children, the babies they have carried? Should priest and prophet be killed 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.	"Young and old lie together in the dust of the streets. My young women and my young men have fallen by the sword. You have killed them in the day of Your anger. You have slaughtered without pity."
22	Thou hast called as in a solemn feast 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.	"You summoned terrors against me from every side, as though calling people to an appointed festival. In the day of the LORD's anger no one escaped. No one survived. The children I carried and raised, my enemy has destroyed."