1 How hath the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with darkness in his strong vengeance? he hath cast down from heaven into earth the noble city of Israel; and bethought not on the stool of his feet, in the day of his strong vengeance.

2 The Lord casted down, and spared not, all the fair things of Jacob; he destroyed in his strong vengeance the strengths or strongholds of the virgin of Judah, and casted down into [the] earth; he defouled the realm, and the princes thereof.

3 He brake in the ire [or the wrath] of his strong vengeance all the horn of Israel; he turned aback his right hand from the face of the enemy; and he kindled in Jacob, as fire of flame devouring in compass.

4 He as an enemy bent his bow, he as an adversary made steadfast his right hand; and he killed all thing that was fair in sight in the tabernacle of the daughter of Zion; he shedded [or poured] out his indignation as fire.

5 The Lord is made as an enemy; he casted down Israel, he casted down all the walls thereof; he des-troyed the strengths thereof, and filled in the daughter of Judah a man made low, and a woman made low.

6 And he scattered his tent as a garden, he destroyed his tabernacle; the Lord gave to forgetting in Zion a feast day, and sabbath; and put the king and priest into shame, and into the indignation of his strong venge-ance.

7 The Lord putted away his altar, he cursed his hallowing; he betook into the hands of the enemy the walls of the towers thereof; they gave voice in the house of the Lord, as in a solemn day.

8 The Lord thought to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion; he stretched forth his cord, and turned not away his hand from perdition; the forewall, either the outerward, mourned, and the wall was destroyed altogether.

9 The gates thereof be pitched in the earth, he lost and all-brake the bars thereof; the king thereof and the princes thereof be among heathen men; the law is not, and the prophets thereof found not of the Lord a vision, either revelation.

10 They sat in [the] earth, the eld [or old] men of the daughter of Zion were still; they besprinkled their heads with ashes, the elder men of Judah be girt with hair-shirts; the virgins of Judah casted down to the earth their heads.

11 Mine eyes failed for tears, mine entrails were troubled or disturbed; my maw was shed [or poured] out in [the] earth upon the sorrow of the daughter of my people; when a little child and [the] sucking infant failed in the streets of the city.

12 They said to their mothers, Where is wheat, and wine? when they failed as wounded men in the streets of the city; yea, when they sent out their souls in the bosom of their mothers.

13 To whom shall I comparison thee? either to whom shall I liken thee, thou daughter of Jerusalem? to whom shall I make thee even, and shall I comfort thee, thou virgin, the daughter of Zion? for why thy sorrow is great as the sea; who shall do medicine to thee?

14 Thy prophets saw to thee false things, and fond [or foolish]; and they opened not thy wickedness, that they should stir thee to penance; but they saw to thee false takings, and castings out.

15 All men passing on the way clapped with hands on thee; they hissed, and moved their head on the daughter of Jerusalem; and said, This is the city of perfect fairness, the joy of all earth.

16 All thine enemies opened their mouth on thee; they hissed, and gnashed with their teeth, and said, We shall devour; lo! this is the day which we abided, we found, we saw.

17 The Lord did those things which he thought, he [ful] filled his word which he had commanded from [the] eld [or old] days; he destroyed, and spared not; and made glad the enemy on thee; and enhanced the horn of thine enemies.

18 The heart of them cried to the Lord, on the walls of the daughter of Zion; lead thou forth tears as a strand [or a stream], by day and night; give thou not rest to thee, neither the apple of thine eye be still.

19 Rise thou together, praise thou in the night, in the beginning of the wakings [or watches]; shed [or pour] out thine heart as water, before the sight of the Lord; raise thine hands to him for the souls of thy little children, that failed for hunger in the head of all meetings of ways.

20 See thou, Lord, and behold, whom thou hast made so bare; therefore whether women shall eat their fruit, their little children at the measure of an hand? for a priest and prophet is slain in the saintuary of the Lord.

21 A child and an eld [or old] man lie on the earth withoutforth; my virgins and my young men fell down by sword; thou hast slain them in the day of thy strong vengeance, thou smotest and didest no mercy.

22 Thou calledest, as to a solemn day, them that made me afeared of compass; and none was that escaped in the day of the strong vengeance of the Lord, and was left; mine enemy wasted them, which I fed, and nourished up.