17 Then I said to them, “You see the trouble we are in: Jerusalem lies in ruins, and its gates have been burned with fire.(A) Come, let us rebuild the wall(B) of Jerusalem, and we will no longer be in disgrace.(C)

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Turn your steps toward these everlasting ruins,(A)
    all this destruction the enemy has brought on the sanctuary.

Your foes roared(B) in the place where you met with us;
    they set up their standards(C) as signs.
They behaved like men wielding axes
    to cut through a thicket of trees.(D)
They smashed all the carved(E) paneling
    with their axes and hatchets.
They burned your sanctuary to the ground;
    they defiled(F) the dwelling place(G) of your Name.(H)
They said in their hearts, “We will crush(I) them completely!”
    They burned(J) every place where God was worshiped in the land.

We are given no signs from God;(K)
    no prophets(L) are left,
    and none of us knows how long this will be.
10 How long(M) will the enemy mock(N) you, God?
    Will the foe revile(O) your name forever?

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Psalm 79

A psalm of Asaph.

O God, the nations have invaded your inheritance;(A)
    they have defiled(B) your holy temple,
    they have reduced Jerusalem to rubble.(C)
They have left the dead bodies of your servants
    as food for the birds of the sky,(D)
    the flesh of your own people for the animals of the wild.(E)
They have poured out blood like water
    all around Jerusalem,
    and there is no one to bury(F) the dead.(G)
We are objects of contempt to our neighbors,
    of scorn(H) and derision to those around us.(I)

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11 Our holy and glorious temple,(A) where our ancestors praised you,
    has been burned with fire,
    and all that we treasured(B) lies in ruins.

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Wherever you live,(A) the towns will be laid waste and the high places(B) demolished, so that your altars will be laid waste and devastated, your idols(C) smashed and ruined, your incense altars(D) broken down, and what you have made wiped out.(E)

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you have become guilty because of the blood you have shed(A) and have become defiled by the idols you have made. You have brought your days to a close, and the end of your years has come.(B) Therefore I will make you an object of scorn(C) to the nations and a laughingstock to all the countries.(D)

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16 Lord, in keeping with all your righteous acts,(A) turn away(B) your anger and your wrath(C) from Jerusalem,(D) your city, your holy hill.(E) Our sins and the iniquities of our ancestors have made Jerusalem and your people an object of scorn(F) to all those around us.

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12 Therefore because of you,
    Zion will be plowed like a field,
Jerusalem will become a heap of rubble,(A)
    the temple(B) hill a mound overgrown with thickets.(C)

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