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The Lord Was Like an Enemy

The Prophet Speaks:

The Lord was angry!
    So he disgraced[a] Zion
though it was Israel's pride
    and his own place of rest.
In his anger he threw Zion down
    from heaven to earth.
The Lord had no mercy!
He destroyed the homes
    of Jacob's descendants.
In his anger he tore down
    every walled city in Judah;
he toppled the nation
together with its leaders,
    leaving them in shame.

The Lord was so furiously angry
that he wiped out
    the whole army[b] of Israel
by not supporting them
    when the enemy attacked.
He was like a raging fire
that swallowed up
    the descendants of Jacob.

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Footnotes

  1. 2.1 disgraced: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
  2. 2.3 army: The Hebrew text has “horn,” which refers to the horn of a bull, one of the most powerful animals in ancient Palestine.

[a]How the Lord has covered Daughter Zion
    with the cloud of his anger[b]!(A)
He has hurled down the splendor of Israel
    from heaven to earth;
he has not remembered his footstool(B)
    in the day of his anger.(C)

Without pity(D) the Lord has swallowed(E) up
    all the dwellings of Jacob;
in his wrath he has torn down
    the strongholds(F) of Daughter Judah.
He has brought her kingdom and its princes
    down to the ground(G) in dishonor.

In fierce anger he has cut off
    every horn[c][d](H) of Israel.
He has withdrawn his right hand(I)
    at the approach of the enemy.
He has burned in Jacob like a flaming fire
    that consumes everything around it.(J)

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Footnotes

  1. Lamentations 2:1 This chapter is an acrostic poem, the verses of which begin with the successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet.
  2. Lamentations 2:1 Or How the Lord in his anger / has treated Daughter Zion with contempt
  3. Lamentations 2:3 Or off / all the strength; or every king
  4. Lamentations 2:3 Horn here symbolizes strength.