He hath cut off in the heat of anger every horn of Israel, He hath turned backward His right hand From the face of the enemy, And He burneth against Jacob as a flaming fire, It hath devoured round about.

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.

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.

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.

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.

It is the Lord's purpose to make waste the wall of the daughter of Zion; his line has been stretched out, he has not kept back his hand from destruction: he has sent sorrow on tower and wall, they have become feeble together.

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.

Seated on the ground, in silence, are the elders of the daughter of Zion, They have lifted up dust on their head, have girded themselves with sackcloth, - Bowed down to the ground is the head, of the virgins of Jerusalem.

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.

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.

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?

(Nun) Your prophets saw visions for you that were worthless lies. They failed to expose your sin so as to restore your fortunes. They saw oracles for you that were worthless lies.

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 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.

The LORD did what he planned. He carried out his threat. Just as he commanded long ago, he has torn down without pity; He let the enemy boast about you and has exalted the power of your enemies.

Cried hath their heart unto the Lord; O wall of the daughter of Zion, Cause to go down as a stream tears daily and nightly, Give not rest to thyself, Let not the daughter of thine eye stand still.

Arise, cry aloud in the night, At the beginning of the watches. Pour out as water thy heart, Over against the face of the Lord, Lift up unto Him thy hands, for the soul of thine infants, Who are feeble with hunger at the head of all out-places.

Look! O Lord, see to whom you have done this! Are the women to take as their food the fruit of their bodies, the children who are folded in their arms? are the priest and the prophet to be put to death in the holy place of the Lord?

Thou hast called as in a solemn 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.

By him I have been made to go in the dark where there is no light.

Surely against me is he turned; he turneth his hand against me all the day.

He hath set me in dark places, as they that be dead of old.

He was unto me as a bear lying in wait, and as a lion in secret places.

My ways He is turning aside, and He pulleth me in pieces, He hath made me a desolation.

He hath bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow.

My soul has been deprived of peace;
I have forgotten what happiness is.

And I said, My strength and my hope is perished from the LORD:

(Zayin) Remember my impoverished and homeless condition, which is a bitter poison.

My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me.

This is what comes to mind, and therefore I have hope:

It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.

They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.

The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him.

The LORD is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him.

It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD.

It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.

He sitteth alone, and is silent, For He hath laid it upon him.

He putteth in the dust his mouth, if so be there is hope.

He giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him: he is filled full with reproach.

כ KafFor the Lord
will not reject us forever.

Though he causes us grief, he then has compassion on us according to the abundance of his loyal kindness.

For he is not predisposed to afflict or to grieve people.

To deprive a man of justice
In the presence of the Most High,

When a man is thwarted in his appeal, does the Lord condone it?

Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth it not?

Is it not from the mouth of the Most High
That both adversity (misfortune) and good (prosperity, happiness) proceed?

Why should any living mortal, or any man,
Complain [of punishment] in view of his sins?

Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the LORD.

Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens.

As for us, we have sinned and rebelled; but you have not pardoned us.

Thou hast covered with anger, and persecuted us: thou hast slain, thou hast not pitied.

Thou hast made us as the offscouring and refuse in the midst of the people.

All our enemies have opened their mouths against us.

Fear and a snare is come upon us, desolation and destruction.

Mine eye is poured out, And doth not cease without intermission,

Till the Lord's eye is turned on me, till he sees my trouble from heaven.

The Lord is unkind to my soul, more than all the daughters of my town.

Hunted me sore as a bird have my enemies without cause.

Return to them what is deserved, O Yahweh, according to the work of their hands.

Give them the thing, that their own heart is afraid of: even thy curse.

How is the gold become dim! how is the most fine gold changed! the stones of the sanctuary are poured out in the top of every street.

The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, how are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter!

Even the sea monsters draw out the breast, they give suck to their young ones: the daughter of my people is become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness.

The tongue of the child at the breast is fixed to the roof of his mouth for need of drink: the young children are crying out for bread, and no man gives it to them.

Those who were used to feasting on delicate food are wasted in the streets: those who as children were dressed in purple are stretched out on the dust.

For the punishment of the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the punishment of the sin of Sodom, that was overthrown as in a moment, and no hands stayed on her.

Her nobles were purer than snow, they were whiter than milk; They were more ruddy in body than rubies, their polishing was as of sapphire.

Their visage is blacker than a coal; they are not known in the streets: their skin cleaveth to their bones; it is withered, it is become like a stick.

Those who have been put to the sword are better off than those whose death is caused by need of food; for these come to death slowly, burned up like the fruit of the field.

[The] hands of compassionate women, have cooked their children; they became as something to eat in the destruction of the daughter of my people.

It is because of the sins of her prophets, and the iniquities of her priests, That have shed the blood of the just in the midst of her.

They have wandered as blind men in the streets, they have polluted themselves with blood, so that men could not touch their garments.

They cried unto them, Depart ye; it is unclean; depart, depart, touch not: when they fled away and wandered, they said among the heathen, They shall no more sojourn there.

As for us, our eyes as yet failed for our vain help: in our watching we have watched for a nation that could not save us.

They hunt our steps, that we cannot go in our streets: our end is near, our days are fulfilled; for our end is come.

Our persecutors are swifter than the eagles of the heaven: they pursued us upon the mountains, they laid wait for us in the wilderness.

Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, that dwellest in the land of Uz; the cup also shall pass through unto thee: thou shalt be drunken, and shalt make thyself naked.

The punishment of thine iniquity is accomplished, O daughter of Zion; he will no more carry thee away into captivity: he will visit thine iniquity, O daughter of Edom; he will discover thy sins.

Remember, O LORD, what is come upon us: consider, and behold our reproach.

Our inheritance is turned to strangers, our houses to aliens.

We are orphans and fatherless, our mothers are as widows.

We have drunken our water for money; our wood is sold unto us.

For our neck we have been pursued, We have laboured -- there hath been no rest for us.

We have given the hand [as a pledge of fidelity and submission] to Egypt and Assyria to get enough bread.

Our fathers were sinners and are dead; and the weight of their evil-doing is on us.

Servants have ruled over us: there is none that doth deliver us out of their hand.

Our skin is black like an oven, Because of the burning heat of famine.

The elders sit no more under the gates, and the young men use no more the playing of Music.

The joy of our heart is ceased; our dance is turned into mourning.

The crown is fallen from our head: woe unto us, that we have sinned!

For this our heart is faint; for these things our eyes are dim.

Because of the mountain of Zion, which is desolate, the foxes walk upon it.

Thou, O Jehovah, abidest for ever; Thy throne is from generation to generation.

Wherefore dost thou forget us for ever, and forsake us so long time?

Turn thou us unto thee, O LORD, and we shall be turned; renew our days as of old.

But thou hast utterly rejected us; thou art very wroth against us.

Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I was among the captives by the river of Chebar, that the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God.

In the fifth of the month -- it is the fifth year of the removal of the king Jehoiachin --

hath the word of Jehovah certainly been unto Ezekiel son of Buzi the priest, in the land of the Chaldeans, by the river Chebar, and there is on him there a hand of Jehovah.

And I looked, and, behold, a whirlwind came out of the north, a great cloud, and a fire infolding itself, and a brightness was about it, and out of the midst thereof as the colour of amber, out of the midst of the fire.