The Lamentations of Jeremy, for the Most Part According to Tremellius, Chapter II

1. How over Zion’s daughter hath God hung His wrath’s thick cloud? and from heaven hath flung To earth the beauty of Israel, and hath Forgot His footstool in the day of wrath?

2. The Lord unsparingly hath swallowed All Jacob’s dwellings, and demolished To ground the strength of Judah, and profaned The Princes of the kingdom, and the land.

3. In heat of wrath the horn of Israel He Hath clean cut off, and lest the enemy Be hinder’d, His right hand He doth retire, But is towards Jacob all-devouring fire.

4. Like to an enemy He bent His bow; His right hand was in posture of a foe, To kill what Zion’s daughter did desire, ’Gainst whom His wrath He poured forth like fire.

5. For like an enemy Jehovah is, Devouring Israel, and his palaces, Destroying holds, giving additions To Judah’s daughters’ lamentations.

6. Like to a garden hedge He hath cast down The place where was His congregation, And Zion’s feasts and sabbaths are forgot; Her King, her Priest, His wrath regardeth not.

7. The Lord forsakes His altar, and detests His sanctuary, and in the foes’ hands rests His palace, and the walls, in which their cries Are heard, as in the true solemnities.

8. The Lord hath cast a line, so to confound And level Zion’s walls unto the ground; He draws not back His hand, which doth o’erturn The wall, and rampart, which together mourn.

9. Their gates are sunk into the ground, and He Hath broke the bar; their king and princes be Amongst the heathen, without law, nor there Unto their prophets doth the Lord appear.

10. There Zion’s elders on the ground are placed, And silence keep; dust on their heads they cast; In sackcloth have they girt themselves, and low The virgins towards ground their heads do throw.

11. My bowels are grown muddy, and mine eyes Are faint with weeping; and my liver lies Pour’d out upon the ground, for misery That sucking children in the streets do die.

12. When they had cried unto their mothers, “Where Shall we have bread, and drink?” they fainted there, And in the street like wounded persons lay, Till ’twixt their mothers’ breasts they went away.

13. Daughter Jerusalem, O what may be A witness, or comparison for thee? Zion, to ease thee, what shall I name like thee? Thy breach is like the sea; what help can be?

14. For thee vain foolish things thy prophets sought; Thee, thine iniquities they have not taught, Which might disturb thy bondage; but for thee False burdens, and false causes they would see.

15. The passengers do clap their hands, and hiss And wag their head at thee, and say, “Is this That city, which so many men did call Joy of the earth, and perfectest of all?”

16. Thy foes do gape upon thee, and they hiss, And gnash their teeth, and say, “Devour we this, For this is certainly the day which we Expected, and which now we find, and see.”

17. The Lord hath done that which He purposèd; Fulfill’d His word of old determinèd; He hath thrown down, and not spared, and thy foe Made glad above thee, and advanced him so.

18. But now their hearts unto the Lord do call; Therefore, O walls of Zion, let tears fall Down like a river, day and night; take thee No rest, but let thine eye incessant be.

19. Arise, cry in the night, pour out thy sins, Thy heart, like water, when the watch begins; Lift up thy hands to God, lest children die, Which, faint for hunger, in the streets do lie.

20. Behold, O Lord, consider unto whom Thou hast done this; what, shall the women come To eat their children of a span? shall Thy Prophet and priest be slain in sanctuary?

21. On ground in streets the young and old do lie; My virgins and young men by sword do die; Them in the day of Thy wrath Thou hast slain; Nothing did Thee from killing them contain.

22. As to a solemn feast, all whom I fear’d Thou call’st about me; when Thy wrath appear’d, None did remain or scape, for those which I Brought up, did perish by mine enemy.