Lamentations

The Lamentations of Jeremiah, chapter 2, Vulgate and King James Version

This chapter is an acrostic poem, the verses of which begin with the successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet.

Chapter 2 Vulgate

   1 ALEPH. Quomodo obtexit caligine in furore suo Dominus filiam Sion! Proiecit de caelo in terram gloriam Israel et non est recordatus scabelli pedum suorum in die furoris sui.
   2 BETH. Praecipitavit Dominus nec pepercit omnia pascua Iacob; destruxit in furore suo munitiones filiae Iudae; deiecit in terram, polluit regnum et principes eius.
   3 GHIMEL. Confregit in ira furoris sui omne cornu Israel; avertit retrorsum dexteram suam a facie inimici et succendit in Iacob quasi ignem flammae devorantis in gyro.
   4 DALETH. Tetendit arcum suum quasi inimicus, firmavit dexteram suam quasi hostis et occidit omne, quod pulchrum erat visu, in tabernaculo filiae Sion; effudit quasi ignem indignationem suam.
   5 HE. Factus est Dominus velut inimicus, deglutivit Israel, deglutivit omnia moenia eius, dissipavit munitiones eius et multiplicavit in filia Iudae maerorem et maestitiam.
   6 VAU. Et dissipavit quasi hortum saepem suam, demolitus est tabernaculum suum; oblivioni tradidit Dominus in Sion festivitatem et sabbatum et despexit in indignatione furoris sui regem et sacerdotem.
   7 ZAIN. Reppulit Dominus altare suum, maledixit sanctuario suo; tradidit in manu inimici muros domorum eius: vocem dederunt in domo Domini sicut in die sollemni.
   8 HETH. Cogitavit Dominus dissipare murum filiae Sion; tetendit funiculum, non avertit manum suam a perditione; et in luctum redegit antemurale et murum: pariter elanguerunt.
   9 TETH. Defixae sunt in terra portae eius; perdidit et contrivit vectes eius. Rex eius et principes eius in gentibus; non est lex, et prophetae eius non invenerunt visionem a Domino.
   10 IOD. Sederunt in terra, conticuerunt senes filiae Sion, consperserunt cinere capita sua, accincti sunt ciliciis; abiecerunt in terram capita sua virgines Ierusalem.
   11 CAPH. Defecerunt prae lacrimis oculi mei, efferbuerunt viscera mea; effusum est in terra iecur meum super contritione filiae populi mei, cum deficeret parvulus et lactans in plateis oppidi.
   12 LAMED. Matribus suis dixerunt: "Ubi est triticum et vinum?", cum deficerent quasi vulnerati in plateis civitatis, cum exhalarent animas suas in sinu matrum suarum.
   13 MEM. Cui comparabo te vel cui assimilabo te, filia Ierusalem? Cui exaequabo te et consolabor te, virgo filia Sion? Magna est enim velut mare contritio tua; quis medebitur tui?
   14 NUN. Prophetae tui viderunt tibi falsa et stulta nec aperiebant iniquitatem tuam, ut converterent sortem tuam; viderunt autem tibi oracula mendacii et seductionis.
   15 SAMECH. Plauserunt super te manibus omnes transeuntes per viam; sibilaverunt et moverunt caput suum super filiam Ierusalem: "Haeccine est urbs, quam vocabant perfectum decorem, gaudium universae terrae?".
   16 PHE. Aperuerunt super te os suum omnes inimici tui; sibilaverunt et fremuerunt dentibus et dixerunt: "Devoravimus; en ista est dies, quam exspectabamus: invenimus, vidimus".
   17 AIN. Fecit Dominus, quae cogitavit; complevit sermonem suum, quem praeceperat a diebus antiquis: destruxit et non pepercit. Et laetificavit super te inimicum et exaltavit cornu hostium tuorum.
   18 SADE. Clamet cor tuum ad Dominum super muros filiae Sion; deduc quasi torrentem lacrimas per diem et noctem. Non des requiem tibi, neque taceat pupilla oculi tui.
   19 COPH. Consurge, lamentare in nocte in principio vigiliarum, effunde sicut aquam cor tuum ante conspectum Domini; leva ad eum manus tuas pro anima parvulorum tuorum, qui defecerunt in fame in capite omnium compitorum.
   20 RES. "Vide, Domine, et considera, cui feceris ita; ergone comedent mulieres fructum suum, parvulos diligenter fovendos? Num occidetur in sanctuario Domini sacerdos et propheta?
   21 SIN. Iacuerunt in terra foris puer et senex; virgines meae et iuvenes mei ceciderunt in gladio: interfecisti in die furoris tui, percussisti nec misertus es.
   22 THAU. Vocasti quasi ad diem sollemnem, qui terrerent me de circuitu, et non fuit in die furoris Domini, qui effugeret et relinqueretur: quos fovi et enutrivi, inimicus meus consumpsit eos".

King James Version

   1 How hath the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger, and cast down from heaven unto the earth the beauty of Israel, and remembered not his footstool in the day of his anger!
   2 The Lord hath swallowed up all the habitations of Jacob, and hath not pitied: he hath thrown down in his wrath the strong holds of the daughter of Judah; he hath brought them down to the ground: he hath polluted the kingdom and the princes thereof.
   3 He hath cut off in his fierce anger all the horn of Israel: he hath drawn back his right hand from before the enemy, and he burned against Jacob like a flaming fire, which devoureth round about.
   4 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.
   5 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.
   6 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.
   7 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.
   8 The LORD hath purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion: he hath stretched out a line, he hath not withdrawn his hand from destroying: therefore he made the rampart and the wall to lament; they languished together.
   9 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.
   10 The elders of the daughter of Zion sit upon the ground, and keep silence: they have cast up dust upon their heads; they have girded themselves with sackcloth: the virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground.
   11 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.
   12 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.
   13 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?
   14 Thy prophets have seen vain and foolish things for thee: and they have not discovered thine iniquity, to turn away thy captivity; but have seen for thee false burdens and causes of banishment.
   15 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?
   16 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.
   17 The LORD hath done that which he had devised; he hath fulfilled his word that he had commanded in the days of old: he hath thrown down, and hath not pitied: and he hath caused thine enemy to rejoice over thee, he hath set up the horn of thine adversaries.
   18 Their heart cried unto the Lord, O wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears run down like a river day and night: give thyself no rest; let not the apple of thine eye cease.
   19 Arise, cry out in the night: in the beginning of the watches pour out thine heart like water before the face of the Lord: lift up thy hands toward him for the life of thy young children, that faint for hunger in the top of every street.
   20 ¶ Behold, O LORD, and consider to whom thou hast done this. Shall the women eat their fruit, and children of a span long? shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord?
   21 The young and the old lie on the ground in the streets: my virgins and my young men are fallen by the sword; thou hast slain them in the day of thine anger; thou hast killed, and not pitied.
   22 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.