Choose Your Plan to Get Started

or choose a plan

Free

Essential Bible reading tools

$0/month

Full 66-book KJV Bible reader

3 AI commentaries per day

3 Apologetics Q&A per day

13 curated apologetics topics

Basic Bible search

Bookmark verses

Verse of the Day

Unlimited AI commentary

Unlimited Apologetics Q&A

Save apologetics answers

Sermon Prep mode

Premium

Full AI-powered Bible study suite

$9.99/month

Free for 7 days, then $9.99/month

Everything in Free, plus:

Unlimited AI commentary

Unlimited Apologetics Q&A

Save apologetics answers

Sermon Prep mode

Compare Translations (KJV, ESV, NIV, NASB)

Verse highlighting (6 colors)

Reading Plans with streak tracking

Study Notes & journal

Verse sharing cards

Priority AI response times

7-day free trial

Secure payments via Stripe

Cancel anytime

By continuing, you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.

BibleCompass

/Chapter 2

2 / 5

Lamentations

ESV

Chapter 2

¹How the Lord in his anger has set the daughter of Zion under a cloud! He has cast down from heaven to earth the splendor of Israel; he has not remembered his footstool in the day of his anger. ²The Lord has swallowed up without pity all the habitations of Jacob; in his wrath he has broken down the strongholds of the daughter of Judah; he has hurled to the ground in dishonor the kingdom and its princes. ³He has cut off in fierce anger all the might of Israel; he has withdrawn from them his right hand in the face of the enemy; he has burned in Jacob like a flaming fire, consuming all around. ⁴He has bent his bow like an enemy, with his right hand set like a foe; he has slain all who were pleasing to the eye in the tent of the daughter of Zion; he has poured out his fury like fire. ⁵The Lord has become like an enemy; he has swallowed up Israel; he has swallowed up all its palaces; he has laid in ruins its strongholds, and he has multiplied in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation. ⁶He has laid waste his booth like a garden; he has destroyed his meeting place; the LORD has made Zion forget festival and Sabbath, and in his fierce indignation has spurned king and priest. ⁷The Lord has scorned his altar, disowned his sanctuary; he has delivered into the hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces; they raised a shout in the house of the LORD as on the day of an appointed festival. ⁸The LORD determined to lay in ruins the wall of the daughter of Zion; he stretched out a measuring line; he did not restrain his hand from destroying; he made the rampart and the wall lament, they languished together. ⁹Her gates have sunk into the ground; he has demolished and broken her bars; her king and her princes are among the nations; the law is no more, and her prophets find no vision from the LORD. ¹⁰The elders of the daughter of Zion sit on the ground in silence; they have thrown dust on their heads and put on sackcloth; the young women of Jerusalem have bowed their heads to the ground. ¹¹My eyes are spent with weeping; my stomach churns; my liver is poured out on the ground because of the destruction of the daughter of my people, because infants and babies faint in the streets of the city. ¹²They cry to their mothers, “Where is bread and wine?” as they faint like a wounded man in the streets of the city, as their life is poured out on their mothers’ bosom. ¹³What can I say for you, or what can I compare with you, O daughter of Jerusalem? What can I liken to you, that I may comfort you, O virgin daughter of Zion? For your ruin is as vast as the sea; who can heal you? ¹⁴Your prophets have seen for you false and deceptive visions; they have not exposed your iniquity to restore your fortunes, but have seen for you oracles that are false and misleading. ¹⁵All who pass along the way clap their hands at you; they hiss and wag their heads at the daughter of Jerusalem: “Is this the city that was called the perfection of beauty, the joy of the whole earth?” ¹⁶All your enemies open their mouths wide against you; they hiss and gnash their teeth; they say, “We have swallowed her! Ah, this is the day we longed for; we have found it; we have seen it!” ¹⁷The LORD has done what he purposed; he has carried out his word, which he commanded long ago; he has overthrown without pity; he has made your enemy rejoice over you and exalted the might of your foes. ¹⁸Their heart cried to the Lord. O wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears stream down like a torrent day and night! Give yourself no relief, give your eyes no rest! ¹⁹Arise, cry out in the night, at the beginning of the night watches! Pour out your heart like water before the presence of the Lord! Lift your hands to him for the lives of your children, who faint for hunger at the head of every street. ²⁰Look, O LORD, and see! With whom have you dealt thus? Should women eat their offspring, the children of their tender care? Should priest and prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord? ²¹In the dust of the streets lie young and old; my young women and my young men have fallen by the sword; you have struck them down in the day of your anger, slaughtering without pity. ²²You summoned as if to a festival day my terrors on every side, and on the day of the LORD’s anger no one escaped or survived; those whom I held and raised my enemy destroyed.