The Destruction of the Temple and City

1 How the Lord in His fierce anger has come to loathe the assembly of Zion! Down from heaven to the ground He has hurled Israel’s splendor, paying no mind to His Sanctuary’s house, which served as the footstool beneath His feet, and showing it no pity on the day of His blazing anger. 2 The Lord has destroyed without pity all the choice dwellings of Jacob. He has broken down in His anger the fortified cities of the congregation of the house of Judah and brought them down to the ground. He has profaned her kingdom and her nobles. 3 He has cut off in fierce anger all the glory of Israel. He drew back His right hand and did not help His people before the enemy, and He kindled a fire in the house of Jacob like a flaming fire that devours on every side. 4 He bent His bow and shot arrows at me like an enemy. He stood at the right hand of Nebuchadnezzar and helped him as though he were oppressing His people, the House of Israel, and killed every young man and everything that was pleasant to the sight of the eye. In the tent of the congregation of Zion He poured out His fury like a burning fire. 5 Like an adversary the Lord has acted. He has brought Israel to an end, sweeping away all her citadels and laying waste all her open towns, while heaping up grief and lamentation within the assembly of Judah’s house.

6 He uprooted the house of His Sanctuary like a garden. He destroyed the place appointed to make atonement for His people. The Lord caused the joy of festival and Sabbath to be forgotten in Zion, and in the fierceness of His anger He spurned the king and the high priest. 7 The Lord has rejected His altar and spurned His Sanctuary. He has delivered the walls of her palaces into the hand of the enemy. They raised a clamor in the Temple of the Lord like the sound of the people of the House of Israel praying within it on the day of Passover. 8 The Lord purposed to destroy the wall of the congregation of Zion. He stretched out the plumb line and did not withdraw His hand from destroying, and He caused the rampart and the wall to mourn. Together they were broken down. 9 Into the earth her gates have sunk, because they slaughtered a swine and smeared its blood over them. Her doorbars He has ruined and snapped in two. Her king and her nobles have been carried into exile among the nations because they failed to observe the words of the Torah, acting as though they had never accepted it at Mount Sinai. From her prophets as well the spirit of holy prophecy has been withheld, and no prophetic message is spoken to them from before the Lord.

Famine in the Streets and False Prophets

10 The elders of the congregation of Zion sit on the ground in silence. They have put wood ashes upon their heads and tied sackcloth upon their flesh. The virgins of Jerusalem have bowed their heads down to the dust of the earth. 11 My eyes are worn out with tears, my inward parts are troubled, and my liver is poured out upon the ground because of the shattering of the congregation of my people, as young men and infants faint in the open squares of the city. 12 The young children of Israel say to their mothers, “Where is grain and wine?” as they faint like one slain by the sword from thirst in the open squares of the city, while their life is poured out from hunger into their mothers’ bosoms. 13 What shall I bear witness to you, and to what shall I compare you, congregation of Jerusalem? To what shall I liken you so that I may comfort you, virgin congregation of Zion? For great is your shattering, like the great breaking of the waves of the Great Sea in the time of its storm, and who is the physician who can heal you of your affliction?

14 The false prophets who were within you prophesied falsehood to you, and there was no substance to their prophecy. Nor did they make known the punishment that was about to come upon you because of your sins, so as to turn you back in repentance, but they prophesied to you vain prophecies and words of error. 15 Every traveler passing along the road claps his hands in mockery over you. Hissing through their lips, they wag their heads at Jerusalem’s assembly and say with their mouths, “Can this be the city that our ancestors long ago called the height of grace and loveliness, the delight of everyone who dwells on earth?” 16 All your enemies have opened their mouths against you. They hissed with their lips and gnashed their teeth and said, “We have devoured her! Indeed, this is the day for which we waited, and we have found it and seen it!” 17 The Lord has done what He planned. He has fulfilled the word of His mouth that He commanded Moses the prophet in days of old, that if the children of Israel did not keep the commandments of the Lord, He would exact punishment from them. He has demolished without pity, and He has caused the enemy to rejoice over you and exalted the might of your oppressors.

The Call to Prayer and the Blood of Zechariah

18 Their heart cried out before the Lord, who has mercy on them. Glorious wall of Zion, let tears flow down like a stream day and night! Give yourself no relief from your grief to let your prayer cease, and let your eye not be silent from weeping. 19 Rise up, Congregation of Israel dwelling in exile! Busy yourself with studying the Mishnah through the night, for the Shekinah of the Lord abides before you, and with the words of the Torah as the morning watch begins. Pour out like water the perversity of your heart, turn back in repentance, and offer prayer in the synagogue before the Lord’s presence. Raise your hands to Him in prayer for the lives of your young children, who collapse from hunger at every street corner.

20 “See, Lord, and look down from heaven at whom You have dealt with so severely! Is it right for the daughters of Israel to eat the fruit of their womb, the lovely children whom they used to wrap in fine woolen cloths?” The attribute of justice answered and spoke thus, “Is it right to kill priest and prophet in the Temple of the Lord, as took place in the killing of Zechariah son of Iddo, the High Priest and faithful prophet, in the Temple of the Lord⁠a on the Day of Atonement because he rebuked you so that you would not do evil before the Lord?” 21 Young men and old men who were accustomed to lie on cushions of fine wool and on couches of ivory lie on the ground in the streets. My virgins and my young men have fallen, slain by the sword. You have slain on the day of Your anger, and You have slaughtered and have not spared. 22 You will proclaim liberty to Your people, the House of Israel, through the hand of the King Messiah, just as You accomplished through Moses and Aaron on the day of Passover, so that my youths will gather from every surrounding place where they were scattered on the day of Your fierce anger, Lord, when neither fugitive nor survivor remained among them. Those whom I swaddled in fine linen and raised on royal delicacies my adversaries have wiped out.