12. To their mothers they say, “Where is the bread and wine?” as they faint like the wounded in the public squares of a city, as their life is being poured out onto the bosom of their mothers.
13. What can I say for you? What can I compare to you, O daughter of Jerusalem? To what can I liken you so that I can comfort you, O virgin daughter of Zion? For your destruction is as vast as the sea; who can heal you?
14. Your prophets had a vision for you, false and worthless; they have not exposed your sin, to restore your fortune; they have seen oracles for you, false and misleading.
15. They clap hands over you, all who pass along the way; they hiss and they shake their head, at the daughter of Jerusalem. Is this the city of which it is said, “A perfection of beauty, a joy for all the earth?”
16. They have opened their mouths against you, all your enemies. They hiss and gnash a tooth, and they say, “We have destroyed her! Surely this is the day we have hoped for; we have found it, we have seen it!”
17. Yahweh has done what he has planned; he has fulfilled his promise that he ordained from the days of old; he has demolished and not shown mercy; he has made an enemy rejoice over you, he has exalted the might of your foes.
18. Their heart cried to the Lord, “O wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears stream down like a river; day and night, do not give yourself relief, do not give your eyes rest.
19. “Arise, cry out in the night, at the beginning of the night watches; pour out your heart like water, before the face of the Lord. Lift to him your hands, for the life of your children, who faint in starvation, at the head of all streets.”
20. See, Yahweh, and take note! With whom have you dealt thus? Should women eat their young children of tender care? Should priest and prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord?
21. They lie in the soil of the streets, young and old; my young women and young men, they have fallen by the sword; you have slain on the day of your anger, you have slaughtered and not shown mercy.
22. You have summoned my horror from all around, as if for a feast day; no one on the day of Yahweh’s anger is a fugitive and a survivor; whoever I have cared for and reared, my enemy has destroyed.