The Skeptics Annotated Bible (615 page)

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.

(2.4)
“He hath bent his bow like an enemy … and slew all that were pleasant to the eye … 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.

(2.5) “The LORD was as an enemy: he hath swallowed up Israel.”

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hath not withdrawn his hand from destroying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.

(2.8) “The Lord … hath not withdrawn his hand from destroying.”

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.

(2.9) “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.

(2.10)
“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.

(2.14) “Thy prophets have seen vain and foolish things for thee.”

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?

(2.15) “All that pass by clap their hands at thee; they hiss and wag their head.”

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.

(2.16) “All thine enemies have opened their mouth against thee: they hiss and gnash the teeth: they say, We have swallowed her up.”

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.

(2.17)
“The LORD … hath thrown down, and hath not pitied.”
120 Is God merciful?

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.

(2.20-22) God mercilessly kills everyone, young and old. He even causes women to eat their children.