a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness, like the morning clouds spread over the mountains – a people many and strong, the like of whom has never been, nor shall there ever be again after them, to the years of many generations.
How alone she sits, The city once great with people! Like a widow she has become, One great among the nations! A princess among provinces has become a slave!
יהוה has done what He planned, He has filled His word Which He commanded in days of old. He has torn down, without compassion, And He has let your enemy rejoice over you. He has exalted the horn of your adversaries.
‘But she was uprooted in wrath, she was cast down to the ground, and the east wind dried her fruit. Her strong rods were broken and withered, fire consumed them.
‘All those loving you have forgotten you, they do not seek you. For I smote you as an enemy smites, with cruel chastisement, because your crookedness is great, your sins have increased.
“Is it naught to you, All you who pass by? Look and see if there is any pain like my pain, Which has been brought on me, Which יהוה has inflicted on me In the day of His burning displeasure.
Therefore thus said the Master יהוה, “I shall break down with a stormy wind in My wrath, and a flooding rain in My displeasure, and great hailstones in wrath, to consume.