LAMENTATIONS
The faithful love of the LORD never ends!
His mercies never cease.
Great is his faithfulness;
his mercies begin afresh each morning.
Lamentations 3:22-23
Judah has been led away into captivity,
oppressed with cruel slavery.
She lives among foreign nations
and has no place of rest.
Her enemies have chased her down,
and she has nowhere to turn.
The roads to Jerusalem are in mourning,
for crowds no longer come to celebrate the festivals.
The city gates are silent,
her priests groan,
her young women are crying--
how bitter is her fate!
Judah has been led away into captivity, oppressed with cruel slavery. She lives among foreign nations and has no place of rest. Her enemies have chased her down, and she has nowhere to turn.
Leviticus 26:39
"Those of you who survive will waste away in your enemies' lands because of their sins and the sins of their ancestors." (see Leviticus 26:14-39)Deuteronomy 28:64-65
"For the LORD will scatter you among all the nations from one end of the earth to the other. There you will worship gods that neither you nor your ancestors have known, gods made of wood and stone! There among those nations you will find no peace or place to rest. And the LORD will cause your heart to tremble, your eyesight to fail, and your soul to despair."
(see Deuteronomy 28:63-68)
Jeremiah 13:19
The towns of the Negev will close their gates,
and no one will be able to open them.
The people of Judah will be taken away as captives.
All will be carried into exile.
Jeremiah 20:4
"For this is what the LORD says: 'I will send terror upon you and all your friends, and you will watch as they are slaughtered by the swords of the enemy. I will hand the people of Judah over to the king of Babylon. He will take them captive to Babylon or run them through with the sword."
(see Jeremiah 20:1-6)
Jeremiah 52:28-30
The number of captives taken to Babylon in the seventh year of Nebuchadnezzar's reign was 3,023. Then in Nebuchadnezzar's eighteenth year he took 832 more. In Nebuchadnezzar's twenty-third year he sent Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard who took 745 more--a total of 4,600 captives in all. (see all Jeremiah 52)
The roads to Jerusalem are in mourning, for crowds no longer come to celebrate the festivals. The city gates are silent, her priests groan, her young women are crying--how bitter is her fate!
Leviticus 26:31
"I will make your cities desolate and destroy your places of pagan worship. I will take no pleasure in your offerings that should be a pleasing aroma to me." (see Leviticus 26:27-35)
Isaiah 27:10
The fortified towns will be silent and empty,
the houses abandoned, the streets overgrown with weeds.
Calves will graze there,
chewing on twigs and branches. (see Isaiah 27:7-11)
Jeremiah 9:11
"I will make Jerusalem into a heap of ruins," says the LORD.
"It will be a place haunted by jackals.
The towns of Judah will be ghost towns,
with no one living in them." (see Jeremiah 9:1-16)
Lamentations 2:6-7
He has broken down his Temple
as though it was merely a garden shelter.
The LORD has blotted out all memory
of the holy festivals and Sabbath days.
Kings and priests fall together
before his fierce anger.
The LORD has rejected his own altar;
he despises his own sanctuary.
He has given Jerusalem's palaces
to her enemies.
They shout in the LORD's Temple
as though it were a day of celebration. (see Lamentations 2:1-10)
(parentheses are mine) Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living
Translation, copyright ©1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation.
Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois
60188. All rights reserved. Limited to 15 verses per post.
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