Lamentations 2:5-9   New International Version    

5 The Lord is like an enemy;     he has swallowed up Israel. He has swallowed up all her palaces     and destroyed her strongholds. He has multiplied mourning and lamentation     for Daughter Judah.

6 He has laid waste his dwelling like a garden;     he has destroyed his place of meeting. The Lord has made Zion forget     her appointed festivals and her Sabbaths; in his fierce anger he has spurned     both king and priest.

7 The Lord has rejected his altar     and abandoned his sanctuary. He has given the walls of her palaces     into the hands of the enemy; they have raised a shout in the house of the Lord     as on the day of an appointed festival.

8 The Lord determined to tear down     the wall around Daughter Zion. He stretched out a measuring line     and did not withhold his hand from destroying. He made ramparts and walls lament;     together they wasted away.

9 Her gates have sunk into the ground;     their bars he has broken and destroyed. Her king and her princes are exiled among the nations,     the law is no more, and her prophets no longer find     visions from the Lord.