TSK · Lamentations 2:21

They annihilated with the sword everything that breathed in the city, including men and women, young and old, as well as cattle, sheep, and donkeys.

He brought against them the king of the Babylonians, who slaughtered their young men in their temple. He did not spare young men or women, or even the old and aging. God handed everyone over to him.

He delivered his people over to the sword, and was angry with his chosen nation.

In fact, I hear a cry like that of a woman in labor, a cry of anguish like that of a woman giving birth to her first baby. It is the cry of Daughter Zion gasping for breath, reaching out for help, saying,“I am done in! My life is ebbing away before these murderers!”

I said,“So now, you wailing women, listen to the LORD’s message. Open your ears to the message from his mouth. Teach your daughters this mournful song, and let every woman teach her neighbor this lament.

So the LORD of Heaven’s Armies said,“I will surely punish them! Their young men will be killed in battle. Their sons and daughters will die of starvation.

So let their children die of starvation. Let them be cut down by the sword. Let their wives lose their husbands and children. Let the older men die of disease and the younger men die by the sword in battle.

I used you to smash men and women. I used you to smash old men and young men. I used you to smash young men and young women.

צ(Tsade)Jerusalem Speaks: The LORD is right to judge me! Yes, I rebelled against his commands. Please listen, all you nations, and look at my suffering! My young women and men have gone into exile.

ע(Ayin) The LORD has done what he planned; he has fulfilled his promise that he threatened long ago: He has overthrown you without mercy and has enabled the enemy to gloat over you; he has exalted your adversaries’ power.

“Therefore, as surely as I live, says the Sovereign LORD, because you defiled my sanctuary with all your detestable idols and with all your abominable practices, I will withdraw; my eye will not pity you, nor will I spare you.

My eye will not pity you; I will not spare you. For your behavior I will hold you accountable, and you will suffer the consequences of your abominable practices. Then you will know that it is I, the LORD, who is striking you.

While I listened, he said to the others,“Go through the city after him and strike people down; do not let your eye pity nor spare anyone!

Say to the house of Israel,‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Realize I am about to desecrate my sanctuary– the source of your confident pride, the object in which your eyes delight, and your life’s passion. Your very own sons and daughters whom you have left behind will die by the sword.

Indeed, I will no longer have compassion on the people of the land,” says the LORD,“but instead I will turn every last person over to his neighbor and his king. They will devastate the land, and I will not deliver it from them.”