ook here daughter Zion, Why have you not learned to wail? Why is it do you not howl and cry out? For your enemies are at your footstool But you go about singing, "Peace in this broken land," But your call is caught by the wind For it is detestable to me Where did your yearnings for justice go? Did they go up in smoke with your offerings? Why do you nail to the tree The one who was sent to uplift you? I went up into the city And I saw the streets covered in blood The rats were feasting on one another There was no place darkness had not touched The children were calling each other "Slave, slave!" Their mothers and fathers did not stop them They called out with their children, "Slave, slave!" The righteous were trampled under foot And they called out, "I have done wrong, spare me!" But they have done no wrong And Zion does not vindicate them Daughter Zion sharpens her sticks Against the righteous man She stabs him in the side And turns away from him Zion, you call yourself comforter But you are not! You cannot hide your hands Which should be covered in blood But your hands are clean For you cover them in whitewash Just as you have adorned your walls And count your stockpile And the Lord declares, "I will take these things from you," But in mercy, he hands you over to them Like the pagans do for a sacrifice For you do not call out for the Lord to save you You do not ask for forgiveness Zion moves her lips, "Forgive me, forgive me" But there is no forgiveness. For she asks, but she asks wrongly How can she ask for forgiveness for what she does not know? So she remains blind. And I have stationed an army against her "There is the clattering of spears outside your walls," Says the messenger Raised from the root of Jesse Whom the Lord sends out among you But you shoot him So the Lord raises another And you shoot him too And so the Lord raises another But the clattering does not stop For I hold my hand against your city Because you do not repent Or change your ways Instead, you have cried out against the messenger You cry against my faithful servant And you do not weep Instead, you turn away Is there a single one of you left that fears the Lord? For I have looked over you Zion and I found none acceptable And the saints were crying out against you within your walls. Daughter Zion, when will you see That the stumbling stones the Lord has erected, So has He has removed And the messenger has no charge against you It is the Lord that keeps every jot and tittle Of every one of your transgressions But you do not pay up You do not balance your books You leave the poor to beg in your streets For you have taxed their water And your merchants have taken up The selling of the lamb's tongue But you do not cry out as you ought Instead, you say, "Save me, save me," But no one comes Because you do not ask rightly Daughter Zion, whose cries are weak Whose voice I cannot hear over the clanging of the iron spears Who does not cry out as she ought Who has traded her gown for a sackcloth Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? Why do you insist at my transgression? The Lord has removed the stumbling block And has kept your ancient boundary stones These things I have promised But you have called out against the root You cry out against the morning star Who is no keeper of wrongs Daughter Zion, who forsakes the fear of the Lord That she may run about her city Clothed in ash and sack cloth She forsakes her bridal gown And you cry out against my messenger, "Begone vile beast!" And you forsake the name I will give you That I shall carve for you on a white stone You do this so you may declare, "Let this cup pass from me," But you forsake the fear of the Lord And the Lord has pity on you Willing that you should not perish But the Lord speaks, "I shall make the stones cry out against you, And they will be heard over every high thing. Over every clattering of teeth and iron They shall be heard both in and beyond your walls "And if the cries of the stones reach you They will smash you to pieces And if you fall on the stones You will collapse into rubble "And you will try to escape But my hand has been set over you For there is no corner Where I have not laid my stones "They will cry out And you will obey Otherwise I will turn and cut you to pieces And place you in the camp of your enemies" Where are your cries Daughter Zion? Your arrows cannot stop the messenger your shallow calls for peace and your burnt offerings Make me sick The smoke of your pagan rituals testifies against you This is hidden from your knowing For the Lord is beyond your grasp His understanding evades you and you do not cry out And you cannot cry for what you have forsaken For then the work of the Lord would not be true And the Lord has said, "I have control over your mouth And every one of your thoughts I have made my captive." But my people do not believe They rebel against that which holds no charge They reject the voice I have sent that says, "Cry out for peace!" For then this one would deliver them So the Lord says, "they have rejected all knowledge of me. For if they understood me when I say my ways are higher, Then they would cry out And withold from beating my messenger "For I did not send out a plunderer Or a thief like I have before you expect a host you have read about But do not believe in "I have told you I would do this But you do not listen So you will always be looking But never finding "But should the day come that you see That what I have said is true And you cry out against Zion In moral indignation "I will have pity on you And gather you up like a mother hen does And you will take down the whitewash And you will dwell with me "should any enemy rise against you And lay into you with a spear You will call out against them And I will hear you "I will tend to your wounds like a nurse Because of my unending love for you And I shall never forsake you And the stones will cry out no longer "For you are the one I have chosen Though you are in the world, I will take you out of it To spare you from further evil Because Zion has refused to relent"