Lamentations 2:6-10

He plowed up his old trysting place, trashed his favorite rendezvous. GOD wiped out Zion’s memories of feast days and Sabbaths, angrily sacked king and priest alike. GOD abandoned his altar, walked away from his holy Temple and turned the fortifications over to the enemy. As they cheered in GOD’s Temple, you’d have thought it was a feast day! GOD drew up plans to tear down the walls of Daughter Zion. He assembled his crew, set to work and went at it. Total demolition! The stones wept! Her city gates, iron bars and all, disappeared in the rubble: her kings and princes off to exile—no one left to instruct or lead; her prophets useless—they neither saw nor heard anything from GOD. The elders of Daughter Zion sit silent on the ground. They throw dust on their heads, dress in rough penitential burlap— the young virgins of Jerusalem, their faces creased with the dirt.