2:18 錫安民的心哀求主。錫安的城牆啊,願你流淚如河,晝夜不息;願你眼中的瞳人淚流不止。
2:19 夜間,每逢交更的時候要起來呼喊,在主面前傾心如水。你的孩童在各市口上受餓發昏;你要為他們的性命向主舉手禱告。
2:20 耶和華啊,求你觀看!見你向誰這樣行?婦人豈可吃自己所生育手裡所搖弄的嬰孩嗎?祭司和先知豈可在主的聖所中被殺戮嗎?
2:21 少年人和老年人都在街上躺臥;我的處女和壯丁都倒在刀下;你發怒的日子殺死他們。你殺了,並不顧惜。
2:22 你招聚四圍驚嚇我的,像在大會的日子招聚人一樣。耶和華發怒的日子,無人逃脫,無人存留。我所搖弄所養育的嬰孩,仇敵都殺淨了。
Their heart cried to the Lord.
O wall of the daughter of Zion,
let tears stream down like a torrent
day and night!
Give yourself no rest,
your eyes no respite!
“Arise, cry out in the night,
at the beginning of the night watches!
Pour out your heart like water
before the presence of the Lord!
Lift your hands to him
for the lives of your children,
who faint for hunger
at the head of every street.”
Look, O Lord, and see!
With whom have you dealt thus?
Should women eat the fruit of their womb,
the children of their tender care?
Should priest and prophet be killed
in the sanctuary of the Lord?
In
the dust of the streets
lie the young and the old;
my young women and my young men
have fallen by the sword;
you have killed them in the day of your
anger,
slaughtering without pity.
You
summoned as if to a festival day
my terrors on every side,
and on the day of the anger of the Lord
no one escaped or survived;
those whom I held and raised
my enemy destroyed.
***************
先知在此描寫出百姓心中的悲傷,因為國家為仇敵所滅,先知與祭司都被殺害,男女老幼全部都倒臥在地上,沒有氣息,國家被敵人殘害到沒有生命的氣息,上帝一點都不顧惜!
為何會如此呢?就是這個國家遠離上帝,充滿罪惡,受到上帝的懲罰所致!
因此,我們寧可在尚未敗亡之前,勇敢宣講上帝的話,使百姓受到警戒,好離開罪惡,歸向上帝!上帝的傳道者啊,不要害怕自己被攻擊,就是要勇敢說出上帝的話!上帝在四圍保護我們,不要懼怕,就是要勇敢傳講!上帝的百姓啊,要唾棄說好話的假先知,要認真尋求上帝的話,就是要離棄自己的罪孽,歸向愛我們的上帝,祂已經藉由基督的寶血,將我們洗潔淨了!我們要立志成為聖潔,不聖潔我們就要敗亡!