Lamentations (Lamentations 2:8-11) – Antonio Rodriguez de Mata

Lamentations 2:8-11 [Latin Vulgate]

⁸ The Lord hath purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion: he hath stretched out a line, he hath not withdrawn his hand from destroying: therefore he made the rampart and the wall to lament; they languished together.

⁹ Her gates are sunk into the ground; he hath destroyed and broken her bars: her king and her princes are among the Gentiles: the law is no more; her prophets also find no vision from the Lord.

¹⁰ The elders of the daughter of Zion sit upon the ground, and keep silence: they have cast up dust upon their heads; they have girded themselves with sackcloth: the virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground.

¹¹ Mine eyes do fail with tears, my bowels are troubled, my liver is poured upon the earth, for the destruction of the daughter of my people; because the children and the sucklings swoon in the streets of the city.

De Lamentations Jeremiae Prophetae

⁸ [Heth.] Cogitavit Dominus dissipare murum filiae Sion; tetendit funiculum suum, et non avertit manum suam a perditione: luxitque antemurale, et murus pariter dissipatus est.

⁹ [Teth.] Defixae sunt in terra portae ejus, perdidit et contrivit vectes ejus; regem ejus et principes ejus in gentibus: non est lex, et prophetae ejus non invenerunt visionem a Domino.

¹⁰ [Jod.] Sederunt in terra, conticuerunt senes filiae Sion; consperserunt cinere capita sua, accincti sunt ciliciis: abjecerunt in terram capita sua virgines Jerusalem.

¹¹ [Caph.] Defecerunt prae lacrimis oculi mei, conturbata sunt viscera mea; effusum est in terra jecur meum super contritione filiae populi mei, cum deficeret parvulus et lactens in plateis oppidi.

Lamentations, composed by Antonio Rodriguez de Mata (d. 1643)

Performed by Byrd Ensemble